War On Boys, Part 1

From AMCAP & Deseret News:

This is Jared just days before his 15th birthday: He has mostly B's and C's on his report card, but the lone F is a parent-enraging reminder that math's not his thing. He doesn't get it and he's not receiving a lot of help. He likes basketball, video games and a girl named Libby, because she's "hot," though he can't tell you much about her or how she feels about things, including him. At school he is alternately bored and lost. He'd rather play God of War than study and it was that video game his parents used as a reward to get him to bring up his grades last semester, though he couldn't get the math mark to budge.

In eighth grade, he figured he'd go to college. By ninth grade, he was leaning more toward a technical school. And midway through 10th grade in his northern Utah high school, he shrugs and says he doesn't know. Maybe he'll get a job or join the military.

Read the full article at Deseret News.

Time to Revive Home Economics

The New York Times recently had a piece promoting the need to bring Home Economics education back into the school system as we fight decaying families, teeth and an ever growing waste line.  Here are some excerpts that I enjoyed.


"NOBODY likes home economics. For most people, the phrase evokes bland food, bad sewing and self-righteous fussiness."

"Indeed, in the early 20th century, home economics was a serious subject. When few understood germ theory and almost no one had heard of vitamins, home economics classes offered vital information about washing hands regularly, eating fruits and vegetables and not feeding coffee to babies, among other lessons.

"Eventually, however, the discipline’s basic tenets about health and hygiene became so thoroughly popularized that they came to seem like common sense. As a result, their early proponents came to look like old maids stating the obvious instead of the innovators and scientists that many of them really were. Increasingly, home economists’ eagerness to dispense advice on everything from eating to sleeping to posture galled."

Math Ability is "Pre-Destined"

If you are bad at math, blame your gene pool.  Apparently math ability, in this new study, is pre-destined.  In the sense that children have a "number sense" built into them.

So your number sense is something you are just going to have to live through throughout your life. Go Math!

Stop Labeling Kids with Bogus 'Mental Disorders'

I came across this video and was very impressed by it. I have always been uncomfortable with how common mental disorders are being diagnosed. I sometimes feel that if all the aspects of an individual don't fit within the box that society creates, that those "appendages" labelled as an issue until it gets corrected within the proper realms of society. It's improper pruning of someones personality and traits. (Yes, I do understand that there are the "occasions" where there are chemical imbalances that influence the brain and medication is needed, but I am talking about labeling someone who is sad as extremely depressed, or a child who gets upset easily as bipolar)

Here is the video.

Are We Meeting the Demands for Job Skills

I came across an interesting article in the Deseret Morning News about how we are failing to meet the needs of the market with our current education.  Now, I do realize that not everyone can have, or may want to get at bachelors degree, because if 80% of people had a bachelors they would become obsolete.  But something like graduating from High School and entering a college for some sort of higher education, I think is vitally important.  What stands out to me most in this article is this paragraph.

Consider these national statistics from the report: Of 100 students in ninth grade, only 75 will graduate from high school and, of those, only 51 will enter college. Within six years, only 22 will have a degree and many of those will enter the workplace lacking the skills needed to be hired or have a successful career.

Canada is usually similar to stats pumped out from the USA.  So this is something that needs to be considered worry-some, that 25% of kids will NOT finish high school, despite it being free.

 Read the entire article here.

First Aid & CPR Training: Urgent Response

I need to recognize an organization since I am not running my transition to fatherhood course this year.  I have been in contact with the instructor of this group and need to do a plug for them.  This is a service I would have talked about in the class as a way to further prepare for baby coming along.

Urgent Response is a First Aid and CPR instruction institute.  They offer a wide variety of training to suit the needs of the participant.  Whether you need entry level CPR or child care worker type training, this place can offer it.

Go ahead and have a look at their website, and if you need training, sign up!

OHEA: Back to School with New Nutrition Standards

The following was written by OHEA Member Amy Snider-Whitson, PHEc.

While students and teachers wind-down from another busy school year, many others are gearing-up for back to-school with new nutrition standards come September.

Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the last 25 years while diabetes is on the increase. Clearly something has gone wrong. Improving health is a major goal and the provincial government has stepped in with legislation geared toward making healthy eating more accessible in Ontario schools.

The Importance of Relationships to our Children

I was recently exposed to Gordon Neufeld, PhD, a developmental psychologist from the University of British Columbia.  I was watching his Relationships Matter DVD with a colleague.  I am just going to touch on one of the many points Neufeld touched on.

Neufeld brought up a study where kids, who were sitting on their moms lap, had “hot spots” in their brain while learning math.  However, when these kids were learning math and sitting a lab assistants lap, there were no “hot spots”.  It was determined that these kids developed their “hot spots”, a spike in the spot of the brain showing an interest in the subject of math, because they were sitting with their mom, someone they trusted.  Someone they had a relationship with.  The conclusion was made that kids learn better when they are learning from someone they trust.

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Read the rest of the post on Notes on Parenting.

How to curb the downward trend in our children’s academics

A National study was released in Canada about 15 year-olds and their academic achievement.  It used results from the national tests in math, reading, and science.  The results of 2009 were paired up against results from the previous national test in that subject.  The finding is that on a national average, and in each province, there was a decrease in the average scores in math, science, and reading.  With the biggest struggles coming in math and reading, and a little in science.

What was interesting, was looking a school preparedness, children seemed adequately prepared for grade-school in the early years, but left lacking as they got older.  So here are a few recommendations to keep your kids up to pace with receiving good grades at school, and fair better in math, reading, and science.

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Read the rest on Notes on Parenting.

Student Achievement Among Canadian 15 Year Olds

Statistics Canada recently released an Education Indicators study.  I found a particular grouping of tables interesting.  Under their Student Achievement grouping of tables, was the estimated averages of 15 year old students in the Programme for International Student Assessment.  They looked at the categories of reading, science and math and compared 2009 results to previous years scores in each category.

If you look at the numbers, provided below, it is interesting to see what the numbers are saying.  Canada, on average nationwide, has gone by 5 points in Science and Math, and 10 points in Reading.  Every single province has declined in every single subject, except Quebec in Math, and Nova Scotia in Science.

Teaching Financial Literacy in Secondary Schools

The following is a press release written by Laura Featherstone, PHEc, for OHEA and OFSLC.

Is it too easy for secondary and post secondary students to acquire debt? The concern is that it is difficult to pay off debt in a reasonable time, with minimal penalty.

In 2011, the Vanier Institute of the Family reported that ‘average Canadian family debt has now hit $100,000. Not only that, the debt-to-income ratio, which measures household debt against income, stands at a record 150%, meaning that for every thousand dollars in after-tax income, Canadian families owe one thousand five hundred dollars.’ In 2010, more Canadian families fell behind on mortgage payments, while credit card delinquency and bankruptcy rates rose. In April 2011, a Stats Canada survey showed that almost one-third of retired Canadians are in debt.