It’s been almost 10 years since my first high school band concert, although I remember it well. I was very nervous. I was a band kid through and through. I was hooked since my first day of band camp my freshman year. 

Band was something special. Not every kid participated, and not every kid felt about it the way I did, but the ones who understood, were some of my best friends. 

Band was not just an extra curricular activity that we did reluctantly because our parents asked us to, or something that appealed to the college board. Band was a way of life. I didn’t participate in a ton of extracurriculars outside of band, but having gotten older I can guess that this is not a unique feeling to band kids. Every student who was actively a part of something, not just coasting by, probably felt the experience that I did, and learned the lessons that I learned. 

Band taught us how to conduct and present ourselves as a group. We learned how to organize ourselves accordingly before walking on stage, sit down seamlessly at the same time, make sure each instrument was facing the same way and resting in the same position, pick up the instrument at the same time and make music together. Tune to the ear of those around you for a harmonious sound, and act as one. 

We learned how to take pride in our appearance, a well kept uniform, black shoes, simple elegant jewelry, no nails, nothing flashy, nothing that set one apart from the crown that might detract from the audience experience. It was about discipline, and respect for your peers in the band. We took pride and comfort in knowing that each person there was putting in the same kind of effort you were. We strived to motivate each other, hold practice sessions as a group, and encourage one another to do better. 

I spent hours upon hours with these people throughout my high school experience. They made me a better person, and they taught me so much. I don’t believe that I am alone in this experience. I am sure that most others who participated diligently in team activities feel this way about their team sport, and have experiences exclusive to the culture of their respective activity. 

In my opinion, and experience, these are the only things that make high school worth it. It’s these activities, not the education, that play such important roles in shaping the young minds of students into who they are going to become.

Tonight, however, after attending a high school band concert almost 10 years after my first high school band concert, things were different. 

At times I feel like I live in an echo chamber. My two younger brothers are homeschooled and I spend so much time with others who feel the way I do about the public education system I almost forget that there are those out there who still believe in it. Not only do they believe in it, they trust it enough to turn their kids over to it. The thought horrifies me. And it should horrify you too. 

Tonight I witnessed a group of students so incapable of conducting themselves properly I couldn’t believe it. All sense of decorum and dignity seemed to fly out the window. Kids clambered on stage noisily in between bands, playing their instruments haphazardly while awaiting their band director, who could not have been much older than me, to give them further instruction. I watched a child walk on to the stage, pull his phone out of his pocket to check it, and then sit down in his chair before playing. I watched girls giggle and chatter in between songs on stage, I heard children laugh and chat endlessly in the audience while their fellow peers performed. A student in a reindeer onesie lept out on stage in front of everyone to solo on the slapstick during Sleigh ride, while another student put on a horse mask to then mimic the “neigh” sound featured on the trumpet at the end of the song. 

This had nothing to do with the music. Rather the music was good or bad, the attitude and general demeanor of the group should stay the same. Integrity should be present everywhere you try your best, and I did not see these kids try their best. 

I began to ponder, if you asked any of these kids what they cared about most in the world I wonder what it would be. What do their dreams and fantasies look like, what motivates them to work hard, what encourages them to do better and keep growing?

I bet many of them wouldn’t have answers. 

While it may not seem obvious on the surface, this feels intrinsically connected to the health of our young people. It’s my belief that the over medicated and overly processed world we live in is creating kids who are not going to be able to function in society in a healthy way. Of course, this isn’t a new thing, and it’s not just the medications and the foods we consume, it’s the parenting and the way they’re raised. It seems clear to me that we have a grown generation of children who are already so damaged from the processed foods and the medications, and the environmental toxins, that they, in turn, are unable to raise a generation of healthy kids. Kids today are sicker than ever, with higher rates or depression, autism, obesity, and chronic illness many are beginning to wonder where we went wrong.

They’ve never known anything but the mediation for every problem, but corn flakes and fruit loops for breakfasts, dozens of vaccines since birth, and they’re turning around and producing children even more damaged than themselves. 

I’m not the only one who feels this way. Teachers have reported an increase in uncontrollable children who are simply unable to control themselves. Students who can’t handle the word “no”, Students who can’t self-regulate when they don’t get their way, students who will not be able to emerge into society as functioning adults at the rate that they are going. 

Many don’t seem to know the solution to this, however the solution is simple. Simple, but not easy. Fix the food. Get rid of the medications, and learn to use the word “No”. 

The behavior I saw exhibited over two hours at a high school band concert instilled a new confidence in me at my choice to homeschool my kids. While I don’t have children yet, I can say with certainty, one thing I will never do is subject them to the kind of horrors that seem to go on in public school in this day and age. 

We don’t want normal kids any more. That seems to be the argument for public schooling. “I want normal kids”. What does that even mean anymore? Normal has skewed so far beyond what we once thought that you are sure to find more traditional normalcy in a kid who grew up barefoot on a farm than a kid who made it through all 12 years of public school. I know I’m not alone in this and I am hopeful for a future generation that experiences more home schooling, and less public schooling. 

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report stating that children should return to school wherever possible. The committee stated that for younger children as well as children with special needs, online learning is virtually ineffective.

Emphasis was put on “common sense” precautions like handwashing, social distancing, and minimizing group activities including recess and lunch. Additionally, the committee called for all teachers and staff members to wear surgical masks and for all children to wear cloth face coverings.

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Schools are in need of upgraded ventilation and air-filtration systems, which should be funded by the state and federal governments, according to the report. These upgrades are estimated to cost $1.8 million per school district with eight school buildings and an average of 3,200 students.

Parents and teachers alike have spoken out in favor of both reopening schools and keeping schools closed, for a multitude of reasons and they both bring up very valid points. Unfortunately, this is a very complicated situation and there isn’t necessarily a correct answer.

Most studies suggest the virus poses minimal health risks to children under 18. And the report said that evidence for how easily children become infected or spread the virus to others, including teachers and parents, is “insufficient” to draw firm conclusions.

Citing Educational Risks, Scientific Panel Urges That Schools Reopen

On one side, schools offer valuable tools for many kids like social and emotional support, child care, nutrition, and many more things that adults often overlook. Many families don’t have access to wifi at home or only have access through smartphones. However, in poorer areas where families don’t have wifi, it is likely that those communities have been disproportionately by COVID-19 and may not have the ability to safely educate students.

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Experts in favor of returning to school keep pointing out that children aren’t getting adequate socialization. Experts also keep talking about the importance of social distancing, wearing masks, and limiting unnecessary social activities. Even in school, children would likely not get the proper socialization they needed even if they were in school again. Nearly 30% of the 3.8 million full-time teachers in America are over the age of 50, putting them in a high-risk category.

It’s difficult to look at the ways other countries have handled the pandemic and say what we should’ve done differently. With the poor health of the population of our nation and our lack of trust in the government, it is likely that we would’ve had high cases no matter how we handled it.

Detroit recently made the decision to shut off public school’s drinking water because of “elevated levels” of lead and copper. In Baltimore City’s public schools, students haven’t been able to drink from water fountains for a decade. In May 2016, Portland found that 99 percent of the schools in the district had at least one cold water fixture with elevated levels of lead. For the first time in two years that students in most of Portland’s public school’s were able to safely drink from the water fountains when school started this year. Schools were recently tested in Indiana in a voluntary lead testing program. Out of 915, 61 percent were found to have elevated lead. High lead levels are still an issue in Hillsborough County, Florida and New York City schools.

Related: What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and For Drinking?

Source:

• Not just Detroit: Lead in drinking water plagues schools nationwide – Detroit Free Press

A study recently published in the academic journal, Frontiers in Psychology, found that teaching a lesson to children outside allowed teachers to retain the attention of the kids for almost twice compared to a subsequent indoor lesson.

We wanted to see if we could put the nature effect to work in a school setting. If you took a bunch of squirmy third-graders outdoors for lessons, would they show a benefit of having a lesson in nature, or would they just be bouncing off the walls afterward?” – Ming Kuo, lead study author

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The study was conducted over a 10-week period in a Midwestern elementary school. Two third-grade classrooms participated. One of the classrooms had a teacher who was enthusiastic about the concept while the other teacher who was skeptical, thinking like many do that there would be too many distractions. Each teacher held one lesson a week outside before returning to their regular classroom setting.

The outdoor classroom was a grassy spot just outside the school, within view of a wooded area. Following the outdoor lesson, class engagement was assessed in four ways: the teacher’s perception of the students’ level of engagements; the students’ ratings of theirs and their classmates’ engagement; the number of ‘redirects’ during the lesson, when teachers had to call the kids’ attention back to the lesson; and independent photo ratings, where ratings of classroom engagement by an independent observer were based on photos of the observation period.” – TreeHugger

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What was the effect of lessons outside regarding classroom engagement? Does outdoor learning leave pupils too excited to focus? In this study, classroom engagement was improved after lessons in nature. The advantage of the time outside held true for “four of five measures of classroom engagement.”

We found higher levels of classroom engagement after lessons in nature than after carefully matched classroom-based counterparts; these differences could not be explained by differences in teacher, instructional approach, class (students, classroom, and class size), time of year, or time of day, nor the order of the indoor and outdoor lessons on a given topic. It would seem that lessons in nature boost subsequent classroom engagement, and boost it a great deal; after a lesson in nature, teachers were able to teach for almost twice as long without having to interrupt instruction to redirect students’ attention. This nature advantage persisted across 10 different weeks and lesson topics, and held not only for a teacher with positive expectations for nature-based lessons but also for a teacher who anticipated negative effects of such lessons. The findings here suggest that lessons in nature allow students to simultaneously learn classroom curriculum while rejuvenating their capacity for learning, or “refuel in flight.” Because providing children with more contact with nature in the course of the school day is likely to yield a whole host of additional dividends as well, including improved physical and mental health (see Chawla, 2015 for review), the findings here argue for including more lessons in nature in formal education.

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This video takes things a step further, check it out!

For years our school systems have been feeding our children from boxes and cans. Prepackaged, processed foods and fried foods are the standard. Meals made from scratch with fresh whole fruits and vegetables are too expensive for the most of our schools’ meal budgets. And the schools supplement their budgets with vending machines filled with soda and sugared snacks and chips.

Click here to see Full Sized Infograph Image

The result has been two-fold: our children’s mental/psychological welfare has suffered and so has their health. We’ve conducted studies that have proven a truly nutritious lunch program results in a sharp rise in academic ability and a decrease in conduct problems. And yet, current practices continue.

We know the way we feed our children contributes to poor health, including obesity, and yet we continue. Not only are we “saving money” with our current lunch program, we are supporting big business.

But the status quo will soon change. Why? Because we’ve seen the light? Because we recognize how truly stupid it is to ignore the nutritional needs of growing children? Because we’ve recognized the link between poor nutrition and chronic or terminal illnesses? Or declining test scores?

No. It seems we may change the way we feed our children because we are running out of soldiers.

Mission Readiness, a group of retired military leaders, is lobbying to eliminate junk food from the schools because obesity is the leading medical reason military applicants are rejected; 27% of military age Americans are too obese to serve.

In five steps

Recycle

Place recycling bins next to every trash can with each possible type of bin that makes sense for the area. The cafeteria is the best place to start. Make sure each bin is clearly labeled. In fact, a nice trick to ensure understanding and compliance is to show examples above the recycling bins. (See the picture from Whole Foods.)

Buy Local Food Whenever Possible

Sounds like a pretty cool field trip, too. This is a great opportunity to teach students where their food comes from.

Start a Garden

Grow your own organic food, and get the students involved. The best way to get students to start eating healthier is to get them involved in the process of producing healthy food. And gardening is therapeutic. Before you start thinking that you just don’t have enough room to start, research gardening in small places, and ask the students for their thoughts. Don’t forget to compost to further reduce landfill waste and as a means to enrich your garden soil.

Reduce Paper Consumption

Recycling is great, but reducing is better. Put used paper in the fax machine to print on the back side, or try web based fax services like eFax. Post important updates on websites and get parents to sign up for email lists. When you do buy paper, choose environmentally friendly, recycled paper.

Educate and Involve

Get the students and parents involved. Get them excited. Teach students and teachers the benefits of turning off lights when not in use. Make sure everyone knows how and where and what to recycle. Get feedback and ideas whenever possible. Create exciting projects. Why not encourage the shop class and the science class to team up to build a solar panel or a wind turbine for the school?