The Great School Lunch Debate

There have been some noticeable changes with school lunch this year, not only at North Fayette, but throughout the State of Iowa and the country.  New regulations developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been implemented with the goal of providing healthy, nutritional meals for the nation's youth.  Because of this, very strict rules of what must be put on a plate are in place that are leaving students with different choices, and in many instances, new food items on their plate.  Most obvious is the presence of a lot more fruit and vegetables.  At NFHS, there has been a lot of fresh produce items available for the students.  At the same time, there are noticeably smaller portions of meat/protein and grains, primarily bread.  My intent is to provide more information in the coming weeks to try and explain the new regulations, as well as to explain why this has happened to our students and community.  For the time being, I encourage you to read the linked article from the September 11, 2012 Des Moines Register.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120911/NEWS02/309120010/Chew-on-this-kids-Rules-will-boost-fruit-veggie-content-in-school-meals?News

Ten Things I Want To Tell Teenage Girls

The following come from Kate Elizabeth Conner and was published in her Lily Pads blog March 25, 2012.  When I first read this I wanted to pull all of the young ladies at the high school together and read it to them, and then race down to the middle school and do the same with the 7^th and 8^th graders.  Then I thought, “Am I comfortable standing up in front of a group of teenage girls and having this conversation?  Am I crossing any kind of a line?  Should I just share the article with my own daughter and call it good?”  Then I shared it with a couple of other dads that have daughters and they encouraged me to share it with other parents.  So, that is what I am doing.  I would guess that if you share this with your daughter, you will have some interesting conversation, as I did.  If you are a female student reading this, these are things I really do want to tell you because far too often I see young ladies marginalize themselves without knowing it.  Far too often high school girls get caught up in all kinds of image issues that are destructive and detrimental.  I hope that this makes sense!

1. Don’t go to the tanning bed.  You’ll thank me when you go to your high school reunion and you look like you’ve been airbrushed and then photoshopped compared to the tanning bed train wrecks formerly known as classmates – well, at least next to the ones that haven’t died from skin cancer.

2.  If you choose to wear shirts that show off your breasts, you will attract boys.  To be more specific, you will attract the kind of boys that like to look down girls’ shirts.  If you want to date a guy who likes to look at other girls’ boobs and chase skirts, then great job; keep it up.  If you don’t want to date a guy who ogles at the breasts of other women, then maybe you should stop offering your own breasts up for the ogling.  All attention is not equal.  You think you want attention, but you don’t.  You want respect.  All attention is not equal.

3.  When you talk about your friends “anonymously” on Facebook, we know exactly who you’re talking about.  People are smarter than you think they are.  Stop posting passive-aggressive statuses about the myriad of ways your friends disappoint you.

4. Newsflash: the number of times you say “I hate drama” is a pretty good indicator of how much you love drama.  Non-dramatic people don’t feel the need to discuss all the drama they didn’t start and aren’t involved in.

5.  “Follow your heart” is probably the worst advice ever. 

6. Never let a man make you feel weak or inferior because you are an emotional being.  Emotion is good; it is nothing to be ashamed of.  Emotion makes us better – so long as it remains in it’s proper place: subject to truth and reason.

7.  Smoking is not cool.

8.  Stop saying things like, “I don’t care what anyone thinks about me.”  First of all, that’s not true.  And second of all, if it is true, you need a perspective shift.  Your reputation matters – greatly.  You should care what people think of you.

9. Don’t play coy or stupid or helpless to get attention.  Don’t pretend something is too heavy so that a boy will carry it for you.  Don’t play dumb to stroke someone’s ego.  Don’t bat your eyelashes in exchange for attention and expect to be taken seriously, ever.  You can’t have it both ways.  Either you show the world that you have a brain and passions and skills, or you don’t.  There are no damsels in distress managing corporations, running countries, or managing households.  The minute you start batting eyelashes, eyelashes is all you’ve got.

10.  You are beautiful.  You are enough.  The world we live in is twisted and broken and for your entire life you will be subjected to all kinds of lies that tell you that you are not enough.  You are not thin enough.  You are not tan enough.  You are not smooth, soft, shiny, firm, tight, fit, silky, blonde, hairless enough.  Your teeth are not white enough.  Your legs are not long enough.  Your clothes are not stylish enough.  You are not educated enough.  You don’t have enough experience.  You are not creative enough.  There is a beauty industry, a fashion industry, a television industry, (and most unfortunately) a pornography industry: and all of these have unique ways of communicating to bright young women: you are not beautiful, sexy, smart or valuable enough.  You must have the clarity and common sense to know that none of that is true. None of it!  You were created for a purpose, exactly so.  You have innate value.  You are loved more than you could ever comprehend; it is mind-boggling how much you are adored.  There has never been, and there will never be another you.  Therefore, you have unique thoughts to offer the world.  They are only yours, and we all lose out if you are too fearful to share them.

You are beautiful.  You are valuable.  You are enough.

Whooping Cough and Bears!

I was thinking back to the end of last school year when I was asking myself, “where has the summer gone!” and thought, what an interesting end to the school year we had in May!  I had shared a few of the things that were going on with some Facebook friends, when one of them referenced whooping cough and bears, wondering what else could happen.  Bouncing from one thing to the next, I had missed the obvious . . . I have my title for “my book!”  Every educator references “the book” they could write based on the incredible things that happen each day in their classroom or in the school.  I had vowed that I would write those things down, but haven’t taken the time to do so.  However, now I have a title . . . Whooping Cough and Bears.  I think that has a hook that will lead people to at least pick this book up and take a look!

Every teacher has a story to tell, and just when you think you have seen it all, you get a phone call at lunch telling you that we are on lock-down because of a bear in the area!  Yes, my immediate response was, “What!?!?!?!”  Needless to say, that situation worked itself out quite well, and I didn’t need to heed the request of one of my hunter-staff members to position himself on the roof with a rifle to protect us!  The whole whooping cough thing had some many stops and starts that people around the building had a glazed look in their eyes wondering whether we were ever going to be "cough free."

My memory has never been really good on things like this, but how can I forget the first day of school my first year at North Fayette when the tornado sirens went off and we were pulling kids off the practice field and out of the volleyball practice and putting them in shelter, only to have staff members standing outside watching the funnels pass near by!  What the heck!  I was thinking these “noreasters” have a little different perspective on tornados than we folks from the western part of the state!

We are fortunate from time to time to see the clips of Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby interviewing kids, who say the darndest things, but through our careers as teachers we often have some of those same experiences.  There have been instances when students ask questions that leave us with our jaws dropped and that look that says, “What.  Are.  You.  Talking.  About?”  Unfortunately, few of us bother to write those down. 

As I reflect a little bit on this, I am pretty sure that I am short on subject matter for a book.  I do recall the time when one of my students fell asleep in class and we successfully evacuated the room without waking him up, turned the clock on the wall ahead a couple of hours, turned off the light, and waited in the hallway for him to emerge, thinking he had slept through the end of the day.  That look of panic on his face when he burst from the room thinking it was 5:30 and he had missed most of basketball practice was priceless!  Boy, I wish I had written more of those things down!

A Lot of Trips to Washington, D.C.

A few weeks ago I spent two-and-a-half days in Washington, DC in my role as NASSP State Coordinator for Iowa.  I was trying to count up the number of trips I have made in this capacity while I was there, and I believe it was my eighth I also thought it was my last with my term ending at the end of the upcoming school year only to discover that my term does not end until June 30, 2013.  So, thinking it was my last trip and last chance to meet with principal colleagues from all over the country to lobby our elected officials on behalf of education, I was a bit melancholy, but at the same time ready for it to be over.  Kind of crazy that I would be ready to end trips to our nation’s capital, or at least that is what a few of my friends and family think!  Well, maybe.

I have found it ironic that as a former social studies teacher, and as a person with an aunt and uncle who have lived in the DC area for over 40 years, I had not been there until I was 42 years old, when I first went out there in 2004 to receive an award.  However, in the past eight years, I have made eight trips to the capital city.  While I haven’t seen everything I want to – it is a big city after all – I have seen a lot.  The city oozes America and when you spend time on the mall at the monuments and stroll through the government buildings and museums, you really get a sense of our nation’s history and what makes this country great.  And, I have seen some incredible things that do not appear in the travel guides, such as the gentleman that I sat next to on a bench waiting in line to tour the capital who spoke passionately about constitutional abuses by Congress, the protestor who has camped out across the street from the White House every day since the conflict in Vietnam, and all of the homeless people in Lafayette Park, just steps from the home of the most powerful man in the world.

After my experiences, I do not believe that any American should wait until they are 42 to visit this great city.  Perhaps rather than require high school juniors to take all of these tests, maybe our political leaders should require them to visit Washington, D.C.  Real-life experiences beat the heck out of reading a textbook anyway!  Another of my observations during my visits to lobby with elected officials on behalf of School Administrators of Iowa is that an army of young people between 20 and 30 years of age is actually running our country.  Sending all of the high school juniors out there for a week might actually be a heck of a learning experience.  Maybe if all of those old folks that have become professional politicians and seem stuck in partisan gridlock would have to answer to a city full of 16 and 17 year-olds about their future, something positive may happen!

In late February I will return for my ninth trip when NASSP holds its national convention, and then my final trip as state coordinator will take place most likely in late June.  Between those two trips I hope to check those final few landmarks off my list, and more importantly, I honestly hope that the political climate becomes one where our leaders can actually act in the best interests of you and me.  I cannot believe that “compromise” has become a four-letter word, but I can always hope that at some point, selfish, partisan politics will give way to the cooperation that those fellas intended over 200 years ago when they wrote the script for this great nation of ours.

When Do They Get to Live Their Own Life?

When I arrived at North Fayette I learned about a commitment the district had made to Love and Logic, sending all of the teaching staff through training and implementing the practices in the classroom and buildings.  I had heard about this program, and because of the commitment of the district, decided to attend training in Chicago to be better prepared to use the various strategies when working with students.  At that time I also signed up for their e-newsletter, which I receive every other week.  In a recent newsletter, the following letter from an employer and Love and Logic devotee was included:

Dear Mr. Fay,

I have been to many Love and Logic trainings and have been passing along the lessons for some time. I just wanted to share with you a personal story of something that happened today which just proves what you have been teaching all this time. I thought of you instantly. I will keep all details out to protect the business and the person involved.

 At a current place of business, which is a corporate/professional level, highly skilled type business, a young (meaning twenty-something) gentleman showed up for an interview today with his parents. Yes, they really did sit in on the interview. No, he did not really need them there.

 Apparently, they were to help with his nervousness and morale, and they wanted to help him with the discussion regarding salary.

 Now here is the very definition of helicopter parents that do not have a grasp of boundaries and have enabled their "baby."

 Needless to say, this particular candidate was not the one chosen.

 Hope this story may help you during some presentation to get the point across that we are crippling our youth.

 Sincerely,

Marlene, a loyal Love and Logic advocate

Those of you who read my blog and newsletter regularly will recognize the term “helicopter parent,” as I have written about this “phenomenon” a number of times over the past few years.  It seems like today we have one of two extremes.  Unfortunately we have too many parents that have basically tossed their children aside and have little or no interest in what they do.  They could care less about their performance at school and they never show up for conferences or events.  This is tough to deal with, but there is one positive in many of these situations: the child is resilient and learns to stand on their own feet.  At the other end are the parents that are described in the letter above.  Can you imagine accompanying your child to a job interview?  Who would ever think about doing this?  Well, obviously someone!  Don’t get me wrong, there are times when a parent needs to stand by their child and offer support.  I have been impressed recently with some parents that have stood by their child’s side as the young men came forward to confront a difficult situation.  They still put the burden on the child to “come clean” and take responsibility for their actions. 

There is a balance, and we need to get back to the balance.  What made the men and women who made up the “Greatest Generation” great was that even at a young age they stood up and answered the bell.  Think about it.  In the early 1940’s, 18-year old boys stepped up, volunteering in waves, to serve our country.  They found themselves in horrific circumstances and prevailed.  I do not see that in our young people today, and I am not saying that we have to send them off to war to prove it.  What I am saying is that we need to give them the chance to take responsibility for their decisions.  Steve Deace, a conservative talk show host, said the following on air one day when I caught part of his show driving down the interstate: “Students need to experience disappointment.  It is part of life.  They need to learn to overcome adversity.  It is part of life.”  Unfortunately, helicopter parents are not allowing them to experience these very important life lessons.

The End is Near

I can’t remember an end to a school year that has moved so fast.  At the end of every year, there is a lot to do as far as getting things finished up before that last day.  In my seat, there are a lot of reports that have to be completed and other deadlines that have to be met because various agencies and departments we work with “close shop” this time of the year.  We do not have much of a luxury to put some of these things off until the students are gone for the summer.  There are other things that need to be done because many employees finish up a day or two after the students and are not around until they need to report in August.  What is troublesome for me is that at a time of the year when I really want to be out and about among the students, it is quite difficult. 

Compounding things quite a bit this year was the Pertussis outbreak that we had.  Every day we faced decisions relative to what we were going to do to hopefully contain it.  The stress on some folks around here was immense as we were hosting some major events and our students were also involved in activities that were at a critical point in the season.  There were many frustrations, but in the end, we got through it.  However, because of some of the steps we did take, things piled up even more at the end of the year.  For example, we had activities in the PAC four out of the five nights this week.  It’s great that it is being used, but we had a number of folks that were there all four nights!  That plays a little number on your mind when you are looking forward to the school year ending, you are tired, and yet you know that you must keep moving ahead.  My hat is off to those folks that dealt with so much unpredictability and demonstrated tremendous flexibility and patience.  In particular, the entire music staff – Doug Poppen, Ted Schacherer, Linda Johansen, and Leslie Poppen – were incredible.  And, I would be remiss if I did not mention how vitally important our school nurse, Trudy Campbell was in all of this.  Last and by far not least, the high school teachers and coaches were amazing.  Coaches had to deal with last minute lineup changes because they may find out an hour before a meet that a student could not be there.  Every day, teachers saw new empty seats, yet continued to do their job and at the same time help those kids that missed catch up.

Good luck to the graduating seniors.  I am confident that this particular group will do great things.  This is a group of tremendous potential and I look forward to learning about what they accomplish in life.  Goodbye to Mary Straate, who has impacted the lives of hundreds of North Fayette students.  Also to Trudy Campbell who is retiring as well.  And to Tammi Aldrich, who is moving on to a new job in Dunkerton.  All of you will be missed.

My hope is that everyone has a fun and relaxing summer, and I look forward to seeing students in the halls come this August!