<p>lol I didn’t even remember what my role was called :b</p>
<p>I disconcur, for I would not have been able to make a thread about getting my license if I had had to graduate from high school first</p>
<p>I think a lot of schools that would need some of those lifestyle classes are the same ones that are redirecting their funds towards extra English and math support. I go to an inner-city public school and a couple of years ago we had a culinairy arts class, and now we’re increasing the number of remedial math classes. Another instance is that instead of adding an AP Psych course, which they intended to, the funds and efforts of that teacher are now going into a mentoring program for at-risk students.</p>
<p>@xrCalico23: LOVE IT.</p>
<p>The problem with trying to make such skills part of school is that you’re trying to substitute for something your family should teach you. It’s probably the same thing that makes them need remedial English and math courses–the parents are most likely not available to help their kids, or can’t help their kids with those subjects because they themselves aren’t proficient and they have better things to do.</p>
<p>^^^I don’t see why they don’t sorta mix it. Like at my school we have a dual cosmo deal where girls get there cosmetology degree thing along with high school diploma, same thing with mechanics. It’s kinda like, they don’t wanna go to college, no due but rather than them drop out or fail due to lack of incentive an incentive was created. Also things with culinary (we have a pretty fancy program deal because some graduate is now a fancy chef and he gives back and helps teach from time to time so kids get something out of it). We’re also known for whatever it is the agriculture group is doing (we have pigs and a goat on campus, I don’t know what they do). We also have IB and a pretty state known academic decathlon and other good academic stuff. I don’t know how we do it, we’re a pretty low funded inner city school but I think a lot of it is students with a shared interest in something and then they get a good teacher and if it’s successful the school pays more attention and then people get funding.</p>
<p>Well, I think a lot of the parents of the current generation may also be used to the idea of having home ec classes, and if they aren’t as involved in their children’s studies for a lack of time or whatever reason, they might actually be under the impression their children are taught those skills. </p>
<p>But, in my experience, it has been the people from the most poverty-stricken families that would least need those classes. I mean, people who are extremely poor do NOT eat out, even if it is McDonald’s.</p>
<p>People that are poor buy in bulk. Bulk meat, bulk eggs, bulk rice, bulk beans, and other bulk things that give a feeling of full for cheap. No one is thinking about nutrition and they’re thinking about price only. Cheap food is hardly nutritious.</p>
<p>It just so happens that america has a really good supply of bulk and cheap food (I heard it was produced as some kind of effect of the last recession but it never really stopped).</p>
<p>The point is that nutritious food is generally expensive and not aimed at the poor. Also if you’re incredibly poor (near homelessness) there are days you don’t eat and then binge the next time you can.</p>
<p>Do you have any idea how much IB costs? Your school can’t possibly be poorly funded, especially not if it has IB along with other great programs. I’m a bit jealous right now. I have no idea where your school is getting the money, but we used to have a Bill and Melinda Gates grant, but they decided they made a mistake splitting schools into smaller schools are now we’re on our own… Which has meant major cutbacks. </p>
<p>Cheap food in bulk is more nutritious than McDonald’s, and somehow my family was able to transition from cheap bulk food to cheap bulk healthy Costco food. (Do you even know how cheap a pound of mixed vegetables is at Costco? That place is amazing.)</p>
<p>^^ Depends on what you call poor. Lower middle class might eat healthier than upper middle class, since they can’t afford to eat out and/or buy convience foods. Very poor people can’t even afford basic nutrition, but people who are that poor are extremely rare in the US.</p>
<p>Yeah, I actually just found out how much IB costs. It’s crazy (but we students never paid for anything, like the tests or the diploma). We have some spiffy people come in every year and the coordinator takes our pics and tells us to act super smart because apparently these are the ones to give us the money. Also I think we get some extra city money because we’re the only IB in the city. But seriously, they wanted to close down my school because they said we were too ghetto or whatever and there wasn’t enough money to fix all the broken building crap (also, everyone is on free lunch and most of us going to college had 0 efc since I remember high5ing about how awesomely poor we were). Some people think we’re a bad school but I think that’s mostly just because of the area and our football team sucking. I remember some district fella said some comment about how pointless IB at our school was since he didn’t think hispanics had the “capability” of getting the diploma, that slightly racist comment ended the whole debate of closing the school so we’ll still be open.</p>
<p>^^I like good sams better but you need that fancy card. But yeah, it is all healthier than mcdonalds but it’s still not as healthy as like…salmon and fresh salad. When we go shopping we just get pounds of ground beef and something to cook with that, some beans of videl or whatever but I’m pretty sure it’s not healthy because I see a lot of grease. But I also kinda don’t care that much about health.</p>
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<p>That’s the real problem. Farm bills subsidize the corn used for high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Fat food is cheap partly because the fed gov makes it so. </p>
<p>The other side of the problem is that we suck at storing healthy food. Many of the canned fruits/veggies/etc lose their nutritional value, while fresh food has high holding costs…You have to refrigerate blueberries for 6 months to sell them in winter, and most of them go bad before they’re sold. These costs are passed on to people who buy blueberries.</p>
<p>It’s pretty crappy that the fed gov helps farmers by hurting everyone else. Anyone who has medical insurance is indirectly paying for increased national medical costs. Medical costs go up when more people are sick or obese. More people are sick or obese when more people eat unhealthy foods. More people eat unhealthy foods when unhealthy food is cheaper. Unhealthy food is bound to be cheaper when the government subsidizes production of hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup.</p>
<p>The question is how to easily subsidize the cost of living for farmers without encouraging unhealthy eating.</p>
<p>^^ I dislike Sam’s after I once sat waiting for them to answer a simple question for my dad for so long that I was able to watch most of Spiderman 2 on the display TV.</p>
<p>^^ Well, hypothetically what would happen if the government stopped subsidizing farms and let the free market decide how much each crop was worth?</p>
<p>And I don’t think it’s the “cost of living” that’s being subsidized. More like “share value” for the big farming corporations.</p>
<p>^^^ I have no idea. My bio teacher was explaining that to us and told us figuring out all that was something for us to solve. I thought it was interesting because I did wonder why so many seemed fat despite starving. If you don’t get the nutrition your stomach tends to bloat and hold onto food longer to compensate. I’m like…this is idiotic when I go to HEB and a nice large fresh apple costs more than the candybar that are 3 for a $1.</p>
<p>Or that I can get 10 jack’nthebox tacos for $5. Jack’nthebox value menu is kinda the **** though, not gonna lie.</p>
<p>Well, very poor people do go on welfare programs, and receive food stamps. I imagine that they would also be the same ones that are going to the soup kitchens, but I don’t know how nutritional the food at soup kitchens are. (I should hope that they are at least somewhat nutritional!)</p>
<p>Wow, yeah. I think the Gates foundation might have footed the bill, but since they pulled out we’re sort of at a loss and I don’t even know what we’re doing. Unfortunately, we don’t have the prestige of being the only school to offer IB. Other than that, your school sounds remarkably similar to mine. Are you located in CA? </p>
<p>Similarities include:
-IB (which is rare in the US)
-People coming in to classes (They never come into my class, so I don’t know what the coordinator did)
-Closing down the school (well, they wanted to merge it. Still.)
-broken buildings! we also have plenty of empty bottles in the bushes
-terrible football team
-area!
-plethora of hispanics</p>
<p>^ You don’t have to be “very poor” to get welfare and other government benefits… A while ago I heard a guy complain about how his welfare or unemployment or whatever he was on was ONLY about twice what my dad was making at honest work at the time…</p>
<p>Yet we weren’t poor by any means.</p>
<p>I actually don’t know what the qualifications are for government benefits, but would they follow poverty guidelines or are they some magnitude of that? </p>
<p>One of the local schools, Preuss, is for poor students, but they modified the definition of poor to fit students who make up to 8x more than the poverty guidelines.</p>
<p>^nah, TX</p>
<p>I don’t think Gates gave us money, I would have heard of that. I think it’s local businesses.</p>
<p>I see those peeps walk about maybe once a year and once they put all the smart looking people in one class and record it (I wasn’t invited, I don’t look smart I guess).</p>
<p>Those who receive food stamps are not necessarily the same people who show up at soup kitchens, I would think…</p>
<p>It also has to do with the lack of physical activity in American life— when was the last time you actually had to walk for an hour or so to get to somewhere? Now exercise has become a legitimate activity by itself that must be proactively chosen and pursued. It used to be the means to get things accomplished because people did not have the luxury of cars, not the end.</p>
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<p>There’s all kinds of programs with all kinds of standards… But IMHO even the “poverty” line is really high. I’d hate to have to explain to someone from Hati or Nicaragua what you can buy with “poverty” income in the US.</p>