All things being equal, I would live off of pizza, chocolate, and ice cream. Those things have been on my favorite food lists for as long as I can remember. But a steady diet of pizza, chocolate, and ice cream would do me no good. I would gain weight, be undernourished, and have bad skin.* So instead, I watch what I include in my diet, try to eat sensibly, and give my body the food it needs.
Study after study has shown that this will help me to think better, work better, live longer, and save money on medical interventions. But how does this relate to educational equivalents?
In the field of academia, certain subject areas are the basic building blocks of our academic "diet." English, Math, Science, and Social Sciences are among them. These are the brain foods that we must be including in our educational programs. But as we might all agree, there are degrees of benefit in one food item to another. For instance, fried fish loses all of its value, but grilled fish has all sorts of benefits because it's rich in Omega 3-Fatty Acids which improve blood flow to the brain. And just like the advantages of fish can change according to its preparation methods, a Math course is not necessarily the same from school to school. It's important to know the quality of the course your educational programs are built upon.
One of the best ways to do this is to monitor and track standardized test scores. These include the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. These are leveled across the country and they provide broad feedback on the quality and application of the academic skills our students are gaining. Are they getting good brain food in their diet, academically speaking? Testing should be done regularly in order to see the long-term implications of students' "diet." These tests can be taken beginning in middle school, so trends are easily monitored when students begin early.
If your students are on a junk-food diet, these trends will show it. Knowing this early will allow you to address the issues in the same way that weighing in regularly will allow you to monitor your own diet. Occasionally, there is no harm in having an ice cream cone as long as the nutritional levels are not being compromised. That's just as true for education and your child's academic health. Watch the diet, and keep the good brain foods coming!
(*I did read an article in a "teen magazine" while I was in high school. I will never forget it because it said that pizza was the best food for your skin because of the nutrients in the cheese. While I gave it my best efforts by eating lots of pizza in high school, I am sad to say that my personal experiences at that time did not validate the article's premise, and I wore a larger pant size back then, too!)
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