Importance of Religious Education in the U.S. Religious Schools

..we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

This is Ephesians 2:10 from the Holy Bible. This should give you a food for thought, how beautiful can words make a thought, a life and a people. This should all begin with children, even better at school. Considering how religion can improve the way a student should look at human beings, animals and the society and give his or her best, it is important that schools count in religious education in school.
The concept of ‘Learning from Religion’ will introduce world religions to children aged 4 to 11 years. What will such sections comprise? Students may be asked to read a passage of Holy Scripture or shown a statue or a picture arousing the interest in children about the gifts it might offer children. This kind of study not only challenges the imagination of students, but also emphasizes their value system with a typical consciousness for identification and empathy for people. This kind of religious education is being taught at schools in the USA full-fledged. Both primary and public schools are placing religious education as one of the primary bases for student development. Let us see how catholic schools deliver valuable religious education to their students:

Creation and Evolution: The catholic school way of teaching
Catholics preach that God has created all things, both visible and invisible. Catholic schools do not seem to follow the theological truths mentioned in the first books of Genesis. These truths are also genuinely based on science and historic accounts of the staring of the existence of the world. Catholic schools do not teach how and when everything in this world was created by God.
Catholic schools offering religious education amplify the richness of the faith in Catholicism, preach about uniting with Christ in his Church. Catholic schools tend to varied sets of learners and considering this context, the Religious Education Curriculum Directory makes the goals of Religious Education clear, which are:

• Offering appealing and an all-engaging content as a torch lighting the knowledge and comprehension of the Catholic faith;
• Facilitating constant deepening of understanding in the religious and theological Catholic beliefs in students and assisting them in   connecting with the same and communicate it effectively;
• Displaying a genuine vision of the Church related to its moral and social philosophies so that students can make an assessment of the fundamental trends in this contemporary social atmosphere;
• Nurturing students’ consciousness of the Catholic faith as well as awareness of the traditions of other religious communities so that they can respect them too;
• Portraying the practical abilities of students which they can use for relating their Catholic faith to their day-to-day lives;
• Inspiring the imagination in students to arouse a yearning for inner meaning as displayed by the preaching of the Catholic faith;
• Empowering students to apply the knowledge achieved from Religious Education to their comprehension of other subjects in their syllabus;
• Clarifying the connection of life and faith, and faith and culture.

Religious Education results in young pupils becoming literate the religious way and more comprehensible, understanding and skilled, complimenting their age and abilities – to act and react morally, and think virtuously and religiously.

Written By: Jennifer Einstein
Written For: K12 Lists

For marketing professionals and education marketers

We at K12 Lists support exclusive business communication and correspondence between you and the Religious Schools in the U.S. through the Religious Schools Mailing Database.

Contact us for Religious School Email List at 855-354-7835 or write in at info@K12-lists.com

Sources: catholiceducation.org.uk; irishtimes.com; edutopia.org; whatchristianswanttoknow.com; gtigazette.com

U.S. High Schools Tending to Student Obesity Issues

Students' Food Supervision

High schools in the USA permit students aged between 14 - 18 years for grades 9th to the 12th. While academics, students mental health and physical health can be taken care of by such schools, most of them earn a bad name due to their inadequate food provisions. In such cases, teenagers complain of being overweight and obese. There are many risks related to teen-age obesity like diet-based noncontagious diseases. In Advances in preventive Medicine, published in 2015, a survey was done on 431 school adolescents, and the result was 12.3% overweight prevalence while obesity being 4.4%.

In such serious conditions, USA high schools need to become more strict about their students’ food intake. Most schools have already begun taking major steps in this regard.

School Health Program for physical activity and nutrition 
A Coordinated School Health Program incorporates eight elements of the school community that is directed towards providing student health. Those are:

• physical education,
• health education,
• nutrition services,
• health services,
• psychological counseling, 
• social services,
• healthy school atmosphere,
• family and community co-operation

Through this program a orderly approach to nourishing student health can be taken.  This approach requires systematic assessment of data on students’ health records, sound science and understanding of loopholes and repetitiveness in school health programs, and then decision-making. In 2004, 23 state educational institutes were  funded by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to set up state-level base to execute Coordinated School Health Programs.

Appoint a school health coordinator to run a school health council
When it comes to handling and managing a school health program, a co-ordinator is required to keep every school health program, activity, policy and resources aligned. A school health council consists of members coming from various sectors of the school community, inclusive of school administrators, health care providers, teachers, students, social service activists, religious and civic bodies, and parents. The SHC guides school health coordinators and educational administrators to implement better school health activities and conduct mass meetings for school health workshops. A school health coordinator (SHC) assists the school in building a base for health activities as part of the primal goals of the school in concern and the school district. SHCs have improved school health and physical education curriculum and have aided schools and districts to bring about significant changes in school atmosphere. Few of these changes are:

• the introduction of highly effective nutrition standards, 
• Implementation of walking activities for students and staff, and 
• Keeping school facilities open for physical activity workshops post-school

United States and high school communities can, through their commendable health improving activities, exhibit that health obstacles like overweight and obesity can be subdued. Only if effective plan of action can be enforced and high schools can support such actions, students’ health concerns be taken care off and can be the mental and physical health of young lives can be improved through healthy eating habits.

Written By: Jennifer Einstein
Written For: K12 Lists

For marketing professionals and education marketers

We at K12 Lists support exclusive business communication and correspondence between you and the High School Principals in the U.S. K12 schools through the High School Principals Mailing Database.

Contact us for High School Email List at 855-354-7835 or write in at info@K12-lists.com

Sources: cdc.gov; hindawi.com; fooducate.com

K12 Schools in the U.S. Known For Innovation

K12 Schools

“Innovation with the right intention never loses its way but meets the right destination.”
Innovation, meaning bringing in novelty, unconventionality, dynamics, and separation from norms. In education it can bring technology-based teaching methods, field studies, community-based teachings, etc. Have you heard of the floating school? Lagos, Nigeria has one like that named Makoko Floating School. Better even to think of a school that is unbiased towards particular gender, like Egalia pre-school in Stockholm. So, what have K12 schools in the U.S. to offer to the  education sector in the coming times? We do not know, but what we know is progress is already begun on these lines, and we are yet to witness. For now, let us concentrate on the already talked about innovative American K12 schools:

E3 Civic High (San Diego, California)

San Diego Public Library has the best charter high school named e3 Civic high school. This school was founded in 2013. The school largely depends on its library for new innovations in education. E# considers the library its home that provides co-education to its students. So, if you hear about the number of books the students have access to, you will be impressed. Let us give you an estimate here: say bout 409 students are able to access to 1.2 million plus books in the library. Added to this,  reading rooms, art gallery and auditorium are within the students’ access all the time. Do you like the idea of motor or vehicle themed classrooms? So, there you have it all set in e3. The classrooms have furniture on wheels; and walls are meant for building on ideas, problem solving, etc., given the fact that 77% of its students are below poverty level. What do they offer as part of their education curriculum? Biotechnology, medical biology and Bio Engineering. Wonder if every school provides a MacBook Air computer; this school allows high schoolers to take it home.

STAR School (Flagstaff, Arizona)

Some charter schools are limited to the 8th grade. But that does not keep it from innovating new ways of grooming student development. STAR is a K-8 charter school that is environment inclined. So, how did begin? They opened in 2001, and provided power the school with 245 solar panels and two wind generators. The school holds Arizona’s largest Native American Reservation with 130 students as members of both the regional community and Navajo Nation. Environmental sustainability is integrated in the school curriculum. They conduct a program named "farm to school," which facilitated the supply of fresh fruits produces in the neighboring Navajo farms. These are included in school lunches. This process also included students’ tour to farms that help them to learn about agriculture and the local and neighboring community.

Alliance School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

This charter high school happened in 2005, and is known for its anti-bullying mission. When the school witnessed 196 students experiencing harassment or bullying in their former schools, it took it into serious consideration to protect students of any class, ability and economic status from domineering situations. Other challenges that school faced was to help students about 76% of them from low-income families and 28% with disabilities to get involved in extracurricular activities that teach them about various societal norms, cultures, tastes. They were introduced to unexplored communities soas to increase their awareness against bullying. So, most students go back as messengers of anti-bullying.

There are various organizations associating with such schools to contribute to their development. If there is any difficulty, it is with ignorance, which if shed, a lot many positive changes will appear in the k12 schools.  

Written By: Jennifer Einstein

Written For: K12 Lists

For marketing professionals and education marketers

We at K12 Lists support exclusive business communication and correspondence between you and the School Principals in the U.S. K12 schools through the School Principals Mailing Database. 

Contact us for School Principals Email List at 855-354-7835 or write in at info@K12-lists.com

Sources: cnn.com; clipart