Jerome Aiken
English
Professor: Jennifer Guarino
05/2/13
Non Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus
Picture
your child or family member who goes to a school that doesn't provide breakfast
but also doesn’t receive breakfast at home. After reading a New York Times article, “How to start a
good school day”, the anonymous author points out a huge amount of underprivileged
students in New York City that do not receive the free breakfast that is served
every weekday morning to the other 12 million students across the country. The
author has included the mayor of the city’s argument; Mayor Michael Bloomberg
argues “Providing free breakfast in the classroom might increase childhood
obesity”. With this said the school’s in this city are “losing more than $50
million a year in federal money by failing to provide breakfast to needy
students. The writer’s article has realistic evidence to back up their
information by the use of percentages in the school system and comparing it to
other cities. The article illustrates the person behind’s perspective of the
situation, but the author fails to include a solution towards this situation;
making this article more informational than a call for help.
The author’s article weakens because the writer doesn't include
enough information for the topic. The article needs more information in order
for it to become a more strengthen article. With this in mind, this article implies that
there needs to be a change in the cities school system. Without a change in the
schools, most students will not get the well-balanced breakfast that is needed
to keep their brains thinking and functioning throughout the day. According to
the author “Free breakfast reduces hunger and
can improve academic performance, but in New York City, too many students do not
get the meals they need”. The author includes that having
breakfast will improve academic performance but lacks to go into depth about the
benefits of having breakfast. As I read this article, I wondered how having
breakfast could have been beneficial with improving academic performance. Instead
the author states simply “free breakfast
reduces hunger and can improve academic performance”. The
author should have included information explaining how eating a healthy
breakfast could be beneficial academically. Having information that eating
breakfast provides energy to start a day, having breakfast improves
concentration and boost short-term memory. Also going on to say the brain needs
glucose from food in order to work well, without brain energy it will be sluggish.
Stating this information in my opinion would give the article strength because
it informs readers that the writer knows what he is talking about and not
anyone just writing this article. Including this information would have readers
know that the author is educated on his written topic; it also illustrates to
readers what exactly these students are losing when not provided healthy
breakfast.
However
in the article, the writer states “Mr. Bloomberg has given principal’s the
authority to decide whether to serve free breakfast in the classrooms of the
more than 1,700 schools in the city, about 345 provide free breakfast in some
classroom, and 70 allow it in all classrooms”. The writer responds with “That is not enough. The best way to ensure that more
students start the day with a nutritious meal is to put free breakfast in all
classrooms”. In this quote the author clarifies his view on the situation, that
the principals in the schools are not doing enough. Students should be able to
receive nourishment in order to be successful in their academic studies.
Nourishment is essential for learning, which the article lacked to show it
focused more on the cost effective problems that breakfast provided the school.
With this being said he doesn't include how the reader can help put free
breakfast in all classrooms. Having the problem still unsolved. Without the
article including how this problem can be solved, it allows the reader to
question the author’s purpose. Is the article for the reader’s knowledge or a
distress signal? Not including a solution causes this problem for readers.
Unfortunately the author didn't give
any enlightenment in how to solve the problem that the New York City school
systems are facing so the problem would remain to go unsolved. Instead of
focusing on the problem the author should have came out with different
resolutions into fixing the problem. For instance, the schools should provide a
healthy nourishing breakfast in order for their students to be well equipped
for a rigorous learning experience. As the article stated before the school
actually looses money when not providing breakfast. So in actuality the
students and the financial aspects of the school would be benefiting by
providing breakfast. The article spoke about students not being able to come on
time in order to receive breakfast; the school should time the buses in
appropriate times so that the students can have an equal opportunity to eat
breakfast. Lastly, instead of only 350 schools being provided with free
breakfast, all 1700 schools in the district should receive the same privileges.
Having this solution in the article, gives the reader less to think about.
Instead the readers knows that in order to prevent this problem, their help
will be needed to provide students in these schools with healthy breakfast.
In closing, no child should be left
behind in their learning. Every student deserves the right to learn at an equal
pace. The advantage of one student shouldn't be a disadvantage to another;
every student deserves an equal start. It shouldn't be based on whether you can
come to school early or the financial aspect of your family. Education doesn't come with a price it comes with a goal to provide students with an opportunity to
be strong standing individuals. I will always remember my principal Timothy
Sullivan saying, “Non Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus”, meaning, “We learn not for school but for life”.
