Last night TLC launched the U.S. version of Honey We're Killing the Kids! (Yes, the BBC has their own version of Honey We're Killing the Kids! too.) Both the original British show and the American adaptation, warn parents that left unchecked their kids' behavior will ultimately lead to a variety of serious, obesity-related health problems by the time they're 40. And they won't be very good looking either! (i.e. bad hair, never smiling, wearing ugly clothes, etc...)

This weekly 13-part series comes to television at a time when the obsession over childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions. Given the fact that during the past 20 years, adolescent obesity (ages 12 to 19) has tripled, the obsession is certainly warranted. What's unique about this show – besides the compare and contrast, special-effect, time-lapse video of kids growing up – is where they focus both the blame and the solutions. The parents! Not the junk food manufacturers, not the video gaming or software industries, not the youth advertising business, not even the schools. (Although many schools have cut back on physical education classes. Perhaps NCLB should stand for No Child Left on their Behind.)

While the CDC shares an overview of obesity, the HHS and USDA offer dietary guidelines, the Mayo Clinic states the obvious in

Last week the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill that would make Florida the first state to require high school students to declare a major, just as college students do. Governor Bush said the plan would "help prepare students better for the real world and reduce the dropout rate by making school more interesting." More interesting? Really? Don't you think State and Federal legislators have already made schools "more interesting?" Let's review:

STANDARDS: According to a research article from the Alliance for Curriculum Reform (a collaborative, non-profit organization that brings together more than twenty national education associations concerned with P-16 curriculum and school reform) "for many classroom teachers standards-based reform has come to mean two things: a seemingly endless list of expectations that their students must meet, and a series of high-stakes tests that are tied to discrete subject areas, the results of which often mean dire consequences. Both of these conditions have driven standards-based reform efforts in ways that tend to fracture learning, diminish responsive and creative thinking, and focus attention almost exclusively on the discrete subject areas represented in high-stakes, large-scale tests."

TESTING: Educational psychologists and researchers who studied the impact of standardized testing have documented that "students whose attention is relentlessly focused on how well they're doing often become less engaged with what they're doing." Alfie Kohn goes further to state: "Studies have shown that too much attention to the quality of one's performance is associated with more superficial thinking and less interest in whatever one is doing." As for grades and rubrics?

MAJORS: While I applaud the idea to tap into a student's individual interests and potential career goals rather than trying to run everyone through a 'one-size-fits-all' system, declaring a "major" might not be the answer. Developmentally even college students emerging into adulthood have a tough time with that, imagine trying to do so during adolescence? And why the seemingly constant fixation on higher-ed being the "model" to look towards in terms of making school more interesting and preventing drop outs?

Sure, nearly 3 percent of Florida's 800,000 high school students dropped out of high school last year. But Florida has a tough time getting high school graduates into college and the problem gets worse after their freshman year. About a quarter of Florida college freshmen drop out before their sophomore year. Another 25 percent of those who don't are gone before their junior year. Long term it's even worse, ten years after high school about 6 out of 10 Florida high school graduates do not have a college degree. BTWFYI: Nationally, 54 percent of students entering four-year colleges in 1997 had earned a college degree 6 years later.

While the U.S. Department of Education suggests that the academic intensity of a student's high school