New Curriculum @ Harvard University

Who doesn't know Harvard university? Yes, it is the oldest and one of the best universities in the USA. As one of the best universities there, Harvard has a very large campus area with many facilities, including the Harvard Museum, Memorial Church and the Harvard Stadium.

Recently, Harvard approves its biggest curriculum overhaul in three decades, giving more attention on religious and cultural issues. This decision is made to counter the critics about the curriculum of Harvard. Harvard was criticized of being too focused on academic topics instead of putting a bit of "real-life issues" in the curriculum. Actually, they had made a proposal before about requiring the students to study religion, but it was dropped last December. By doing this, they hope students become more aware, interested and understand about the ideas in the context of social, religious, political and cultural conditions.

As a student, I must say that Harvard has chosen the right thing. It is true that religion and cultural ideas are also important in our life. They can give us more variative ideas, so that we become a broad-minded people. Study will be unsuccessful if we don't balance between academic topics and real-life topics, because in many cases, religious, political and social thinking can help us to reason more clearly and thus produce a better answer.

However, I also agree that those kind of things is not always useful. Academic topics such as science and maths are still more important than them, in case you don't want to be a politician. Religious, political, social and cultural ideas can help us but still, the roots are the ones that we learn in academic topics. They are only the supplementary ideas to help us reason better. So, I think it's still good to give students the teaching of real-life issues, but at the same time, we must make sure that we don't overteach it and leave the academic topics behind. still, students have the rights to get the right education and it is the task of the teachers to provide it.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/15/harvard.reut/index.html

information about Harvard University: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University

Junk Food? Bah. Faux-Junk Food? Yeah!

Junk food? Everybody knows that. If we talk about junk food, we will relate it with McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, donuts, french fries and those kinds of food. Why do we call them “junk”? I think it's because the food is quite nice –some people even say that it tastes very delicious- and it is also cheap, but it is unhealthy. Why is it unhealthy? It is mainly because of the fat –in many cases called trans fat- that is inside the food. For instance, trans fat causes many diseases and health problems, such as obesity and coronary heart disease. That’s why there are many cases where people die of heart disease because of eating too much junk food. There are many people who still continue consuming junk food. Actually I also agree that junk food is nice. However, as I said before, it is not good for health.

Recently, some school in the USA have found a way to fulfill the demand of the teens, which is, without any doubt, having fast food in the school, whilst also making it a healthy choice. The fast food is actually western food, such as fried chickens or nuggets, french fries, donuts, pizzas, salads, etc. They have come out with the food called “faux-junk food”. This kind of food is actually the revised version of junk food, where the food itself is much more nutritious than the ordinary junk food. For example, they change the shortening in cakes with applesauce. Another example is broccoli and cauliflowers are mixed into pasta sauce to reduce up to 17% calories without any change of taste or texture.

I personally think that this is a very good way to fulfill the demands of public whilst making a healthier society. This will satisfy many people, especially teenagers, and of course their parents. They don’t have to worry much about their children and the teenagers themselves will be freed from the shadow of heart disease. However, I also agree that everybody must set a limitation for themselves, meaning that they shouldn't eat too much faux-junk food, even though it is healthier. Eating too much is also not good. Applesauce in cakes is better than shortening, of course, but it will become not good either if we consume it too much because after all, it still contains sugar. Too much sugar can causes diabetes. Another example is the pasta sauce. Even though the calories have been reduced by 17%, it still contains calories. Too much calories is also not good for health.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that faux-junk food is a better choice for those who like to eat junk food before. However, we ourselves must set a limitation on consuming the food, because too much eating it will have the same effect as if we eat the ordinary junk food.

Source: http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/01/faux.junk.food.ap/index.html