In the News...

Compiled by Amanda Stiver

Uniform Dressing
Reynoldsburg High School in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is trying a new approach to school uniforms. School board members approved a switch to uniform dressing for the coming school year, and students were anxious to find out what they will be able to wear. To ease the monotony of daily uniforms, the school sponsored a fashion show featuring students in a select variety of clothes from local retailers that meet the criteria for the new dress code.

The options are limited to a mixture of standard trousers, polo and oxford shirts, turtlenecks and certain types of sweaters. The limited color choices correspond to the school colors and other neutrals like navy and khaki. The garments selected for the fashion show were from a variety of stores with prices that varied from low to high. School administrators hope that more fashion shows will continue to help parents and students understand the options for the dress code (Charlie Boss, "Fashion Rules," The Columbus Dispatch, March 1, 2007).

Crisis of Obesity Among Church Attendees
A study released in 2006 comparing the levels of obesity between religious groups found that many denominations of Christian churches have extremely high levels of obesity among their members, while lower levels of obesity were found among groups that observed dietary and health guidelines as a part of their belief system. Those in this latter group include Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

Family physician Dr. Don Colbert believes this phenomenon is related to the fact that while Christians preach against many sins, the sin of overeating is often overlooked. Other experts look at cultural influences, such as in the American South where the tradition of eating heavily fried foods affects the health of members (Dennis Mahoney, "Thou Shalt Not Bloat: Many Christians Spurn Nutrition and Exercise," The Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 9, 2007).

The Bible refers to the body as a temple and God instructs us to treat it with respect (1 Corinthians 6:19). Following this instruction means maintaining as healthy a weight as possible and developing personal habits that support a healthy body.

Reinventing the Internet
Although the building of today's Internet has been going on for almost four decades, some researchers feel the time has come to start over. A more advanced system is needed to adequately address new issues of security, mobility and other challenges that have evolved as Web use has grown.

The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for completely different assumptions. It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, professor at Rutgers University. Mobile devices are creating one of the biggest challenges to the system. The high number of people using mobile connections overwhelms computer processors and creates security holes.

Two possible approaches are being considered. A new network could run parallel with the current Internet and gradually replace it, or a major overhaul of today's structures could take place. The end result won't be visible for 10 or 15 years, depending on government funding. The cost to replace the software and hardware of the existing system would reach into the billions of dollars (Anick Jesdanum, "Move Afoot to Reinvent Internet," Associated Press, April 16, 2007).

Too Much Coffee Culture?
Teens and college-age young adults are consuming extreme amounts of caffeine from coffee and caffeine drinks. Because the caffeine content is not labeled, many consumers are not aware of the intensely high caffeine levels in energy products produced by soft-drink companies. But some are seeking even more—increasingly strong prescription stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin, drugs commonly prescribed to counter Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Students are using the stimulants to increase their time awake in order to complete school, job or leisure activities.

Caffeine, especially in coffee, has benefits including pain reduction for migraine sufferers and clearer thinking, but in excessive amounts it can cause heart palpitations and complications and extreme nausea.

Coffee shops like Starbucks, which has more than 9,000 locations across the United States, have become 'the 21st-century version of the 1950s malt shop. It's where kids go to meet friends and socialize," says Joseph DeRupo, director of communications for the National Coffee Association (Nancy Shute, 'Over the Limit? Americans Young and Old Crave High-Octane Fuel, and Doctors are Jittery," U.S. News & World Report, April 23, 2007).

Banning the Tanning Booth
The U.S. states of Utah, Virginia and South Dakota, along with others, are seeking to put limits on the amount of time teens can be under the glow of the tanning bed. Concerns over skin cancer and other hygienic issues are at the root of new legislation. The restrictions vary. Some states ban tanning bed use completely for those under 18, while others require a parent present or a doctor's prescription ('27 States Now Restrict Use of Tanning Beds by Teenagers," The Columbus Dispatch, March 30, 2007).

Redefining Style
The flood of immodest clothing available in stores has led to a growing number of designers and retailers specializing in modest clothing. From a variety of religious backgrounds, entrepreneurs are creating new options in the fashion marketplace.

Chelsea Rippy, founder of Shade Clothing, which specializes in covering clothes, noted her reasons for starting the company: 'Fashion took a sharp turn for the worse. Pants were crazy low, and shirts were crazy short. Modesty aside, I didn't feel cute in anything."

Even the mainstream fashion retailers have noted the need for more modest choices. 'The customer is starving for a fashionable, covered product. There's a real market out there," says Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy's Department Stores, Northwest region.

Wendy Shalit, author of several books on the modest lifestyle, including the forthcoming Girls Gone Mild, and founder of a blog on modesty (http://blogs.
modestlyyours.net) says that women are 'tired of the expectation that they present themselves in a sexual way…Girls are discovering that showing their belly button to strangers is not as empowering as they have been led to expect" (Kimberly Palmer, 'Anti-Britney: The New Look," U.S. News & World Report, April 23, 2007).

This trend shows that looking stylish and being adequately covered don't have to conflict.

Rap Wraps Up
The rap music genre (also known as hip-hop) is suffering a decline in sales as well as criticism from inside the hip-hop world about its messages and their negative influence on society.

Rap music sales fell 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and a rap album was not among the top 10 sellers of the year. In a recent study by the Black Youth Project, a majority of young people saw rap as too violent. And in an Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices poll of black Americans last year, 50 percent called hip-hop a negative force in American society.

C. Dolores Tucker is a black activist criticized in the past by young fans of rap for crusading against the degradation of women in the lyrics of rap music. She is now being joined by women who were formerly rap fans but are now older and understand the negative cultural implications of degrading language (Nekesa Mumbi Moody, 'A Bad Rap: Genre Seems to Be Losing Luster," Associated Press, March 5, 2007).

Monitoring what music we listen to by noting the lyrics and choosing songs with messages in line with God's way of life allows us to fill our minds with the positive and forgo negative influences.

Multitasking Impacts Revenues
Multitasking, often presented as a virtue of the digital age, is turning out to be what many people initially thought it was—a productivity-damaging distraction. One expert, Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at Basex, estimates that interruptions created by multitasking cost the U.S. economy nearly $650 billion a year. Companies as large as Microsoft are feeling the financial effects.

The problem stems from the fact that human brains were designed to work efficiently on one task at a time, using a hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections. We can multitask if necessary, but we function better on a single task. 'Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes," said David Meyer of the University of Michigan (Steve Lohr, 'Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don't Read This in Traffic," The New York Times, March 25, 2007).

Graphic Novels Targeting a Female Audience
The industry of graphic novels is targeting the underrepresented female readers. Traditionally comic books and their upper-end cousins, graphic novels, have been aimed at boys and young men. Now more artists, authors and publishers want to focus their attention on providing subject matter for female readers.

Superheroes have been the traditional themes of American graphic novels, until the mid-1990s when more serious storylines also became popular. A variety of subjects is planned to appeal to female audiences (Bill Eichenberger, 'Not Just for Boys: Graphic Novels Explode in Popularity, Thanks to Broadening Fan Base," The Columbus Dispatch, April 15, 2007).

A Japanese style of graphic novel, called manga, is rising rapidly in popularity, especially among girls.

It Pays to Stay in School
The United States has a shortage of educated workers. Employers are paying four-year college graduates 75 percent more than high school graduates, while 25 years ago college graduates only received 40 percent more. 'This is the first generation of American-born men who don't have substantially more education than their fathers' generation," says Lawrence Katz, labor economist at Harvard University.

At the beginning of the 20th century most Americans received eight years of schooling, but by the 1920s more than 50 percent of teenagers were going to high school. The trend toward more education extended to college, but in recent years things have leveled off. Even though more jobs require a degree, only 30 to 35 percent of young Americans graduate from college.

Some experts blame the American education system and its allowances for those who fail repetitively—causing students to put off pushing themselves to higher achievement (David Wessel, 'Lack of Well-Educated Workers Has Lots of Roots, No Quick Fix," The Wall Street Journal , April 19, 2007).

Oversexualized Culture Destructive to Girls
A study by the American Psychological Association (APA) on cultural trends finds that American girls are sexualized in almost every medium and product—advertisements, video games, clothing and cosmetics, among others. This, in turn, contributes to other trends among girls like eating disorders, low self-confidence and depression (www.apa.org/releases/sexualization.html).

The study found, strangely enough, that college girls who took math tests in a bathing suit received a lower score than those fully dressed. As the executive summary stated, 'thinking about the body and comparing it to sexualized cultural ideals disrupted mental capacity." There was no difference in test scores for young men whether they were wearing bathing suits or were fully dressed (www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualizationsum.html).

Columnist Kathleen Parker noted: 'It can't be coincidence that girls' self-objectification—looking for male attention in all the wrong ways—has risen as father presence has declined. At last tally, 30 percent of fathers weren't sleeping in the same house as their biological children" ('Dads Are Key to Giving Girls Reality Check on Sexuality," The Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 28, 2007).

For more information on developing the right understanding of marriage, sex and family, request or download Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension.