The map, issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), shows the percentages of substantially overweight, or obese, low-income children by county and in territories and tribal organizations where Native Americans live. The problem extends to both urban and rural populations.

Overall, 1 in 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese. Experts have been alarmed by the rapid rise in childhood obesity during the past 20 years, which is attributed to changes in diet toward more processed foods, less physical activity, and low-income families' lack of access to highly nutritious food. The impact of obesity on life expectancy, increased incidence of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments is reason for its recent prevalence as a public health issue.

Public attention to decreasing childhood obesity includes efforts to enhance the nutritional balance in school lunches, nutritional education for children and adults, pressuring food corporations to improve labeling and ingredients, and campaigns to increase children's physical activity by reducing time in front of television and computers and restoring daily physical education classes or recess.

To view a pdf version of the map, click here.

The photographs of a twelve-year-old Peruvian fruit market porter named Jonathan are from a video produced by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), a trade union organization affiliated with the International Labour Organization (ILO). The documentary describes Jonathan, who is one of a large group of similarly employed boys, who rise before dawn and spend their days pushing carts and carrying crates of fruit. Their pay is meager and not all clients are dependable. Jonathan is quite articulate in expressing his acceptance of the need to work and his willingness to contribute to his own support and to help his family. His wages are his own income, and also pay his school expenses. The trade union organizations in Peru, as in other countries, support efforts to end or ameliorate child labor that depresses wages and degrades working conditions by providing a weak and pliant alternative labor force of minors. According to ILO statistics, nearly one-third of Peruvian children engage in paid work, some of it dangerous, and much of it detrimental to their physical development and education. The documentary describes an association of four main Peruvian trade unions called "Warma Tarinakuy," which established a youth center where child laborers can get cheap meals, counseling and remedial classes if they have fallen behind in school. Anyone who wishes to participate must commit to staying in school. The math teacher featured in the documentary was a child worker himself. Association counselors work with children and their parents to maximize their chances of finishing school and limiting the damage to the development of youth by trying to reduce the families’ reliance on their labor. Jonathan’s progress as a student is discussed, including his award of a grant to study computer science. This effort by a combination of international and local organizations may be compared with other efforts in Asia and Africa to end child labor by bringing services to the places where children work and live.

This tablet, from ancient Sumeria (as early as 2000 B.C.E.), details a day in the life of a school boy. Students learned by copying lessons on clay tablets, memorizing the lessons, and then reciting them for the school's headmaster (the "school father") or other teachers, monitors, and proctors of the school.

The composition translated here, about a day in the life of a budding scribe, was evidently widely known, because scholars pieced together its full text over a period of 40 years (from 1909 to 1949) using 21 tablets and fragments excavated at various places from ancient Mesopotamian sites. The largest fragment (shown here) came from the Sumerian sacred city of Nippur, in present-day Iraq.

The young scribe-in-training described here is repeatedly caned by his teachers for failing to memorize his lessons and for disciplinary problems. The boy then asks his parents to invite the headmaster to their house and to provide him with wine, food, and gifts. Noah Kramer, the scholar whose translation appears here, described it as "the first recorded case of 'apple-polishing' in the history of man." The strategy apparently worked because by the end of the dinner, the headmaster praises the young man to Nidaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing, and predicts that he will become the foremost student in the school.

The image shows the reverse of a Thai 100-baht banknote, with engravings of of King Chulalongkorn and King Vajiravudha statues. The banknote's background theme is education. The detail on the right illustrates Thailand's traditional education system, showing a monk instructing boys in the courtyard of a temple. Until the 20th century, the village temple was a place where most young boys from peasant families received a basic education. Such temples typically received small boys to serve in the temple as dek wat, or "children of the temple," from the age of eight years old. The dek wat carried out minor housekeeping chores in exchange for instruction in reading and writing. They also memorized scriptural passages appropriate for important rituals. The dek wat served for four years or more, after which they could be ordained as novice monks (samana or samanen) for one or two years. At the age of 20, the novice could advance to higher ordination. Parents often sponsor a child as novice, who still spends time at home, but donations from other villagers help to provide for novices' robes, alms bowls, and other needs.

The detail of the banknote on the left represents modern mass education in Thailand, with boys and girls in uniform exiting a modern school building flying the national flag. In 1921, the Compulsory Primary Education Act was proclaimed, and in 1960, compulsory schooling was extended to seven years. At that time, the government made a series of five-year plans that resulted in widespread construction of wooden village primary schools and concrete-block secondary schools. Universal public education has largely replaced temple and monastery for imparting basic literacy, but some villages still rely on the dek wat system for boys' religious training. While it is no longer the only path toward higher education, a temporary period of ordination as a Buddhist monk is still a valued rite of passage for boys before they marry and start familes. Young men who have served as monks for a few months or years are viewed as better marriage partners and more suitable candidates for village leadership positions. Young men who remain monks for a longer period of education learn traditional scripts and gain the knowledge to officiate at religious ceremonies in the village and surrounding area.

The children of various ages shown bursting through the doorway of the stone school building in Calgary, Alberta, have just been released for their summer vacation. These elementary school children photographed in 1956 represent the post-World War II baby boom generation at its height, at a time when Calgary, Alberta, was also undergoing rapid growth from an oil production boom in the province. By 1961, almost forty percent of Calgary’s population was under the age of nineteen. During that period, almost sixty schools were built to handle the influx, and raising children was a major public concern that was documented in newspapers and public health and service projects. Jack de Lorne (1930- ) is a local Calgary photographer who worked for the Calgary Herald and Albertan newspapers from 1949 to 1962, and maintained a studio thereafter. His photography, held in the Glenbow Archive, documents the rise of Calgary, Alberta, as a boom town after the discovery of oil nearby in 1947.

The photograph shows the School-on-Wheels, a project of the Doorstep School in Mumbai, or Bombay, India, which has been functioning since 1998. The School-on-Wheels is a converted bus fitted with cabinets filled with stationery supplies, books, toys, and chalkboards, decorated with curtains and children’s art, and staffed by a teacher and roving supervisor. The project serves the unmet need of children who live in the slums of Mumbai, child laborers and street children who otherwise do not have access to education. By coming to where the children live, work, or beg, such as Fashion Street and the World Trade Center, bus depots and railroad platforms, the bus brings regular educational experiences to marginalized children in hopes they will continue and enroll in a regular school. School-on-Wheels strives to impart basic literacy skills to groups of children who have no settled residence or live where there are no schools, or their parents cannot get them to school regularly. The mobility of the bus, and its ability to attract children wherever they are found, is an advantage. Lessons are not the only option for children who climb into the bus. They can play with toys, read or be read to from audiotapes, and practice basic skills in a supportive but non-formal environment with other children. In the cities of Mumbai and Pune, about 50-70 children attend at any one time. Social skills and problem solving unique to this population are among the services provided, and the bus is also the scene of basic hygiene and street safely skills sessions. On occasion, the bus takes children on field trips to museums, the zoo, to a bank, a hospital and a police station, hoping to dispel fears among children who may have had negative experiences with law enforcement, and also in order to teach students about their rights. Similar projects to reach children with insufficient access to schooling include neighborhood mobile classrooms targeting girls in the slum neighborhoods who may not be permitted to walk any distance to school. These are held on rooftops, at girls’ homes, and in temple courtyards, for example. According to the organization, it serves 8,000 children in about 100 projects related to schooling for underserved populations, with international NGO and private donor support.

The photograph shows buildings and students of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School around 1900. Attended by over 12,000 Native American children from more than 140 tribes between 1879 and 1918, the school was the model for nearly 150 Indian schools. Its founder was U.S. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, who commanded a unit of African American "Buffalo Soldiers" and Indian scouts in Oklahoma and witnessed the Bureau of Indian Affair’s irresponsible policies on reservations. In 1875, the Army placed Platt in charge of 72 Indian warriors imprisoned in Florida. Platt imposed military discipline on the prisoners, but also arranged to teach them to read.

Based on this experience, he developed a scheme to assimilate Indians by removing them from tribal influences and transforming them through education. In 1879, Pratt secured permission to use a deserted military base in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as the site of his school. Platt expressed his educational philosophy, highlighted in the accompanying quotation, in a paper read at an 1892 convention. Today, one of the few remaining landmarks of the Carlisle Indian School is the cemetery for students who died at the school and whose remains could not be returned to their families.

Howard High School, the only free high school for African Americans in Delaware until the 1950s, was built shortly after the Civil War. In this clip, interviewees describe the obstacles former students faced, such as traveling long distances each day on foot or by milk train. A man and a woman also describe their classes in practical and vocational studies. The man built an elaborately finished wooden desk and chair as a boy, and the woman recalls dressmaking classes in which the students sewed prom and graduation gowns to the teacher's exacting standards. These classes were important at a time when few avenues to college were available.

Pierre S. du Pont, President of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and General Motors in the 1920s, spearheaded modernization of the education system for African Americans in Delaware. Du Pont drew attention to the problem of inadequate education by funding school surveys, supporting reform legislation, and ultimately by donating over $6 million of his own money to build new, state-of-the-art schools. His efforts, however, could not solve the systemic problems of discrimination and segregation. To attend school after 8th grade, African American students often had to travel long distances as they were not admitted into the white schools that were close to their homes. Alumni recall, for example, that parents had to pay transportation costs for the first three months of school, after which the state paid for the rest. For parents in rural areas, this barrier was often too high. Since Howard High School was over 100 miles from communities in southern Delaware, transportation problems prevented many from attending. A few communities purchased school buses, ferrying students in the early morning hours.

The only high school for African Americans in Delaware, Howard High School's original small, five-room building, was built shortly after the Civil War. In the early 1870s, Edwina B. Kruse became the first African American principal of the school. She served until 1920, introducing a classical curriculum and cultural activities, and recruiting prominent, talented African Americans as teachers. In 1928, Pierre S. du Pont donated money to replace the original building with a large, modern school. This interview describes the significance of the school to the African American community, both locally and nationally, as well as its growth after completion of the new building. Famous African Americans, such as historian W.E.B. DuBois and singer Marian Anderson, came to this "pillar of the African American community" as guest speakers.

Pierre S. du Pont, President of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and General Motors in the 1920s, spearheaded modernization of the education system for African Americans in Delaware in a time of segregation and severe discrimination. Du Pont drew attention to the problem of inadequate education by funding school surveys, supporting reform legislation, and ultimately by donating over $6 million of his own money to build new, state-of-the-art schools. Howard High School was beautiful, spacious, and well-equipped. It housed regular classrooms and vocational training facilities, in addition to a library and an auditorium. Howard continues its legacy today as a specialized technical school for all Wilmington students.

In 1954, the Supreme Court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka. Years earlier, however, Pierre S. du Pont, President of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and General Motors in the 1920s, took bold steps to modernize the education system for African Americans. Du Pont drew attention to the problem of inadequate education by funding school surveys, supporting legislation, and ultimately by donating over $6 million to build new state-of-the-art schools. He also led efforts to gain community support for improving African American children's school access and attendance in a time of severe discrimination and segregation.

This clip discusses the impact of newly-built du Pont schools on improving the learning environment for young people in Delaware. Talented teachers provided the heart of these schools, and alumni describe the commitment and sacrifices that teachers made to ensure that their students learned. The clip also highlights ongoing obstacles placed in the way of African American education by segregation and discrimination. Two former students describe used books, supplies, and equipment. Older schoolboys, for example, had to walk to the white schools and pick up used books, which they received along with rolls of cellophane ["Scotch"] tape to repair torn pages. One student describes the used pencils—some sharpened down to a nub—that the African American schools received.