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.

This oil on canvas painting by an unknown American folk artist was painted around 1840. It depicts two siblings at play. While their mother is absent from the picture, she presided over the "private sphere" of the home as prescribed by the ideology of "separate spheres" that defined everyday life in 19th-century America. Charged with raising boys to be citizens (and girls to be wives and mothers of citizens), it was mothers' moral duty to oversee the development of their children's "good character." As a result, sons under the age of 6 inhabited the domestic sphere along with their sisters where they were dressed in the same loose-fitting pantaloons, dresses, and petticoats.

Although both girls and boys both donned silk, satin, and velvet dresses, there were differences in their apparel and activities. Young boys were distinguishable from girls by their hairstyle (boys were more likely to wear side parts) and hats. Boys also engaged in different play activities: it was considered indecent for girls to straddle a rocking horse. Rocking on the "hobby horse" enabled boys like this youngster to practice the balancing ability he would need in order to ride a real horse as he took his place in the "public sphere." Riding the rocking horse and brandishing a whip also provided boys with the opportunity to practice the skills and sensibilities of masculinity—independence, mastery, confidence, control, courage, and dominance. The boy's placement at the center of the painting and protectively above and in front of his older sister, also prescribed his position in the Victorian gender hierarchy where he would perform manliness through initiative, competition, forcefulness, and rationality.

Compare this work with images of children in other folk art paintings. How else are girls and boys represented?

These photographs were taken on April 5, 1975 on one of the Pan Am passenger planes that airlifted Vietnamese orphans and Amerasian children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women for Operation Babylift. In the final weeks before the fall of Saigon in April 1975, President Gerald Ford authorized the operation as a gesture to repatriate children who would be American citizens if recognized by their American fathers, ultimately allocating two million dollars to airlift 2,700 orphans to the United States. Children were also airlifted to Australia, Europe, and Canada in separate efforts. Volunteers, soldiers and military nurses accompanied the children on the flights. The first flight, a cargo plane carrying 330 adults and children, crashed shortly after take-off, killing 154 passengers, including 87 of the children. President Ford himself met the first flight that landed safely and carried an infant onto U.S. soil. Accommodations also included cargo planes with rows of cradle boxes strapped to the floors, children arrayed on benches meant to transport goods or soldiers, and harried adults who made do with too little food and supplies for the trip. Some of the participants went on to adopt children from the group. Operation Babylift children, some of whom were disabled, and many of whom suffered from malnutrition, were adopted by American families. When they grew to adulthood, many of the orphans visited Vietnam and sought information about their birth parents, experienced reunions, and learned more about the land and culture of their birth. Today there are support groups both online and in person for the parents and children who shared this experience. These organizations still support individuals seeking knowledge and contact with their birth parents and siblings. The cross-cultural experience of these children both as orphans and as reminders of a foreign war can be compared with the wartime experiences of children in other places. In the case of the Amerasian children, there is significant longitudinal research material from the time of their childhood to their current adulthood, including accounts of their journey’s home, and their efforts to connect with others who share this heritage.

Interstate 5 runs from the Mexican/U.S. border crossing at San Ysidro, California, to the Peace Arch Crossing into Canada at Blaine, Washington. This official yellow warning road sign is posted along Interstate 5 near the San Ysidro crossing and north of San Diego. The sign shows a man and a woman running as the woman pulls a girl with pigtails along, her feet barely touching the ground. San Ysidro is the world's busiest land border crossing, with more than 17 million vehicles and 50 million people crossing legally in 2005. The California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, developed this warning sign after more than 100 undocumented immigrants were killed on the highway, especially near border control points. After trying a wordy and ineffective sign that read, "Caution Watch for People Crossing Road," Caltrans assigned graphic artist John Hood, a Vietnam veteran of Navaho parentage, to develop the new sign. Posted in 1990, it quickly became a cultural icon for those who tolerate and those who oppose immigration, both legal and illegal.

Migration in borderlands such as the California/Mexico crossing have attracted academic attention as a phenomenon of globalization. In 1990 and 1991, almost 3.5 million immigrants were admitted legally to the United States—a number larger than at any previous point in American history, and as of 2009, over 25 million people in the U.S. are foreign born, excluding illegal immigrants. In some urban Southern California counties, the majority of residents are immigrants, and many of these are children who require schooling, health care, and other services. Academic study of immigration tracks both the reception of immigrants among the resident population, and the interaction of the immigrants with the destination country. Of the 24 million Americans in the United States today who migrated since 1960, 40% came as children.

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.