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[1] Critics on US Public Education

Right from start, the new documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman,'" has a point of view - and doesn't hold back.

"You wake up every morning and you know kids are getting a really crappy education right now," said DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

“So you think most kids are getting a crappy education right now?”

"I don't think they are. I know they are."

It is a harsh and unflattering look at the state of public education in America. It follows five schoolchildren - desperate to go to better schools. But with limited openings, their futures depend on luck.

“For these kids, the only chance to go to a great school depends on whether their number is picked in a lottery.”

It could be the most talked-about documentary since "An Inconvenient Truth," perhaps because they share the same director, Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim.

"Experts will say the movie is pro- this, or anti- this but parents who see the movie will say, ‘I just want a great school for my kid’," Guggenheim said.

He told Katie Couric he hopes his film will provoke action.

"That's what this movie is - a wake-up call," Guggenheim said. "It's not working for every kid."

Guggenheim features Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone, who's shown it's possible to create great schools even in poor neighborhoods. This week, the Department of Education announced grants to replicate his success in twenty more cities.

" We can actually fix this," Canada said.

But critics of the movie, like Bronx principal Barbara Freeman, say it unfairly targets public schools, their teachers and unions.

"I thought it was a little slanted, because I think there are a lot of great public schools with great teachers, great administrators and great families," Freeman said.

None of the educators we spoke with today thought that the status quo was working. They agreed on what's at stake - helping kids to realize their dreams.

Michelle Miller, CBS News, New York.

[2] From Homeless to Harvard

Everyone has baggage, but Lalita Booth's is heavier than most. CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports Booth can laugh now, but as a young teen she nearly destroyed her life.

Raised in Ashville, N.C., the rebellious teen says her problems all began when her parents divorced and she was sexually abused by a family acquaintance.

"That led to substance abuse, staying out all night long, and running away," Booth said.

By the time she was 18, she'd been legally emancipated from her parents, married, and had a baby.

"When my ex joined the Army, I was responsible for taking care of myself with only a GED and no relevant job skills," Booth said.

Penniless and living out of a car, she gave up her son Kieren to his father's parents.

"I would cry myself to sleep because I missed him so much," Booth said.

That's when she grew up. She enrolled in a community college, then transferred to a four-year university. An honors student, Booth's inspiring story captured headlines.

By then, she learned to really dream big and another door opened. Booth was accepted to one of the most elite and the oldest of the Ivy Leagues: Harvard University. The

29-year-old Booth is earning a Master's degree in business and public policy.

"It's an amazing feeling," Booth said. She financed her education through 20 scholarships totaling more than half a million dollars. Now she spends her time on Capitol Hill, where she lobbies her aid for single mothers.

Lalita is remarried and has her son back. She'll tell you, whatever baggage she once carried seems a lot lighter now.

[3] How to Deal with Over-parenting

Madeline Levine: You know, parents were never that involved in their children’s lives. They were busy making a living or doing other things. Now the family has become

child-centric and so everything is really devoted to the cultivating and the care and feeding of the children in the family, with the result that, I think, there's a fair amount of

over-parenting.

I began noticing that things really were quite different probably about a decade ago. I’ve been a clinical psychologist now for about 28 years and historically, like sort of knowing a child who's depressed, that was a pretty easy diagnosis. Were they tired? Were they not interested in things? Were they giving stuff away? Were they teary? And I started having kids who looked very different than that.

So in a book called the Price For Privilege that I wrote about six years ago, it opens with a young lady who comes in, looks great for all the world - you know, "Hello Dr. Levine. It’s a pleasure to meet you." I mean, I’ve been practicing long enough to know it’s never a pleasure to meet a shrink when you’re 16. But after all the niceties, you know, she

rolls up her arm - her sleeve, and she shows me she’s taken a razor and cut the word “empty” into her arm. And she sort of became iconic for me. She was the kid who looks good and doesn’t really have much of a sense of self, feels empty.

And so I got interested. I started talking to other mental health professionals. They were kind of seeing the same thing with this upswing in parenting that was extremely involved and intensive. And it's like, well, how come these kids are doing poorly because, historically, parental involvement’s a protective factor. We want parents to be involved. But we don't want them to be over involved because when they're over involved, like this girl, stuff isn't being developed internally. It’s coming from the outside. “You’re doing so well, you’re so smart, you’re a genius.” You know, this kind of stuff. And it doesn’t allow a space in which kids can start crafting a sense of who they are internally. And that’s the protection against feelings of emptiness.

What I define over-parenting as is when you do what your child can already do. So if your child already knows how to write, don’t hover over their work because all you do is get in the way of them feeling competent and confident, which leads to self-esteem.

The second part of over-parenting is doing what your children can almost do. Like, don’t do that. Let them have the opportunity to try in the same way that we allow a toddler to take a few steps and fall down, and take a few steps and fall down. And we don’t yell at that ***** and we don’t say, “You’re going to be flipping burgers for the rest of your life or folding shirts at Forever 21.” We sort of get that the toddler has to fall and fall in order to master the art of walking. And it's the same thing all throughout development but we’re very quick; we feel the stakes are higher when kids are older. We argue about the B+ with

the teacher; maybe it should’ve been an A-. It’s a bad idea. So don’t do what your child can almost do because that’s the arena in which they actually grow.

The most toxic part of over-parenting, I think, is when we confuse our own needs with our children’s needs. And that’s the “we’re going to Harvard.” I had a dad and the kid in my office, and they're sitting together. The kid’s a really bright kid; he's going to go to some, you know, prestigious college and the father’s sitting very, very quietly until the kid gets to “I’d like to go to Harvard,” at which point the dad jumps up and says, “There's a school I would give my left testicle to get my son in to.” And aside from the fact that it’s bad form, actually, it’s the wrong thing to do because it’s not about the kid. And so the kid's got a million things he’s got to worry about; his grades and his girlfriend and his body and where he’s going to school and what he wants to be and what his values - and he doesn’t have to worry about dad’s gonads. I mean, that’s just taking him off track. And I think that’s the most toxic part of over-parenting.

But those are the three things: doing what your kid can do, can almost do, and not being able to tell the difference between your needs and your child’s.

[4] The Case against Over-parenting

We're looking at over-parenting. Of course, we want our kids to be well-rounded, but there's a growing backlash against over-scheduling them. In fact, https://www.360docs.net/doc/7511375658.html, addresses the controversy in an article by Nancy Gibbs, who is Time's editor at large, here with contributing psychologist Dr. Gail Saltz. Good to see both of you.

>> Good morning.

>> Good to be here.

>> Nancy, in this article, you said this has been building. But with the economic downturn, it's come to a head. How so?

>> Well, you know, parenting is always a pendulum. So maybe we were due after 20 years of excess to have a great big swoop? I think already teachers have been warning parents this is harmful for kids. Researchers were saying things we thought were good for kids -- like maybe the Baby Einstein tapes weren't. But then the recession hits and we're all downshifting and downsizing and a third of parents said they were dropping extracurricular activities for kids, and the twist is a lot of them liked it, like it felt like simplifying their family life restored some balance to it, and maybe that was something that was overdue.

>> There's more lessons, in the case of less is more, Gail?

>> I definitely think so for two reasons. One, kids need play, free, creative time to be thinkers, to learn how to solve problems for themselves. And if you've constantly scheduled them up. That's not really possible. The other thing is that I think parents are starting to realize that when you look out, how do you build the most important thing in a child, which is resilience?

>> Right.

>> If you don't ever let them fall down, if they never get to make a mistake, if they never experience a bump in the road, how are they expected to build coping skills or resilience?

>> Or they don't get to take responsibility for it.

>> Exactly.

>> And even if you're doing so much for them, they can't show that creativity or that resourcefulness.

>> Problem-solving, exactly.

>> So, how do you let go, though? I mean, as parents, I mean, I think our parents were very good at letting go. The old, you know, go outside; I want to see you until the street lights come on.

>> I think one thing for parents to know is letting go of your kids is not the same thing as letting them down. That sometimes the best thing you can do for them is leave them alone. This is so against the message, I think, that our generation of parents has received. We've been taught that parenting is sort of a form of product development and that we have to shape and mold our children in order to compete in this global economy. The idea that actually, the best thing we can do for them sometimes is just to back off takes a certain kind of parental discipline, because we always want to be in there smoothing the way, protecting them from disappointment and failure. And I think this is why this conversation is so important, is to realize that there's a price that they pay for our over-protectiveness.

>> Gail, when do we realize as a parent, what are the warning signs that we're too overprotective?

>> I think if you look around and see that, first of all, your child has constantly got some planned something going on, so they're not having that free time. If you look around and say, actually, my child has never made a mistake, has never really failed, nothing really major, you know, or even moderately happened. And i think that if your child seems anxious whenever you're not around organizing whatever's going on, and if you say, why don't you go ahead and take care of "x," and your child seems really uncomfortable and anxious about that, it means they haven't had any practice and that you really need to let them have that.

>> I remember my daughter finally saying, "Daddy, I don't have any relaxing time." and I thought, you know what, maybe I should be listening to my kid.

>> Right, absolutely. I remember actually making the mistake when I was younger that my parents didn't bail me out, and I remember coming back to them later and saying thank you for letting me make my own mistake.

>> Wow.

>> Because it was really -- I realized it was pivotal. It is -- when you become an independent person you have to be able to look back and say, well, I got through that. and if you don't have any of those, then how are you supposed to do that, when the bigger, real things-- and they will come along, because life can't be controlled.

>> Nancy Gibbs, Dr. Gail Saltz, thank you so much. interesting things. We've got to think about this.

>>> coming up next, Chelsea Clinton

[5] animal cruelty on cows

Now something to think about the next time we all open the fridge and see the milk we all love or one of those ads about the happy cows. Brian Ross is back with us again. He has hidden camera footage. I warn some of it was graphic of what may be behind we all see.

The marketing campaign for milk has been masterful. Celebrities with white moustaches.

"Hi."

"Hi. How are you doing."

"I love it here.'"

An animated cow talking about beautiful surroundings that make them so happy.

"Happy cows come from California."

But the reality is no where near what's happy.

According to animal rights groups, which has gone undercover to record what they say they found across the country, unhealthy cows in filthy conditions, often subject to inhumane abuse.

"These animals are really treated as milk producing machines."

The Dairy Association says no good farmer can tolerate mistreatment of animals.

"The humane treatment of cows, keeping cows as comfortable as possible, definitely has an impact on milk quality."

At the heart of the problem, according to animal rights groups, are the huge operations they call factory farms such as this one in upstate New York.

For maximum efficiency some 5000 cows here are never allowed outside but spend every day of their life inside giant, manure-filled barns, kept perpetually pregnant so they keep producing milk.

Big farm operators say such large-scale operations are necessary so they can afford latest machines and the staff to get the most out of the cows with the highest quality and the lowest price.

"They call you a factory farm. Not really care about animals."

"I think they can be farther from the truth. Well, our animals are critically important to our well-being. So we work hard to treat them well. "

What's most shocking in the news in the common industry practice, what's called tail docking. The end of cow's tail cut off, so it won't interfere with milking machines, done here without painkillers, which we won't show in its entirety.

"Cows look like in pain when the tail is cut off."

"But (cows) may appear that way. "

"But it is not."

"I guess I can't speak for the cow. "

And even the industry says it is the outrageous practice without painkillers. Californians ban the practice last year. A similar bill introduced this month in the New York legislature. Just the question got milk is now becoming, Diane, how did you get that milk.

[6] Sex-altered fish

The fish are biting on Lake Pepin this fall, good news for Minnesota fishing guide Loren Waalkens.

"We are not going to call it a big one, but just a small one."

A small-mouth bass to be exact, and along with their large-mouth cousins, are big business fish. It's hooked anglers at tournaments as hyped as the Super Bowl.

And it is also a fish of special value to researchers who suspect it may tell us something alarming about our water.

...which brings us to Columbia, Missouri and these ponds? Here the U.S. Geological Survey is investigating why so many males in the pond show female characteristics.

“Because it’s a male, you are seeing sperm here. But oddly you are also seeing very small undeveloped eggs. ”said the biologist, Diana Papoulias.

“And that’s abnormality.”

“We do not expect to see eggs in a male.”

Abnormal, but increasingly common. In the upper Mississippi River where Loren Waalkens fishes. More than 70 percent of male small mouth bass had female ***. In South Carolina’s Pee Dee River, the ratio was even higher, nine out of the ten. And at one section of Potomac River near Washington, every small mouth bass has the same condition.

In fact, a recent USGS study found the phenomenon in virtually every watershed in the country.

The suspicion is that hormone-disrupting chemicals in the water -pesticides, pharmaceuticals including birth control pills, may be prompting the feminization of the fish.

And that matters because in controlled experiments which duplicated the chemicals found in U.S. rivers, entire populations of fish simply collapsed, unable to spawn.

What’s more, tens of millions of Americans get their drinking water from the rivers. An estimated 18 million from the Mississippi River alone. “Make me wonder what else could be affected here. ”

Waalkens wonders if his beloved bass could be the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

"Are there other species and other types of animals that this may be occurring in? You know, there's a lot of unanswered questions."

Those questions' answers may lie somewhere beneath the surface of the water we drink.

[7] Alert dogs

Finally tonight we all know dogs can be trained to do amazing things, but

playing doctor? NBC's Jill Rappaport with a story of medical alert dogs and how they are saving lives.

Reporter: KK and her dog JJ are inseparable, but JJ is more than just a pet. [ barking ]“good girl.”

She's trained to be an alert and protect KK. The 7-year-old has a rare disease called mastocytosis which causes dizziness, drop in blood pressure and a myriad of other symptoms that mimic a severe allergic reaction.

When KK starts to have a reaction JJ smells the chemical reaction and will alert us.

>>Reporter: JJ never leaves her side, even at school.

>>We have one extra person, one extra thing looking after KK and her senses are well beyond what we are capable of.

>>Reporter: medical alert or service dogs are used to detect everything from cancer to diabetes, like with KK’s friend Diane.

>>She lets me know by touching my leg with her nose if my blood sugar is too low or is getting the too high. You have animals that can sense things from so far away that we have no idea they are going on.

>>Reporter: the canine sense goes far beyond a human's reach. This fur angel saved your life.

>>Absolutely. I had a seizure.

>>Reporter: Curtis and his partner Jim were home when one of their rescue dogs alerted Jim that something was wrong.

>>She grabbed my pant leg, ripped my pants, pulled me out of the chair. i get back to the bedroom. She's up on the bed guarding him. He's having a seizure.

>>I never had a seizure in my life, had never any warning signs.

>>Reporter: Curtis was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's now in remission and says Isabelle is still watching out for him.

>>She's a good watch dog, untrained but obviously meant to be in our lives.

>>Reporter: true companions on alert, saving lives across the country.

He truly is KK's guardian angel. She knows her job.

[8] Things are picking up for red squirrels

They are on a climb although they don't know it. April and Alpha, a part of the red squirrel comeback. They are the stars of the captive breeding program in Pensthrope in Norfolk. Their off springs have been reintroduced to the wild, after years when the reds' population has been decimated by the presence of the greys.

"Problems for the red squirrels have been (that) the greys are larger, more aggressive, produce larger litters, most importantly of all, they carry deadly disease."

Grey squirrels are introduced here from America in 1870s are immune to the pox virus they carry. But for the last 140 years the disease has led to red squirrels' near extinction in Britain.

But now conservation and volunteer projects are start culling of the greys. It seems the population rises for the first time in more than a century. There are still only 140,000 compared to 3 million grey squirrels. The signs are (that) the Britain's native red is fighting back.

"The grey squirrels are pest species. You know, they cause untold damages to woodlands. And a lot of people will say, well, reds used to be pest species. But, you know, being indigenous and evolving with the native land, they stay in balance. "

Well, once it was a common sight in the wild. The red squirrels have become a rarity. Things, though, are picking up now for the British icon. Nina Nannar, ITV News in Pensthrope in Norfolk.

[9] School menu gets a makeover

When was the last time you heard this in a lunchroom?

“I love broccoli”, “lettuce, tomatoes”, “I like salad dish”, “carrots, and deserts”

These students are saying "yes" to healthy foods, and "no" to junk food, thanks to Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, founders of Revolution Foods.

"We are just so motivated by the idea of creating a healthier generation," Tobey said.

They are revolutionizing the school cafeterias. Unlike old school lunchrooms, Revolution Foods won't serve anything with high-fructose corn syrup or trans-fat. Meats and dairy are antibiotic and hormone free. They prefer local, organic ingredients. Nothing is ever fried but it's always tasty, they promise.

"We knew students if they were given a choice of a healthy meal that actually tasted really good and looked really good and was approachable to them," Richmond said. "We knew they would eat it."

Five years ago, the Berkely Business School grads were preparing 200 meals a day for one school. Now they're running a company that serves almost 60,000 fresh and healthy meals to mostly low-income students in 350 schools and programs from California to Washington DC.

Though it can cost as much a dollar more for these healthier meals, schools say (the added benefit is worth the added cost).

“You will feel the energy that gives you after you eat”

Their recipe for success: classic dishes with a healthy twist: chicken teriyaki is served over brown rice. Spaghetti and meatballs is made with less sugar in the sauce.“This is better than most cafeteria food like that

and students get a say in the menu.

“If they don’t like it they will say”

“Oh they tell us. Very vocal. I mean students do not hold back in terms of their opinion.”

They're letting them know old eating habits are changing, one healthy bite at a time.

Bill Whitaker CBS News.

[10] sweetened milk banned in schools

Finally here tonight, it's one of the great things about being an adult in America, you can have chocolate milk pretty much any time you want. The problem is that kids often also want it. And while a lot of parents say they'd rather have them drinking milk than given the alternative, school kids in LA are about to see their alternative start to dwindle.

Our report tonight from NBC's Tom Llamas in Los Angeles. When kids drink milk in the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials say they choose the sweet

stuff----chocolate and strawberry flavored--more than 70 percent of the time. In two weeks, that percentage will drop to zero.

We would not procure or sell milk that had added sugar. On Tuesday, Los Angeles School Board members voted to ban flavored milk from their menus, part of a push to make school food healthier. I think ultimately it's the habit we're creating with our children. They drink chocolate milk every single day. That's not healthy.

Diana Star feels chocolate milk should be a treat taken in moderation, a concept she thinks kids like her son Tommy are too young to understand.