jenna tynan's blog

Allright so here's a shocker.  Private schools actually spend less money per pupil than public schools and are more efficient.  Since I went to public school in high school (even though it really should have been a private school the way it was run), I sort of have a distorted view of private schools.  I see these ritzy schools with marble floors where kids are picked up and dropped off in bentlies.  Well, that's not the case.  Most private schools are very modest and about 76% of private schools have some religous affiliation.  Read More »

Allright, so again, I actually came across something pretty interesting in what I read for a class.  It talks about how infants become attached to their primary caregiver who is still predominantly their mother.

Here's the background: Sigmund Freud (our favorite psychologist) came up with a primary drive theory stating that the primary drive for attachment was food.  Kids, became attached to their mother's because she was their source of food and that's pretty much it.  Pretty harsh don't you think?  Don't you think humans are a little more civilized and we link a little more than food to attachment.  Read More »

So, as a college student, I guess I'm trying to take a little more responsibility for my health than I did in high school.  So, when I come across some of these alarming statistics about America's children, I think: what is going on?

So according to very optomistic estimates, 25% of America's children are obese, and the definition of obesity varies, but this estimate defined it as 20% normal body weight.  Also, a majority of kids are actually overweight and of those 25% of obese children, 80% are likely to become obese adults.  So what is causing the supersizing of America.  Read More »

Okay, so some people I know, who will remain unnamed, have the opinion that boys are biologically better at sports than girls.  They support this claim that boys jump higher, run faster, and throw harder, yada, yada, yada.  I'm here to say stop gender typing and give us girls a chance.

Now, I'm not particularly gifted in the sports arena myself but, studies have shown that society exaggerates minimal biological differences.  Allright, so boys have a little more naturally-determined muscle in girls and might have a higher level of testosterone and androgens that might improve their performance, but I have some interesting news for you.  Read More »

So I have a little story to tell about something that is very profound to me.  There's this really sweet guy I work with and he told me about his first jail experience that was completely undeserved. 

He worked at a restaurant as a host and his fellow coworker was well... a psychopath.  There were numerous customer complaints about this man and finally, one day something was done about it.  The police came into the restaurant and arrested the person who they thought was this psychopath, but who was actually my innocent coworker.  He had to spend a night in jail while the real crazy guy who had a record in over ten states was running around free.  Read More »

Yeah, so I've discovered in college that you definitely have more freedom than in high school, especially when considering home circumstances.  One thing in particular, eating.  Now, I'm suppose to be pretty regular with my eating because as I said in an earlier blog, I have IBS and eating in a regular fashion sort of lessens the severity.  Well, I discovered there's another real incentive of eating regularly, not losing your mind.  Read More »

Allright, now I know that this is something that you really don't talk about in pleasant company, but it's something that I think all young people(especially over-achievers because its more prevalent in them) should know.  So, a little after my 18th birthday, I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.  It can also be called spastic colon or irritable colon and its symptoms are what its name implies.  Read More »

So now or days, we've all probably read some wacky science thing in a journal or for a specific class well here's just another example.  There's this certain part of our brain that is called the amygdala and it is the control center for fight or flight reactions.  Well studies have shown that the activation of the amygdala-accumbens, the locus ceruleus and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis can actually lead to health conditions that lead to an earlier death.  Read More »