Our palates have become so trained to enjoy this type of artificiality since childhood we can no longer appreciate the real foods themselves. While food preservation might be helpful in some instances (such as MRE) and in some limited instances such as fortifying cereals with vitamins to guard against malnutrition, numbing our palates to the extent that fast food and processed food becomes addictive has had an undeniably negative impact upon our health in the form of the fast food industry. Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Unchartered Territory" pg 136

This essay is more partisan than the others. I want you to each to lead one of the opposing viewpoints readers could express in response to Kolbert on the discussion board. I want you to ask questions about the charter school system and Kolbert's assertions about this particular group of schools. I also want you to question Kolbert's position that the charter school system is under-supervised...

The focus on these for-profit institutions is to raise student's standardized test scores, even decorating the cheerless walls of the school building is not within 'the program.' Largely non-white children are taught obedience to white teachers. However, Kolbert does concede that this type of structure is preferable to schools that are violent -- one could argue that they do serve a function, whatever their limitations. And the fault may not be with charter schools, but with this particular type of charter school, since these smaller institutions do have the ability to cater to individual needs, needs that are unlikely to be met in large, public school warehouses.