Jun 04 2008
Childhood Health: How Much is the School Responsible For?
Check out this opinion piece posted this week on the New York Times website. The epidemic of childhood obesity is still getting a lot of attention.
How much should school curriculum address this issue? We already hold children accountable for knowledge and progress in math, reading, writing, science, and other academic subjects. What about the health curriculum? Physical education? What kind of progress should student grades in these classes reflect? Is changing the snacks in all those vending machines enough?
It’s old news that schools in the United States have started taking the BMI (body mass index) of their students. This of course created a new debate and discussion about whether or not schools are overstepping their bounds.
But if we already have sex education and AIDS education, why would this be such a problem? It will be interesting to see this debate continue. I hope that parents and families will be doing their part to make sure their kids get the proper nutrition, and that schools will maintain good health and P.E. programs.
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