This news clip from our local paper struck a nerve with me today. I almost feel bad posting it with the name of the teacher included, but not bad enough to not post it.
We have struggled with this school district since day #1 of kindergarten. This is just one example of how.
These kids have gotten candy as rewards for the most basic of things almost every single day or week, including such difficult tasks as standing in line for the bathroom. In the second grade, "a bag of candy to be used as rewards" was actually listed on the items the school requested parents bring, kind of the like the requisite box of Kleenex we all had to bring to school as kids.
Once as a parent volunteer in a classroom, I actually heard the following interchange:
teacher: why did you push him?
student: because I already have some candy in my pocket.
So, anyway- here we have a teacher "rewarding" her class for perfect attendance FOR ONE WEEK with a big fat laden sugar glazed donut.
Doesn't it seem like helping kids learn how to live a healthy lifestyle, eat good foods, and get plenty of exercise and sleep would go a bit farther in improving attendance rates?
I have to admit, I was secretly hoping that today's paper would run a story on the childhood obesity epidemic so I could post them side by side. Wouldn't that be ironic?
I have considered uploading this picture to my blog a few times asking if anyone thought childhood obesity was related to foods like this:
Maybe if my nine year old finishes his homework tonight his teacher can serve these as a reward?
3 comments:
Hi there -- just popping over from Girls Gone Child.
Please tell me that photo is a joke. (The sausage and chocolate chip pancake on a stick.) The sick thing is with the kind of crap they try to market to our kids, I'm can't tell for sure!
not a joke! my husband and I saw it in the freezer section of our grocery store!
Oh my God, that is horrifying.
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