Recently, The Associated Press reported that Pennsylvania parents of overweight children were receiving letters at home encouraging them to change their child's diet and exercise regime.
The thought behind this was that proper warning might help parents prevent the development of diabetes and high blood pressure, both effects of being overweight.
The letters were drafted by various health educators and school nurses in order to prevent any statements from being made which might be taken personally or with offense.
The letters are fairly neutral with sentences similar to the following: "to assist in appraising, protecting and promoting the health status of your child. It is intended to encourage good nutritional habits and healthy physical activity."
Since school nurses notify parents when their students suffer from ailments like chicken pox, East Penn administrators reason that they should also inform parents if their child is at risk for diseases due to his or her obesity.
"When an examination reveals a child has vision problems, hearing problems, we inform the family. We weren't doing anything for weight,'' George Ziolkowski, director of pupil personnel services for the 6,800-student East Penn district told the AP.
Pennsylvania is not the only state to be making use of these letters. In fact, school districts in Florida have also adopted this warning program.
In addition, with the increase in overweight children, it is likely that other states in the union might consider this option as well. But one question remains — is this enough?
While I agree that these letters have some merit in them, I am not sure that it is only the parents that need warnings to make certain changes. I believe that school districts as well need to consider making significant changes in order to help their students maintain a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle.
Currently, many school districts in the nations offer limited physical education for their students. Some students only attend PE for one hour, once a week — and in many instances this class is taught by someone who is not necessarily the physical role model students should be looking up to.
The situation gets infinitely worse when we examine what types of foods students are eating in school cafeterias. Many schools, particularly middle and high schools, have adopted the fast food lunch. Meals are served with French fries or potato chips. Some schools even have agreements with food chains such as Taco Bell to serve various items like tacos or nachos.
Is it no wonder then that students who exercise once a week and eat junk food sponsored by the school district are overweight?
School districts would like to point the finger at parents for the types of health habits they promote at home — but such a subtle accusation is hypocritical. Students spend most of their day at school and very few waking hours in the presence of their family.
Accordingly, doesn't it make sense that the best place to encourage healthy habits is where the student spends the most time?
If the problem of overweight children is going to be tackled, it needs to be done in the right way.
School districts need to face their own responsibility in the matter and need to make significant changes. There not only needs to be more required PE time, but school districts also need to stop making deals with fast food chains.
If children are going to learn to eat healthy and to enjoy the benefits of exercise, they are more than likely to learn it in school than from a one page letter telling them to do this.
Pennsylvania's idea to adopt the warning letter program in their school system is noble, but they also need to make sure that they send it to themselves.
Karen Engler is a graduate student studying literature. Reach her at
Karen.Engler@asu.edu.
