Children's health/food/exercise

[queenb]

Or, some push it too far. I had a PE teacher who decided to run us only for a half Cooper because in previous school she had two girls who run themselves to hospital condition (in full Cooper). Hard to fathom why/how they did it, but they certainly scared the teacher for good. Personally I (also) was one of the people who did better in tests than normal class.

I remember my freshman year in college, I took a physical education class (which I don't even remember the name of now) on exercise and health, and we were required to do the Cooper test at the beginning and end of the 12 weeks to document the change. There were about six young men who had been wrestling/football etc. players in high school, and they all pushed themselves so hard (both times!) on the Cooper test that they were vomiting, and one went into heat exhaustion (I think you call it). I think these guys were looking at the test as a competition that they didn't want to lose. The non- jocks among us found it pretty amusing, and the professor was just disgusted...he had warned against this, and could only say that no matter what he said, this sort of thing happened almost every time!

[Salome]

I must say, I did much better in all my classes when gummy bears were readily available to help get me through day. They removed the snack machines from my high school two years ago, and life hasn't been the same. (We also switched from selling Coke to selling Pepsi. I like Coke. The injustice!)

Seriously, I think kids aren't as healthy as they should be, but neither are adults. The movement toward improved health has to start with both groups. Adults need to set a good example by respecting their bodies as well – as hard as it is to break old habits – and I just don't see that happening.

I also object to the vilifying of certain foods and activities as contributing to America's "obesity epidemic." Everything is fine within moderation, but people have trouble understanding this concept because we all enjoy hysteria. We really don't need to take soda out of schools; we don't need to act like gaining weight is the worst thing in the world. We just need to inform our kids about what's healthy and what's not, make healthy foods/activities accessible, and encourage them to become happy human beings who enjoy life to its fullest.

As far as the issue of endorsement in schools goes... I think it's fine within reason (i.e. when it comes to food, healthy choices need to be available, too) and as long as the product placement stays outside of the classroom. Realistically, the government isn’t going to give enough money to education anytime soon, so until a better solution comes along, sponsorship does more good than evil.

[libra1022]

I'm just curious since I'm not a parent and have been out of the school systems for quite a while now....do they still do fund raising through candy sales? And if so, what good would it do to take away the machines when you have a "dealer" (of sorts) there to provide the sugar/fat fix to anyone at anytime?

I was just reading thru this and had a quite vivid memory of doing M&M and candy bar sales for my yearbook class in high school. All day long you were a wanted person if you had the bag of goodies for sale, each and every class you could find somebody selling and for a buck you'd get all the candy fix you could need.

[Salome]

I was just reading thru this and had a quite vivid memory of doing M&M and candy bar sales for my yearbook class in high school. All day long you were a wanted person if you had the bag of goodies for sale, each and every class you could find somebody selling and for a buck you'd get all the candy fix you could need.

It's still like that. There's always some kid in some organization dealing candy, and there's always someone whispering, "Psst, how much for the Skittles?" during the middle of a teacher's lecture.