Connecticut Senate Votes to Ban Soda Sales in the State's Schools

Now here's an idea for you. Connecticut Senate Votes to Ban Soda Sales in the State's Schools - New York Times. In an effort to address the issue of childhood obesity the Connecticut Senate bans soda sales in schools and provides more money for healthy school lunch programs. What is wrong with this picture? Plenty!

For starters, one of the causes of childhood obesity is not the food children eat, rather, it is the fact that kids get too little exercise--too little time to play. We are far too busy drilling isolated reading, writing, and math facts into kids heads to let them go out for recess. In Chicago, for example, most schools provide children with only one hour per week of physical education and no recess. Children are kept indoors all day long, held captive by the adult population in the school. They are not allowed to be children. This sad state of affairs is, at least in part a direct product of No Child Left Behind.

Additionally, anyone who has ever spent time in a school lunchroom knows that healthy food is, more often than not, wasted. What kids crave is pizza, hamburgers, fries, and hot dogs. Apples, oranges, and bananas go to waste. Will kids eat a healthy diet when they have been so conditioned as to think that McDonald's and Burger King provide healthy meals?

The Connecticut Senate's action points to one of the significant problems in American education--political meddling.

Zoundry

Amazon.com

Technorati : NCLB, culture, curriculum, education, politics, power, snacks