Half of Teachers Report Hunger Is a Serious Problem in Their Classrooms http://news.yahoo.com/half-teachers-report-hunger-serious-problem-classrooms-231833587.html Teachers spend $37 a month of their own money buying food for hungry students. âChild hunger is a serious problem that negatively affected my students' self-esteem, ability to learn, and behavior,â Princess Moss, an elementary school teacher from Virginia and National Education Association Executive Committee member, says. âI would always keep snacks in my class for students that were hungry and who were having trouble concentrating during instructional time.â It turns out the only meal he ate every day was his free lunch at school. His family couldnât afford breakfast or dinner. A new report, Hunger In Our Schools: Teachers Report 2013, by Share Our Strengthâs No Kid Hungry campaign was released on Tuesday showing an âon-the-ground view of hungerâ from 1,200 teachers and principals of kindergarten through eighth grade. And the picture isnât pretty. Half of teachers surveyed reported that hunger is a serious problem in their classrooms. Another 73 percent said that they see students who regularly come to school hungry because there isnât enough food at home. Eighty-seven percent of principals said that every week they see hungry students and many spend about $60 a month on food for them, even more than the teachers. ... In Washington, D.C., Wach said, some teachers reported that students focus only on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thatâs because on Monday they have gone all weekend without much food. By Thursday, they were becoming anxious again about a weekend of hunger. (more at above url) I can vouch that this aligns with the experience of educators in my family. This also brings up the question of what is wrong with the new Federal lunch standards promoted by Michelle Obama... according to educators the new lunches are not adequate for the children. Earlier federal school lunch standards were focused on balanced nutrition across the basic food groups. The new federal lunch standards are focused on limiting calories, eliminating carbs (bread, etc.), eating vegetables, and minimizing meat/fat in the diet. The result - students are hungry and not paying attention.
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Bullshit. All of us remember eating God-knows-what in the school cafeteria. How many fat kids did we have in class? One? Two? Hell, I can remember their faces. Everyone else was in shape because we had activities to burn it all off - sports, etc. The key to solving child obesity is to get their asses out of the house and unplug them. Get the government the hell out of the issue (as usual).
But they might get hurt on the playground. Much better for government to want them kept inside, bitch about child obesity, and then restrict what food they eat. Indoctrination must start young to achieve success.
Back when I was in public K-12 school. All kids were required to take gym (now phys ed) every single year. Now Phys Ed is only required for one year in high school and optional beyond that. Many elementary schools do not even have playground break anymore. Due to the education requirements of federal government the teachers are forced to spend every classroom hour "teaching to the test" and the kids only break for lunch in the cafeteria.
Sounds like an exageration but its not, i grew up in the generation where these things were stolen from us right in front of our eyes, we used to play hockey at lunch time, but then one kid gets hurt at some school so they ban playing hockey on skates without wearing all your equipment, well no one was going to bring their bag full of equipment to the school, so we just started playing shinny (hockey without skates) then they banned that without bringing all your equipment, and they banned us from being on the rink altogether during school hours. So then we started playing mini sticks, hockey with really small sticks you play on your knees, and some kid at some school lost an eye so they took that away, we were only allowed to play baseball with a plastic bat and a wiffle ball which is useless cause no one can control a wiffle ball, and the school eventually bull dozed the playground too because it became a liability issue. We used to take our skates to school so we could play hockey after school, then the schools said we had to walk home, then walk back to the school in order to play because technically we were still the school's liability until we got home, they eventually just bulldozed the hockey rink. They took away basically every game we could play for fun at recess or lunch or after school, and then wonder why kids are getting fat.
In HS I probably ate 3000+ calories a day and weighed 135 lbs. My Dad said I had a hollow leg. 3 servings at dinner were normal. 650 calories x 3=1950, not exactly a high calorie diet, especially for an active kid doing sports.
Back in my school days, we played Dodge Ball at recess and in gym. Now it is banned at schools. My favorite part back then was smacking the ball into fat kids who now work for the government creating rules banning sports activities at schools.