Can schools stop obesity? Should they even try?
As an editorial writer, I met with representatives of national groups advocating dozens of good and worthy causes, from physical fitness to drug awareness to improved civics literacy.
Schools can get rid of vending machines with sugary drinks, but aren't students going home to sodas and chips?
In many cases, ground zero for the advocacy groups was the schoolhouse. Advocates felt that they needed to reach children to achieve the necessary changes/improvements.
But if all these well-meaning groups prevailed, we’d have two options: Reduce the class time for actual reading and math instruction or expand to a 12-hour school day.
I still wonder how much of what is ailing America can be addressed by schools. Is obesity one of those problems?
An AJC story today reports that the obesity epidemic is soaring among children, with 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls classified as extremely obese in a California study. (I noticed this a few weeks ago when I was looking at the Website of a Georgia nature center. The video
