In the May Issue of Ed Dealer, school supply vendors discuss the importance of teaching nutrition in schools. While they agree that the demand is up for information about healthy eating, finding time to teach it is another matter. Here are their responses to our question, “What is the biggest obstacle to teaching nutrition in schools today?
Angela Russ, Abridge Club Entertainment: Time. With all of the expectations that teachers have to meet standards, there just isn’t enough of it. In our district we get one week dedicated to nutrition, and even that week has to be divvied up accordingly. Educators have to work closely with parents to make changes. They can’t make miracles happen in a one-week unit.
Daniel Lauve, Harcourt School Supply: Time is the main obstacle to nutrition education. Health is one of the most important school subjects, but the attention paid to core subjects has left little time for nutrition education.
Lisa Fleming, Carson-Dellosa: The biggest obstacle for teachers is time. Good nutrition does not get a lot of instructional time. Schools have also had to make financial choices about the lunches they serve, and many have cut down the amount of time children and teachers have to eat their lunch. This is not a good modeling for students.
Elaine Murphy, Kimbo Educational: There is so much mandated information to try to impart to children today that teachers face the huge obstacle of not enough time. Songs about nutrition can be played during cleanup and circle time, which can help reinforce the lessons without throwing off the schedule.
There are other obstacles to overcome: the availability of so much fast food, poor habits learned at home, and the time constraints of families always on the go.
Heidi Bultman, Learning Resources: There are several big obstacles when it comes to teaching food nutrition. One is that many children are accustomed to eating fast food because that has become their routine or because that is what they ask for. The second obstacle is that teachers have so much to cover in class; it can be hard to find time to teach nutrition. Third, many teachers are confused on what to teach or just don’t know how to teach nutrition.
Amy LasCola, Teacher Created Resources: The biggest obstacle to nutrition education in schools today is finding the time to teach it. Although National Science Education standards do include Personal Health as one of the strands in their Content Standards (under the title “Science in Personal and Social Perspectives”), the fact is that science is still a stepchild to reading, language, and math skills, especially in the lower elementary grades. What we’ve done, as a publisher, is to integrate information on nutrition into products that focus on nonfiction reading and writing, critical thinking, and problem solving. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and as more educators look for methods of teaching nutrition information, publishers will provide more resources to help them.
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