With
the rate of childhood diabetes and heart disease increasing at an alarming
rate, public health advocates have joined the national debate on
education. Their mission is to ensure
that any reforms being considered include health and nutrition measures that
reduce childhood diabetes and heart disease.
Currently, more than 23 million youth have been diagnosed as obese or
overweight. For a large number of these
youth, their diagnosis has affected their academic performance[i].
The loss of instructional time
due to illness related to diabetes or heart disease places students’
academically and socially behind their peers.
The loss of instructional time could prevent students’ from being
promoted to the next grade or it can prevent a school from meeting federal
requirements such as Adequately Yearly Progress (AYP). The loss of instructional time also makes the
academic experience inconsistent. Each
time a student returns to school from their illness related to diabetes or
heart disease, the student has to re-adjust to the school routine, the teacher
and other students have to re-adjust to a peer who they may not have developed
a relationship and the returning student may have to go through the “new kid”
in the class experience each time the student returns.
Health advocates are equally
concerned about the affects hunger and poor nutrition have on a students’
instructional time in school and their behavior. When students come to school hungry, they may
exhibit low energy, the inability to focus, pay attention, or they may be
irritable. The same symptoms could be
seen in students who do not have a balanced breakfast. If a students’ breakfast consists of chips
and beverages with high fructose syrups (soda, juice, etc), things that have no
nutritional values, they will come to school amped up on sugar and become
tired, irritable and unable to focus when the sugar high wears off.
Unfortunately, as these
behaviors manifest themselves, most teachers are unaware these behaviors are
caused by hunger and poor nutrition. The
same behaviors can occur with diabetic students who do not monitor their blood
sugar. Instead, students are wrongly
reprimanded or suspended for their behavior.
To rectify this problem, health advocates and educators must work to
develop a national training model for teachers and administrators to recognize
the symptoms of diabetes, hunger, and poor nutrition and how student behavior
is affected.
There is a lot that can be
achieved if health advocates and educators work together for the benefit of
children. By working together students’
can be taught how to develop a healthy lifestyle, how to prevent diabetes and
heart disease, and learn how to manage their illness. Teachers can be taught how to discern
behavior that is caused by illness from behavior that is disruptive. Finally, administrators can learn how to
ensure their school provides healthy and nutritious meals, create school-wide
awareness among staff, parents, students, and partner with agencies to provide
resources to parents and students on diabetes, heart disease, hunger, and
nutrition.
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