“Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years [and] more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese” (Childhood Obesity). These statistics have increase too much and are to high . I believe that schools across the United States should do something to prevent childhood obesity. My opposition is that schools should not do anything to prevent childhood obesity because it is not schools responsibility to monitor what children eat and how much activity they perform in a day. As a parent you take on the responsibility to be a caregiver to your child, support them financially, and guide them to make the right choices in life. Schools are responsible for giving children
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The government can only do so much to try and persuade teachers and students to eat healthy. “… what parents need is just information about what 's in the Twinkie and how much of this can we eat” (We Just Need Common Sense). If parents had more information on what was in unhealthy food would they still serve it to their children? When children eat unhealthy food throughout the day it causes them to act up and perform poorly. “So you just imagine if you send a kid to school with a sugary breakfast and a sugary drink, and they have to learn for a few hours, and they stop maybe for 10 minutes for lunch and they haven 't had a chance to run off that energy, and then they start dropping because they are coming down from all that sugar” (We Just Need Common Sense). Children need to be able to let out there energy after eating sugary and they are not able to if they only have recess for 20 minutes. If they are limited to sugary food throughout the day they would not need to let out as much energy at …show more content…
Even though they are given these options does not mean they will end up picking the healthy choice. “School breakfasts and school lunches must meet federal nutrition standards, but competitive foods are exempt from such requirements” (The Role of Schools in Obesity Prevention). Parents still give there children money for the school day and they are other options than school lunches. Throughout the school there are vending machines and snack bars that have unhealthy sugary choices like soda and candy. A child can eat a healthy breakfast and lunch at school but still be tempted to buy soda or candy with there leftover money that there parents gave them. Children in middle school may not be worrying about there healthy right now because they are not educated on the long term effect obesity can cause. “Overweight children are also more likely to have abnormal scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (a commonly used measure of children 's behavior problems) and are twice as likely to be placed in special education and remedial classes than are children who are not overweight” (The Role of Schools in Obesity Prevention). These issues can be avoid if their parents focused more on the child. Just a simple prepared breakfast or lunch can effect their child 's overall performance throughout the day. Overall, schools should not be responsible for preventing childhood obesity.
The government can only do so much to try and persuade teachers and students to eat healthy. “… what parents need is just information about what 's in the Twinkie and how much of this can we eat” (We Just Need Common Sense). If parents had more information on what was in unhealthy food would they still serve it to their children? When children eat unhealthy food throughout the day it causes them to act up and perform poorly. “So you just imagine if you send a kid to school with a sugary breakfast and a sugary drink, and they have to learn for a few hours, and they stop maybe for 10 minutes for lunch and they haven 't had a chance to run off that energy, and then they start dropping because they are coming down from all that sugar” (We Just Need Common Sense). Children need to be able to let out there energy after eating sugary and they are not able to if they only have recess for 20 minutes. If they are limited to sugary food throughout the day they would not need to let out as much energy at …show more content…
Even though they are given these options does not mean they will end up picking the healthy choice. “School breakfasts and school lunches must meet federal nutrition standards, but competitive foods are exempt from such requirements” (The Role of Schools in Obesity Prevention). Parents still give there children money for the school day and they are other options than school lunches. Throughout the school there are vending machines and snack bars that have unhealthy sugary choices like soda and candy. A child can eat a healthy breakfast and lunch at school but still be tempted to buy soda or candy with there leftover money that there parents gave them. Children in middle school may not be worrying about there healthy right now because they are not educated on the long term effect obesity can cause. “Overweight children are also more likely to have abnormal scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (a commonly used measure of children 's behavior problems) and are twice as likely to be placed in special education and remedial classes than are children who are not overweight” (The Role of Schools in Obesity Prevention). These issues can be avoid if their parents focused more on the child. Just a simple prepared breakfast or lunch can effect their child 's overall performance throughout the day. Overall, schools should not be responsible for preventing childhood obesity.