So, as about any adult in America knows – about 99% of children state that they hate school at some point in their lives.
As someone who payed attention to the people around me and the goings on, I can comfortably state that about the same percentage can be applied to adults simply stating “but, education is important.”
Yes. Yes, it is important.
So, as an adult that agrees that education is important, allow me to share some facts (and a video) with you.
My school started it’s days at 8 am. The main way to get there was by bus. If you lived in the city, you would get picked up around 6-7 am. If you lived outside of the city, you might have to get up at 4 am.
School times haven’t changed, and some schools may start before 8. Most kids don’t eat a proper breakfast. They might get a cereal bar or, more likely, some poptarts. Lunch is around 10-11 am. Recess generally is after lunch. After, recess, teachers expect children to sit down/be quiet/pay attention. The amount of stress on teachers is increasing, thus the amount of homework is increasing, yet the children don’t seem to be learning and more importantly, retaining, as much as they used to.
The education system isn’t working anymore, and I have a pretty good idea why.
First, let us visit our memories of health class. Let us start with nutrition. What’s the one thing you remember? The food pyramid, right? Just sit and remember if for a moment. (Yes, it’s been changed but,really, it just seems more confusing now.)
Got it? Good.
Now, let’s think about what lunch was/is like.
I don’t know about you, but the standard lunch at my school was a chicken patty sandwhich with mashed potatoes and corn.
Sure, at first it might sound healthy. You’ve got meat, bread,two servings of veggies and a cup of milk. (fun fact: the boxed milk says ‘half a pint’ XD)
Now days, food health awareness is going up. I’m lucky to be able to say that in middleschool and upwards, I had a salad bar in my lunchroom. But so many schools just don’t.
You think- oh that’s good, food awareness is going up, schools are more aware of what they’re feeding children. Well…yes…and no.
Some school are making great changes. My school had it’s salad bar and posters up about how you should have a colorful diet-yet the generic lunch was still chicken patty sandwiches, mashed potatoes, and corn. The chicken patty is yellow, the bread is white, the corn is yellow, and the mashed potatoes are white. There is no color, and therefore no real balance.
I’m going to leave this here, so that you can see how bad some of our schools have gotten:
You might notice a link that has been added to the post, feel free to click that at the end of this article, it will really change your view on things.
Now, back to health class. What else are they teaching us? How about – breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now, i want to get a little more in detail because people seem to be losing their grip on what this means and why. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because after at least 8 hours of your body -and therefore metabolism- slowing down so that you may rest peacefully during the night, it jump starts your metabolism and therefore energy producing and burning process.
This is why it’s called breakfast to begin with. It breaks the fast.
What it also does is determine how the rest of your day is going to go. therefore, we should all actually be eating scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice for breakfast.
(Those of you on a low calorie breakfast plan need to stop really, because the better breakfast you have the more energy you have for the rest of the day and the harder your body will be burning calories to keep up with your daily activities. So eat a big recommended breaskfast and skip the fastfood salad for lunch. That ‘healthy’ option’s got almost the same amount of calories as a burger anyways. Instead try a salad made with spinach, avacado, tomato, onion, and some home grilled chicken with your own personal set of spices? Or learning how to make egg fried rice with a handfull of chopped scallions and broccoli?)
Got all that? Cool.
Remember what I said kids are eating for breakfast? When adults hear about this, or see the effects on the children (low ability to pay attention) they say “you need to eat a better breakfast.”
No shit! But do you think kids are taught to cook breakfast -or at all- and do you think they would have enough time to get up,get dressed while being groggy, make themselves scrambled eggs and toast, eat it, and still make it to the bus stop? No, they don’t. (what about the adults? They’re probably getting ready for work.)
Let us run through a normal school day, then, shall we?
You are outside the city, you have to get up at 4 am in order to be dressed and be ready at the bus stop. You get dressed, while being half asleep because you stayed up last night studying for a two tests after doing homework and helping your mom with laundry. You brush your hair, apply deodorant, feed the dog, pack your gym clothes, check to make sure you have your books and homework, grab your breakfast of poptarts and orange juice, put on your coat and shoes and head out the door to the car so that you can get to the bus stop on time.
You’re not allowed to eat on the bus, and you happen to be one of those kids who can’t sleep on long bumpy rides full of people chattering. You put in earbuds and stare out the window or play your handheld game. All the while, you think more and more about how you just want to be at school already so you can eat your meager, unhealthy, and totally nothing but sugar breakfast.
After a long ass bus ride, you finally get there. Class starts in 20 minutes. You quickly find your group of friends, scarf your food, have a quick little chat, and scuttle to your locker area, and get prepared for your first class.(oh yea, this is highschool I’m talking about. sorry..though my middleschool was pretty much a mini highschool)
You probably suck at first period, do great in second period, decent in third period, get to lunch, realize you forgot your school I.D/lunchcard. you can’t get school lunch today. So with the $1.50 you happen to have on your person for after school snack, you buy a bag of fritos and a soda. 4th and 5th period go by fine, you probably have a blood sugar spike to tide you over for these classes… but by the time 6th period rolls around, you’re either falling asleep or getting antzy because you’re irritable and can’t focus.
School ends, and you may or may not have an after school sports activity to do (which would drain more energy) but for the purpose of this story, you don’t. Instead you wait for the bus that takes you home. You get home, are expected to do your homework right away, and do your chores. It takes you at least three hours to do the homework for your classes, and one teacher wants a book report done in two weeks. You read two chapters before dinner. Your one good meal of the day, and at least once a week it gets replaced by pizza or fast food. You do your chores.
In an attempt to stay sane, you take a couple hours on your laptop and surf tumblr or facebook. After that, you look at your book and then at the time. It may be 11 pm by now. You wake up tomorrow at 4 am again. To get the 8 hours that society says you should have (more like 9 for teens I think) you should have gone to bed at 9. But if you did that, you wouldn’t have been able to have time to unwind. You take a shower, and do your bedtime routine. 11:30. You finally lay down for sleep. By the time REM sleep kick in, it might be 12 am. Good luck getting a full night’s sleep on this schedule. Next day goes the same except this time you did not forget your lunch card- but lunch is chicken patty, and not particuarily tasty, so you just eat the sandwich and milk and throw the rest away. You may as well have gone to Mcdonalds.
That is a school day.
And it’s not just effecting teens.
My friend had a little sister who in third grade came home with enough homework to keep her busy for the rest of the day. The only break she got was dinner and a half hour tv show before it was bed time.
and did I mention that when my middleschool’s budget was cut, the biggest change they made was to get rid of the home economics/life skills class? No? It happened. I’m still pissed off about it.
……….
There is much, much more on this subject. However, I know that I tend to create long enough posts as it is…so as promised, I’ll leave this link here, just in case.
The Garden of Inspiration 