Alice Armstrong of Springfield, Illinois, is a high school English teacher and also a freelance writer and copy editor.
"I can resist anything but temptation," quips Lord Darlington in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan. And when it comes to food, who among us cannot relate? In fact, grocers and convenience store owners count on weak wills, strategically positioning impulse foods high in sugar and fat and low in nutrition just where people are most likely to reach for them.
Shoppers zip right through the produce section on their way to the frozen foods aisle where they fill their carts with frozen pizzas and ice cream. On the way to the checkout lane, they grab a bag of chips, a six pack of soda and a package of cookies from the end caps, and the family pantry is stocked for the week.
Stores strategically place items that appeal to children at their eye level … whether walking or riding in a shopping cart. And who hasn't heard a child at the check-out counter begging for a candy bar … it's right there!
While highly processed foods full of sugar, salt and fat taste great, they have deleterious consequences when consumed regularly in large amounts, particularly when combined with a sedentary lifestyle. Many Americans who suffer from diabetes, heart disease and cancer can attest to this. Yet people keep swallowing the wrong foods. The latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control (2007) identify 34 percent of American adults as obese and another 33 percent as overweight. (For a definition of adult overweight and obese, see http://cdc.gov/obesity/defining.html .)
Since children tend to mimic adult behavior, adults not only hurt themselves when they practice poor eating and exercise habits, but also they hurt their children. With only one third of adults modeling weight-healthy lifestyles for their children, it's no surprise that childhood obesity rates keep climbing despite the efforts of many to stem this blubbery tide.
Over the last few decades, childhood obesity and overweight rates have increased at an alarming rate. In its "Weighing healthier options" issue (March/April 2004), The Illinois School Board Journal reported the following: "The number of obese children ages 6 to 11 has nearly doubled from 7.6 percent to 13.7 percent in the past 20 years, as has the number of obese teenagers, which rose from 5.7 percent to 11.5 percent."
In response to this trend and all these temptations, Congress mandated that each school with a federally subsidized lunch program should have a wellness policy in place by the start of the 2006-07 school year. Most districts complied. Some even banned vending machines and soda sales in their schools, yet kids continue to gain weight at an alarming pace.
The latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) place obesity rates at 17 percent for 6-11 year olds and 17.6 percent for 12-19 year olds. Granted, wellness policies have only been in place a few short years and results do not appear overnight. But the accumulating pounds beg the question: "Is putting a policy in place enough?"
Policy vs. implementation
A team of researchers affiliated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "Bridging the Gap" program at the University of Illinois at Chicago surveyed school districts throughout the nation to gauge the effectiveness of the wellness policy legislation. In 2009, lead researcher Jamie Chriqui reported that most districts had indeed met the minimum requirements of the law by adopting wellness policies. However, the intent of the law — that these policies be implemented — frequently is ignored.
"Many [policies] were underdeveloped and fragmented, lacking sufficient plans for implementation and monitoring," Chriqui wrote. "Although the strength of the policies did increase during the first two years of the requirement, they were still weak overall and did not necessarily require schools to take action."
The sample wellness policy provided to districts by the Illinois Association of School Boards is intentionally broad, according to Cathy Talbert, IASB associate executive director/policy and field services. A good sample policy seeks to be both legally compliant and consistent with effective governance principles, she said.
"Effective governance principles suggest that the board should adopt policy that provides for 'ends,'" she added, "what benefits the board wants the district to deliver and to whom, within the resources available. The superintendent and staff then determine the best means to accomplish those ends, and are responsible for implementation."
Often, these implementation processes are documented in written administrative procedures supporting the board policy. The board then monitors compliance with written board policy and progress toward district ends on an ongoing basis by requesting and reviewing implementation data.
This process allows all involved to fulfill their respective roles in the district and to do what they can do best, Talbert said. The board connects with the community to determine their wants and needs and with all who will be affected by and who will implement the board's policy to seek input to the policy making process.
The superintendent and staff research and consider the various ways to pursue implementation and put good procedures in place, she added, and, the board monitors compliance and progress.
Thus, what many experts refer to as "policy" IASB would consider implementation steps, work delegated to those who interact most closely with the students and staff. What's important to remember is that designing a policy but failing to implement and monitor it is like buying fresh vegetables and leaving them in the refrigerator. Only half the work is done. The vegetables need to be prepared and consumed in order to reap the nutritional benefits!
To assist school districts in implementing more effective wellness policies, Chriqui and colleagues made a list of recommendations. Wellness policies should:
While physical exercise is not a required component of current wellness policies, the research team included it in their recommendation. Any wellness program that targets only diet and neglects exercise is likely to be largely ineffective, particularly since kids do most of their eating outside the school day.
Even students who eat breakfast and lunch at school every day get the majority of their calories before and after school. And some experts argue that the real culprit in childhood obesity is not caloric intake, which they say has not increased substantially over the years, but lack of exercise.
In a speech at the National Food Policy Conference in 2003, then FDA commissioner Mark McClellan said, " … it's perhaps surprising that, in a debate that has often focused on foods alone, actual levels of caloric intake among the young haven't appreciably changed over the last 20 years. While this seems counterintuitive, I think … the rising incidence of obesity has much more to do with changes in diet choices people are making, and especially with lifestyle choices."
Playing video games and texting have surely sharpened eye-hand coordination for today's children, but at the expense of their physical fitness.
Many children today are a sedentary lot. Consequently, schools might better serve their students by requiring physical education. While the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recommends 150 minutes of PE per week for elementary students and 225 minutes per week for middle and high school students, Illinois has long been the only state that requires K-12 students to participate daily in physical education classes.
However, that has not kept Illinois students from being as overweight as their counterparts in other states. The F as in Fat 2009 report, released in July 2009, showed Illinois ranked 10th nationwide in childhood obesity numbers at nearly 35 percent.
Recess disappearing
Another important part of the school day for elementary students — one that began to fall victim to time constraints under No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) — is recess. In the name of raising test scores, many schools replaced art, music, PE and recess with more reading, writing and math.
On the surface, that change may seem reasonable. If students read below grade level, shouldn't they be inside studying rather than outside playing? The answer, however, is no.
Research shows a high correlation between obesity rates and poor academic performance. Kids with weight problems miss more school than their more slender peers. Running around at recess, students burn a lot of calories. Physical activity also oxygenates the brain and increases the ability to learn.
Studies also show that children who get exercise regularly during the school day have fewer discipline problems. The benefits of a successful wellness program that incorporates healthy eating habits and physical activity extend into the classroom and beyond.
To be fair to districts, they do have full plates already without adding another heaping helping of responsibility for wellness. With the pressures of NCLB mounting, many schools have been forced into test score tunnel vision. The message they need to hear is that successful wellness programs often translate into higher test scores.
But obsession with test scores isn't the only impediment to implementing effective wellness programs. The sluggish economy has put many district budgets in a vise; funds to hire PE teachers just do not exist. And like the NCLB legislation, the wellness policy legislation is an unfunded mandate that saddles already overworked school personnel with the job of policing what kids eat.
Finding the answer
So how are schools without funding and human power to cope? The answer is to keep it simple.
Wellness initiatives do not have to be complicated or expensive; they just need a few dedicated leaders. Teachers at Glen Haven Elementary in Decatur, Georgia, can attest to that. Their wellness program, designed and implemented by a small team of interested school employees, recently won a national award. The program, which consists of three basic components, targets exercise and role modeling.
Everyone in the building participates in the first element, Jamming Two Minutes. Each morning, when the music begins from the PA system, kids and adults alike stand and stretch or jog in place for two minutes. Some of the participants even make up routines they practice each day.
Bulldogs on the Move is the second component. At a designated time, students and teachers head outside to run, skip or hop about for 12 minutes.
The third component, What a Salad Wednesdays, targets just the staff. Every Wednesday they set up a salad bar in the teacher's lounge to encourage healthy eating habits.
The cost of this program to the district? Zilch. The benefits to everyone? Immense.
"It's really been an extreme success," said coach Tarris Scott. "[The programs have] improved our school climate and culture; and we're just having fun here tackling childhood obesity." All-inclusive, easy to implement, and fun is a winning combination.
Closer to home, Ridgeview CUSD 19 in Colfax with 582 students K-12 started with small changes in cafeteria offerings (read smaller cookies, not eliminating cookies; baked chips instead of fried) and added 20 minutes of physical activity before lunch each day. But their little steps and partnerships with the community, as well as a wellness fair and a "Body Walk" conducted with the help of Illinois Wesleyan University nursing students, were enough to earn this district Illinois' first Silver Award from the HealthierUS School Challenge in 2008.
Joyce McDowell of Ohio State University Extension reviewed some wellness initiatives to identify "best practices." She cited Glenwood Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for its Drop Everything and Walk initiative, also dubbed Do the DEW. Like the Glen Haven approach, this one is all-inclusive. Once a week for 12 weeks, all students and staff walked for 10-15 minutes. The beauty of this particular approach is the ease with which it can be implemented. No matter the time of day, the time of year, or the school's facilities, people can find a place to walk. More information about walking programs is available at creativewalking.com .
Get Up, Get Out, Get Fit is another program McDowell recommends. Tailored for older kids, this program originated at North Cache Center, a school serving eighth and ninth graders in Richmond, Utah. At the onset, the program was aimed only at staff members. Teachers developed their own fitness goals, used a pedometer to track their mileage and recorded their activity.
"Students became so involved in the program that they began cheering their teachers and asking for weekly updates on their success rates," McDowell wrote. "As a result of these positive role models, the students set up their own physical activity and nutrition goals." This program speaks to the power of positive examples.
Another popular elementary program was designed by Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), an organization founded in 2002 to help combat rising childhood obesity rates by working with schools to improve nutrition and physical activity. Game On! The Ultimate Wellness Challenge combines nutrition education with exercise for a holistic wellness program.
Perhaps the best aspect of Game On! is that it stretches beyond the school day and property line. Kids take the program with them into their homes and communities. For any program to be a smashing success, parental involvement is a must. Game On! draws parents into the program, providing them with information on healthy eating and exercise habits.
The organization, which is now recognized as the nation's leading nonprofit and largest volunteer network fighting childhood obesity and undernourishment, also has designed a new Web-based program aimed at high school students. Students Taking Charge empowers teens to change their own eating and exercise habits and to encourage their peers to follow their lead. At studentstakingcharge.org, teenagers and facilitators can find the resources for starting an initiative in their school and connect with other teenagers around the nation working on the same goals.
The AFHK website is a great resource for those interested in implementing viable programs in their schools. The "resources" portion of the site houses ideas and "how to" steps so that others can learn how to host a health fair or create healthier school stores.
Results change minds
As sensible as it seems for schools to teach children how to take care of their health, some administrators and teachers will oppose wellness initiatives in their schools. Some will say parents should be teaching their children good habits, not schools. Others say they don't have time for such nonsense as walking when there are formulas to be memorized and essays to be written.
However, once the naysayers see a few positive results, they might become converts and eventually look for ways to incorporate walking with classroom instruction. Here are just a few ways walks around the school neighborhood could invigorate lessons:
The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the staff members.
Changing deeply entrenched habits is rarely easy, but with willingness, commitment and determination, anyone can change. Wellness policies well-implemented can help students and staff slim down waistlines and beef up fitness.
People can learn to resist temptation, to choose the carrots over carrot cake. They can develop the discipline to take a walk every day. With persistence everyone can succeed.
Resources
Action for Healthy Kids at http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/
Centers for Disease Control at http://cdc.gov/
National Association for Sport and Physical Education at http://www.aahperd.org/Naspe/
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at http://www.rwjf.org/