What are we teaching in America's Schools?

Caitlin H.

March 27, 2010 - 1:34 PM

I don't even order cable TV service to my apartment. The only thing my TV set is good for is collecting dust and watching old VHS tapes while falling asleep or cleaning. However, that hasn't stopped me from being consumed by "March Madness" with the rest of the country. To watch the games I just had to be a little more creative.

Without watching TV I'm generally clueless to what's happening during primetime on the major networks. So when I do happen to watch TV, you could say I'm a bit consumed by what folks are talking about on there. As a college basketball fan, I've enjoyed watching an interesting post season. As a consumer, TV has never been more shocking.

In my channel surfing during time outs and commercial breaks, I caught wind of a show premiering on ABC - "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution." Reality TV does little for me, but this was a show I had to see. It's about a chef going to the unhealthiest city in America and becoming a catalyst for change by creating this ‘food revolution.' My senior year of high school I spent the year doing a lot of childhood obesity research. To me, seeing a topic like this debuting during primetime television was big news. I guess after reading "Fast Food Nation" or watching "Supersize Me" and "Food, Inc." I really shouldn't have been so shocked at what I saw.

Part of the series shows Chef Jamie working at an elementary school trying to fix all that's wrong with the school lunch system. When kids weren't responding well to fresh foods over processed junk, Jamie decided to go into the classroom to help students get excited about what was going to be served in the school cafeteria. He showed a classroom a tomato and asked them what it was...the students were clueless. One brave boy guessed maybe it was a potato. Students didn't know what cauliflower was, what potatoes were. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! How could a school classroom not know what vegetables were?!

Bless the teacher of that classroom. After she saw the students couldn't name their veggies the class had a unit on vegetables so that they might learn. As a viewer though, the damage had already been done. I couldn't believe a classroom full of children, who had no problem identifying chicken nuggets or French fries, could not correctly identify a potato, or even tell you that's where French fries come from. I'm shocked. I'm rattled. I'm confused. When did basic health in schools become so irrelevant?

It makes me wonder about our elementary education nation-wide, and how it is helping prepare students for high school. In turn, it makes me wonder how that high school education is preparing students for college. How are we preparing future generations?

The short version of this story is: I'm prepared to invest in America's education system and to help be a force for positive change. Perhaps health and PE requirements should come back into fashion even at the college level.