Reply to It baffles me that schools are not paying attention to kids long-term health

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the people saying this is on parents:

I pack my kid's lunch, serve healthy food at home, and limit screen time.

At her public school, my child is regularly given junk food (like almost every day), spends a significant portion of her day on tablets or looking at a screen (they have even been known to show the kids videos during lunch), and also regularly gets screen-based homework (in lower elementary).

When I have vocalized concerns about these things, it's been made clear to me that (1) it is unfair for me to expect teachers to be able to teach without using junk food as an incentive or reward, (2) [b]it's elitist for me to want my child to spend less time on screens at school,[/b] and (3) it's selfish for me to expect my values, of healthy eating and limited screen time, to hold the day in a public school where many other parents don't hold those values.

So, as a parent, I'm moving my kid to a school that shares my values. It's a public charter and next I'll be told that I'm betraying public schools and teachers unions by doing so.

You can't tell parents everything is their fault and also they aren't allowed to provide input, and then also get mad when they decide to remove their child from your crappy school that feeds them junk food and screen time all day long.[/quote]

I’ve heard the bolded before and the argument made by schools is that low-income kids don’t have laptops & tablets at home, and therefore they wouldn’t learn how to use such devices in ways that will be necessary for them to get through life if not at school.

I am not sympathetic to that argument & refuse to have my kid use screens much at all before high school, so I moved my kid to private. [/quote]

It's also a BS argument because while low-income kids may not be getting access to certain kinds of technology at home, they absolutely have access to screens. Poor people have phones.  The REAL truth is that a lot of people in poverty regularly use screens as babysitters because they can't afford actual childcare, and that low-income kids are even more in need of a healthy environment in the classroom that de-emphasizes screens and emphasizes person-to-person interaction. A lot of these kids are getting hours a day of dumb games and un-moderated TikTok and YouTube on a parent or grandparent or other minder's phone, and then coming to school and getting more YouTube videos and tablet apps, etc. They are basically getting NO time where they are expected to entertain themselves or function without a screen as a distraction or intermediary. And that's going to make it extra hard for them when they are in jobs where they can be fired for staring at their phones or where they will be expected to focus on work activities for long stretches or interact with customers. These kids are not going to wind up in office jobs behind a computer with internet access.

But of course if I say that, suddenly I'm the racist. But I'm just telling the truth. My kid will be less harmed by the horrible school environment because I can provide a better environment at home that actually prepares her for a life as a functioning adult.[/quote]

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