Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher

A few years ago here in Arizona, they passed a law outlawing all junk food.  Gone are the bake sales, the candy bar fundraisers and the school pizza party.  On one level, I laugh about it.  As long as students have pockets and back packs, they will manage to find junk food.  I recently noticed this when a student was slinging Hot Cheetoh's and chili candy in the hallway between classes.  Vending machines are now replaced by this highly organized underground sugar market. 

On a deeper level, I am concerned about the panic and fear involving junk food.  I recently saw a clip from Oprah, where two parents were crying about how they are "slowly killing" their children by letting them eat junk food.  (I can't believe I just confessed to watching Oprah) The same day, I read an article that described it as an epidemic.  Epidemic?  The AIDS crisis ravishing Africa is an epidemic.  Global child prostitution is an epidemic.

The commentary is filled with hyperbole and scare tactics.  Indeed, the media is often hypocritical about the message.  A news anchor grows solemn and describes a grim, worst-case-scenario of a generation of kids who will die at forty of congestive heart failure.  Minutes later, the viewer is bombarded with thin kids advertising sugar cereal and supermodels hawking high-calorie beer. 

For my part, I am glad being fat was not an epidemic when I was a child.  We drank soda a few times a week.  Every so often, we would go to Thrifty's and have an ice cream.  Daily, I would swap two healthy snacks for a Twinkie or Nutter Butter.  My weight would fluctuate - often in what seemed like extremes.  (I was not unlike Chandler on I Friends) Despite this, my parents never resorted to emotional interventions and strict diet plans.  Instead, they understood that kids get chunky and skinny as a natural course of development and that excercise and junk food should both coexist in moderation. 

The problem is that the media now makes weight a big deal.  It's bad enough that children face the pressure to live up to beautiful pop culture icons, to earn trophies in sports and to maintain top grades in school.  I lament the fact that little girls now feel the need to dress like divas and young boys have started lifting weights.  What's worse is that overweight kids are already the targets at school.  They are always typcasted as comic relief, bullies or nerds in television.  Now, they are sent the message that if they don't lose weight they will die and therefore contribute to a nation-wide epidemic. 

So, what would I do if I had that pressure on my back?  If I was a kid, I'd take my junkfood underground.  I'd go to my supplier with the backpack of M & M's and never learn moderation.  I would probably try for awhile and then hit a burnout and binge. This, in turn, would grow into an unhealthy addiction.