In schools we focus a
great deal of time and attention on academic endeavors; reading, getting
homework done, studying, organization, and
prioritization of work. All of those are incredibly important and part of the foundation
for being successful as a student and lifelong learner.
As educators and as
parents we also need to start thinking more explicitly about other factors that
have an incredible influence on our student’s ability to be successful; nutrition,
sleeping habits and their daily schedules. All three factors work in
conjunction with one another to either help or hinder the performance of our
young people as students, musicians and athletes. What we know for sure is that
students who are hungry or lack nutrients, students who are dehydrated or
students who are tired cannot learn or perform to their full potential.
There has never been a
time when we have had so much information about food and the impacts of what we
put into our bodies has on us. Despite this incredible amount of knowledge,
many of our kids go through an entire day without consuming real food. They eat, but they are eating a great deal of manufactured and processed food that isn’t giving them the nutrients that their bodies need. There are some terrific books on this
subject that will really get you and them thinking: In
Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, 100
Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake, and Salt,
Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.
A really good resource
on nutrition is this terrific blog from OCM BOCES on heart healthy kids: https://ocmbocesis.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/heart-healthy-kids/
Another excellent source of information is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The link below is to several National Nutrition Month handouts and tip-sheets.
http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/nnm-handouts-and-tipsheets-for-families-and-communities
Another excellent source of information is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The link below is to several National Nutrition Month handouts and tip-sheets.
http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/nnm-handouts-and-tipsheets-for-families-and-communities
Food is only one part
of the conversation. Way too many of our kids are drinking large quantities of
soda and Gatorade instead of water, and the majority of them are dehydrated. In
addition, many of them have no idea just how much sugar they are consuming or
the impacts that it has on their body systems. In a 20 oz bottle of Coke there
is 65 grams of sugar! A 20 OZ bottle of Gatorade has 34 grams of sugar!
Anything in small doses is reasonable, but when the drink of choice of many of
our middle school students is laden with sugar we all need to take the
responsibility of informing them and limiting their intake of high sugar
drinks. In the case of Gatorade very few of them are actually involved in
strenuous physical activity which requires them to replace important
electrolytes. Many of them think that they are and believe that they need it –
it isn’t a need, that’s just good marketing! Drink your water!!
Sleeping habits and busy schedules
go hand in hand. We have our children involved in more extracurricular activities
than ever before. Between dance studios, travel teams, indoor facilities and
local community groups we can have our kids involved in something 8 days a
week, 52 weeks a year. Some nights it can be two or three activities back to
back to possibly back. Our kids then get home later, get to bed later, and do
it all over again the next day. As a result, many of our students arrive to
school in the morning tired. They are not tired because its 7:40 AM, they are
tired because they are not getting enough sleep.
I’ve read it before that sleep is
like food for the brain. During sleep both our body and brain recharges
themselves and gets them ready for all of the challenges that await us the
following day. Sleep impacts our learning and memory, our emotions and
behaviors, and our overall health. Yet the total amount of sleep that children
and adolescents are getting is continuing
to decrease. Think about how we feel when we don’t get enough sleep as adults; we
are moody, cranky, unmotivated – certainly not ready to perform or learn. Add
to that lack of sleep the incredible amount of social, emotional, physiological
and physical change happening in our middle school students and we have a
recipe for disaster. Parents and students need to make getting enough sleep a
priority. Put away the screens earlier and as adults we shouldn’t allow our
kids to bring their devices to bed with them. Instead, grab a book. Research shows that they will actually sleep better.
The over-scheduling leads
to late nights, which leads to lack of sleep, which leads to rushing out door
with a poor breakfast, which leads to…you see the pattern. We have choices in
all this. In the busy schedules we create, school needs to be priority number one
with everything else a distant second. It isn’t easy, but by setting
priorities, establishing limits, and saying no we are establishing the
framework for setting our kids up for success. Getting enough sleep, staying
hydrated and eating a healthy, balanced diet are all incredibly important and
powerful factors in setting our kids up for success in everything that they do. Let's not overlook the little things that really matter.
Continued Success,
Steve Dunham
Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms
Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org
