Runnng (home) from school

Here's another fond memory of my K-8 experience. 

Not only would I walk the three (maybe four) blocks to and from my neighborhood school, I would race home at lunchtime to see if I could beat my two brothers to the kitchen table.  (Thursday was Grandma's Swedish pancake day.)  That routine eventually culminated in head-to-head races with my siblings around the long block we lived on.  In opposite directions.

Needless to say, there was no childhood obesity in our family.

Portland, unfortunately, is not immune to the national obesity epidemic.  Today's Oregonian feature on the latest medical answer to the epidemic --laparoscopic adjustable banding-- is both a sad commentary on the well-being of American children and a reminder that locally we're doing little better that other places around the nation in promoting the health and wellness of our young people.   

Are neighborhood schools the answer to preventing childhood obesity?  No, at least not entirely.  But the diminishing number of such schools, along with the proliferation of alternatives kids can't walk to, certainly contributes to the problem.

And then there's the issue of global warming.  Few people would argue that keeping cars off the road to decrease greenhouse gases is a bad idea.  Neighborhood schools do just that --they allow children to get to their schools without the aid of climate altering motor vehicles.

Those pressing issues  --children's health and catastrophic climate change-- should be factored into the debate over the kinds of schools we want to see in the future.

 

Comments

[coach outlet]

Wow! I love this!*