Howard_T

Healthcare, Education: Two Reasons to Worry About America's Future

There is a common cause to the obesity and education problems in the US. I do not have the number available, but over the last 50 years, a significant percentage of the work force is the "working mom". Before someone accuses me of being a male chauvinist, I am not. I am merely trying to illustrate the great change in our culture. When I was growing up, mom stayed home, cleaned the house, did the shopping and cooking, and in her down time, read and talked to the kids. Today, often because of necessity, mom is out on the job. Nutritious, home-cooked meals have been replaced by convenience foods and shortcut meals, often containing high amounts of fat, carbohydrates, and sodium. The youngest kids are farmed out to day care where the care givers often have too many children to care for. There is little or no reading to the individual child, and no talking to the child to explain "why do ants have so many legs", and other great mysteries.

The problem is worse for school-age kids. If you don't pack a lunch for your kid, he or she eats in the cafeteria. What rational kid opts for the fresh green salad over the pizza slice? With two working parents, nobody is home in the afternoon, so the kid is turned over to an after school program. Here there is more "baby sitting", but little of the "how was your day, what did you talk about in school, do you have any homework, do you need help" sort of interaction between parent and child. Today, mom or dad picks the kid up from the day care or after school program, hurries home, parks the kid in front of the great electronic brain numbing machine, and proceeds to defrost dinner. After dinner in some households there might be an hour or two for "family time", but it isn't a guarantee, what with mom or dad's meetings, social gatherings, or the kids' athletic practices or other such lessons.

Teachers no longer have the time to work with kids after school. They are now burdened with paperwork, progress reporting, updating their qualification statements, and taking mandatory training. Staying after school for the kids, either for disciplinary reasons or to get extra work done, is not possible in areas where the children are bused over any distance. Once the bus is gone, you are on your own for transportation. Mom or dad can't come get you; they can't take the time off. In my youth the teachers would sometimes offer a ride home to the kids. Try that now, and teacher is being disciplined for some potential dire harm that could come to the child.

My wife works in special education, and I hear the stories daily from just her one elementary school. They usually leave me shaking my head in sorrow or disbelief, but occasionally leave me shaking with anger at the stupidity of the bureaucracy or the negligent attitudes of the parents.

Let's face it; our entire culture has changed in the past half-century. The "good, old days" are not coming back. Until you can come up with solutions to the things I have ranted about above, you will not cure the problems of poor health maintenance and education. Oh, by the way, don't let the Federal Government anywhere near the problem. Give the cities and towns more leeway in fixing their own problems, reward them for good performance, and see where this might take us. Above all, get private industry involved. I don't have any answers, but I'm sure that there are many who do.