Saddened. Frustrated. Scared. Depressed.
These were the visceral reactions of physical education teachers, nurses and other community health professionals to a series of photos and political cartoons depicting the issue of childhood obesity.
Melanie Lynch, a health education specialist at State College Area High School, was encouraged by these reactions while speaking as part of the “Let’s Move! Pennsylvania” conference on childhood obesity at the Penn Stater Conference Hotel on Wednesday.
For Lynch, inspiring some kind of visceral, gut reaction is integral to teaching about the importance of proper diet and exercise. All too often, she feels health class becomes a boring recitation of nutrition facts with nothing to engage the students.
She shared educational challenges and tips with the gathered educators and health professionals in the hopes of encouraging more engaged learning about health and diet.
“If I can engage you, then I can teach you,” she says. “Why can’t I be funny and vivacious while I teach?
She calls this approach “edu-taining,” a combination of entertainment and education. However, entertainment is only the first part of the process. The real challenge comes after she already has students engaged.
Lynch says she has to make them understand the consequences of their daily choices, to make them feel the subject matter in their stomachs. If she does that, then she has a shot at getting them to change their life choices to healthier alternatives.
Conferences like Wednesday’s and teaching approaches like Lynch’s are of great importance to the conversation about childhood obesity in America says Linda Huber, the executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
“There has been a dramatic increase over the last ten to 15 years in childhood obesity, which leads to more chronic diseases,” Huber says. “Obese children often grow into obese adults, with impacts health care costs and leads to shorter lifespans.”
The increase in obesity has “grown into an epidemic,” school districts all over the country are seeing drastic cuts to their physical education and healthy programing, which Huber says only exacerbates the problem.
Across the hall from Lynch, Ian Proud of Playworld Systems – a Lewisburg-based company that makes playground equipment – connected some of the dots between childhood obesity and innovations in the industrial world over the past several decades.
A rapidly expanding economy of surplus of consumer goods after World War II led to greater infrastructure based around the automobile, Proud told an attentive audience. This in turn led to the development of strip shopping developments, which facilitated the growth of chain fast food restaurants.
In the 60’s, there was a dramatic boom in the amount of fast food consumed by the average American. Proud explained that as the chains got bigger, so did their advertising power. He says, In 2012, children ages six to twelve saw an average of 253 McDonald commercials – and that’s just one fast food chain.
Despite these challenges, Lynch isn’t discouraged. She feels that with the right attitude and a little determination, kids are more than willing to join the fight against obesity – even if they don’t know it.
“I’ve heard students say about me, ‘make sure you get her; she’s so much fun,’” Lynch says. “So many of them say that my class is their favorite time of the day.”
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