Nutrition and Education

This week I reflected on the topics and while some, as you will see in this post intertwine, I felt nutrition was an important topic. So many children, not just around the world, but here in America are suffering from malnutrition. I remember as a child, my mother teaching and her and my father taking Happy Meals on the weekend to a family whose child was in her classroom. When I asked her about it, she said that the only time he got to eat was for breakfast and lunch at school during the week and that while McDonald's all the time was not good for you, he got something to eat over the weekend. I do sponsor and support a child in Haiti, as I mentioned last week and I am grateful for the opportunity. But sometimes I wonder why all the ads you see on television are to support children in other countries and not here at home in the USA?

Nutrition is important for all, from the prenatal infant to the grown adult. At different stages in life, people will need different amounts of the nutrients required for good nutrition. In infancy, most will say that breast feeding is best for a child to receive the necessary nutrients she needs to develop successfully. However, for some who do not get breast feed, as long as nourishment is meant with the necessary nutrients that child will develop successfully as well. What I have learned over the years, through watching and listening to my mom as a teacher and being a teacher now myself is that if a child is hungry he will not learn. A child who is hungry is distracted, unable to focus, and his mind is only on one thing 'I want to eat.' Additionally, as I learned through the Foundations course and then again in the Berger text, if a child does not receive proper nourishment he is more likely to become sick and if a child is sick he will not even be present at school (and if he is, he won't be focused either). So nutrition does affect development, but nutrition also plays in impact in a child's ability to stay focused while at school to learn.

What I found interesting while researching nutrition in other countries is that through World Vision educational services are provided to women on nutrition and these women then go out into their communities and educate others on the value of nutrition. The article I found, specifically dealt with a woman in Peru who said, 'nutrition is not so much about money as it is about education.' I love that! Too often I believe people chalk up their inability to eat right to the amount of money they have available and that isn't it. If you have adequate knowledge on and about nutrition you can receive good nutrition no matter the budget.

http://www.worldvision.org/news/peru-child-malnutrition-hunger

The more I am re-learning about child development as well as the new things I am learning, the more excited I am to learn more. The more I learn the greater the difference I can make with the children I teach.