Letters to the Editor
This letter is associated with the following article:
-
it may not be the school's fault
Several studies indicate that kids' weight essentially remains stable throughout the school year and increased over the summer. These data suggest that school, with the fast-food lunches, limited PE, and recess is not the problem.
Health behavior experts use schools as intervention sites, largely because it is convenient (the one place where kids congregate) and impliment interventions at school because it is easier to get a school to cooperate than lots of individual parents. But these data suggest that we have been "looking for our keys underneath the lamp-post." Apparently, we need to find out what kids are doing or not doing over summer vacation and fix it there.