Health counts! This has never been more obvious than in this past year. The pandemic has caused health to be at the forefront of everyone’s thinking. However, we have always emphasized at Lawton Academy that a good school curriculum emphasizes fitness in three areas: physical, mental and spiritual. When any one of these parts of the whole system is out of sync, the whole person breaks down.
I’ve been watching the research findings constantly for the past twenty years because I’ve been raising yellow warning flags for some time now. It is finally coming out that our children are suffering in several areas due to extraordinary time being spent on the internet, video games, and cell phones. Let me note the following observations.
In 2011, my sixth grade team of students entered eCybermission with a project about the daily consumption of sugar products by our children. This team won national recognition for their research, collection of data, and proposal for helping to change the amount of sugar consumption by our students. They won $1,000 each (four students) and an all expense paid trip to Washington D.C. for one week to share with other teams who entered this national contest.
We found that before lunch time in school each day, students had consumed more than three times the recommended amount of sugar for an entire day! One of the hidden culprits was the use of juice packets for kids. Now, twenty years later, we are finding many more students facing obesity and the possibility of diabetes.
Over these years I have also noted that students were listening to earphones and ear buds at loud sound levels. I predicted they would be facing hearing loss far sooner than previous generations. It is becoming evident that hearing loss is already being found among our youth. We teachers have also noted that children talk much louder and even yell more loudly than was typical in the past. The shrill cries of toddlers in WalMart are an ongoing reality…not a part of past generations. It appears that this may be behavior resulting from children not being able to get their parents’ attentions without screaming. (Perhaps parents are plugged into their own videogames or social media and cannot hear the cries for attention. Thus, it becomes learned behavior: if you want something, scream at the top of your lungs!)
Pediatricians are making people aware of the underdevelopment of children’s eyes due to too much time spent at early ages watching video devices. A more important observation is the underdevelopment of bone density in today’s children. We have seen more growth plate fractures in wrists, legs, and arms this past two years than we ever did in my entire 50+ year career. Many people thought I was just blowing it out of proportion. Well, I have been vindicated by what the Army is now dealing with when young recruits are suffering the same loss of bone density, and thus are being processed out of the service. It seems so much time has been spent sitting and playing electronic games, etc. that bone density isn’t developing. This does not surprise me because my husband and I have noted for the past five years or so that no children are being seen outside playing in front of their houses with neighborhood children. It looks like there are no children in most residential areas.
Let me move on to mental health. I’ve already mentioned in past Tri-Opinion blogs that many young people think it is the purpose of social media to gripe about life and to accept the depression that most of them feel. (Forget the old health lessons about hormones changing. In fact, most of the young people I’ve talked with have self-diagnosed themselves with bi-polar syndrome!)
The younger children are constantly telling everyone how boring it is to go outside…there’s nothing to do. When told to use their imagination or natural curiosity to explore the many wonders of the great outdoors, they just sit and stare and say, “There’s nothing to do!” This problem was so bad a few years ago that we actually taught outdoor activities to our summer school students. Believe it or not, hide and seek and the notion of getting to home base were foreign to most of those kids. We even developed a “Spy” game where students had to sneak past the spy to recover colored pencils placed at opposite ends of our buildings. They had a blast!
Some of the most interesting strategy games are part of our thinking skills curriculum which we insert into team competitions, workshops, etc. Yes, we believe mental health counts! It is also on our agenda to do what we can to help children have a good self-image and to be aware of the social needs of others. Much of this goes along with just practicing good manners!
The spiritual health of children is also very important to us. We make it very clear at enrollment time that we owners of Lawton Academy are followers of Jesus (Christians). This is not a “Christian School” but a school that is provided to the community by Christians. There is a big difference. Our purpose is to give children the best educational curriculum we possibly can…better than the average bear! Therefore, we cannot help but be influenced by our beliefs in the teaching of Jesus. So, we try to live by His standards…love your neighbor as you love yourself, treat others as you want to be treated, etc. We also make it a point to let them know that God does love them!
This past horrifying week has shown us what a “godless” dictator can do at a moment’s notice! No one was prepared for the evil outpoured upon the citizens of Ukraine such as Putin has done. This is a perfect example of a person without a moral compass. We try to help children to develop a moral compass within. Those students who feel they have absolute freedom to do whatever they wish in spite of the rights of others, do not get a free pass in our school. In summary, we discriminate against one thing only: a bad attitude…either on the part of the child or the parent.
No, we are not the perfect school. Yet, just this past week we have heard from three different sources that “Wow! Your school is so different from most! If I hadn’t seen this, I wouldn’t have believed it!” But we can promise this: we believe in school improvement. It is the heartbeat of education at Lawton Academy of Arts and Sciences! Kay