Rapid Learning

Pick up that trumpet and play a concerto for me, please

The Music Man's music guy is really old now, but his credo lives on in wondrous ways – “All you need to make music is a boy, an instrument, and a picturesque setting!” There is no need for training or hard work.

Moses has been dead a long time, but the fruits of his trip up the mountain are still with us, in a plethora of “thou shalt nots” showing up almost daily.

Our national approach to the twin problems of poor nutrition and obesity in our children combines some of Moses with a bit of Professor Harold Hill. We are removing the nasty snack foods from school vending machines (thou shalt not eat Fritos) and we are anticipating absorption of good eating habits by all of our children because adults are talking about them. (Can’t you already hear 76 kids with trombones playing the “Fat Free March”?)

Plenty of good ideas are being followed in schools now, including resumption of physical education classes and provision of cafeteria meals with better nutritive content. It’s a hot topic, and school boards are responding to pressure from parents and governments to do something and do it fast. We want our children to become health conscious and diet conscious and exercise conscious and WE WANT IT NOW! A president-to-be is already preparing his / her first State of the Union address in which he / she will announce a War On Obesity and predict its “cure” in 10 years.

Where have we been for the last 50 years?

There is a problem with the Moses / Hill approach, which is that it is being implemented in an educational vacuum. How well are we training our teachers to teach our children the facts of healthy life? Have we provided teachers and schools (and parents) with the materials and training they need to produce health-aware children? Are there books or online resources developed for children to use on their own, or with only minimal instruction from teachers? Whose incentive is it to study the material – the student’s or the parent’s or the teacher’s?

There is a shoe about to drop and it’s this: Wickenburg Healthcare Alliance has developed materials to teach nutrition information to young children and their families without talking down to them or insulting their intelligence. The program, useful in homes or in schools, is suitable for the youngest learners as well as those in upper elementary and middle school grades. It can be previewed by educators or other interested people now, with general availability expected in September 2006. (Upon their completion of the program, 76 kids with trombones may be heard playing the “Fat Free March” and playing it well.)

For more information, click on the link at the bottom of this page.

Full disclosure: I am rather deeply involved with Wickenburg Healthcare Alliance.