Don't Forget to Celebrate Success!

Teachers of any discipline know that hearing about the successes of past students is incredibly rewarding. Lately I have had a lot to celebrate. 

One student has successfully published a memoir about his experience as an overweight child and his success in the Pediatric Weight Control Program. He has a book signing in August and has already been featured in a couple of news stories! Next he is on his way to LA and NYC!

Another student is on her way to play Division I water polo. Another has discovered rowing and is joining his high school crew team. And another student was one of two children's hospital patients asked to speak about his/her experiences with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at the ground breaking ceremony for the new addition to the hospital. This student spoke about his experience in the Pediatric Weight Control Program and the increase in self-esteem that came with his weight loss. This was an honor that, admittedly, was not fully realized until we arrived! More about that later...

Despite these incredible successes I find that I spend a lot of time worrying about the few families that may not be succeeding, so much so that I sometimes lose sight of those students and families who are actually achieving their goals.

If a child or parent does not seem to be progressing as desired, hopefully I can still teach them tools that they can continue to use in the future. A perfect example is the water polo player. She had a lot of success as a student in the program about 5 years ago. When I saw her about 3-4 years ago she was still struggling with her weight. Now, a couple of years later, she contacted us to tell us that she is an athlete at a Division 1 college and credits her success (at least partially) to the tools she learned in our classroom!

Chips for Breakfast?

I dropped my daughter off at preschool this morning and one of her classmates was sitting at a table eating a big bag of chips. I tried not to flip out. 

After taking a deep breath, I spoke to the assistant teacher and mentioned my concerns. There were two issues that concerned me. One was that the mom of this child was feeding her 4 year-old cheesy tortilla chips for breakfast but admittedly that is not something that a teacher or another mom can control. The second issue was that it was happening in my daughter’s classroom at 9 am. I told the teacher, as nicely as possible, that she had a responsibility to provide a healthy environment to all of her students and allowing chips for breakfast in the classroom was not being responsible. She agreed and asked for advice on how to handle the situation. It was a particularly challenging situation because the little girl was the daughter of a colleague in the school so she was very concerned about offending the mom. I assured her that she could handle it in an appropriate manner.

We discussed the best way for her to approach the mom in a way that was non-confrontational but at the same time, would support the rules of the classroom. She may not have changed the fact that this little girls was eating chips for breakfast, but the teacher told me that after we talked, she felt more comfortable setting the boundaries that supports a healthy environment all children in the classroom.

As sad as I was to see a 4 year old eat chips for breakfast, we need to be careful about telling the mom how and what to feed her child. However, the teacher has the leadership role and responsibility to set limits for her classroom and say that students can’t eat chips (for breakfast) in her classroom. The relationship between food, teachers and parents in the classroom continues to be a contentious issue. I try very hard to support, educate and ultimately empower the teachers to set appropriate limits for their classroom. It is their classroom so they can make the rules! And you know what? Some day those parents will appreciate that the teacher was concerned about their child’s health.