The Palm Beach Post reports that school officials in Palm Beach and Broward counties are facing a dilemma of sorts.
On the one hand, they have accepted a $1.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to invest in the promotion of healthier lifestyles for students, and especially to curb the level of childhood obesity.
But on the other hand, Krispy Kreme has launched a promotion that offers students a doughnut for every A on their report cards — up to a half-dozen per grading period…which would seem to send a conflicting message to the students.
On the one hand, they have accepted a $1.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to invest in the promotion of healthier lifestyles for students, and especially to curb the level of childhood obesity.
But on the other hand, Krispy Kreme has launched a promotion that offers students a doughnut for every A on their report cards — up to a half-dozen per grading period…which would seem to send a conflicting message to the students.
- KC's View:
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There’s nothing like a good ethical dilemma to keep a school board on its toes.
Maybe what they ought to be teaching the kids is that a healthy lifestyle is about balance. Sometimes you deny yourself. Sometimes you indulge yourself. Most of the time, if you’re lucky and consistent, you try a maintain an even keel. It isn’t healthy to always deny yourself, or always indulge yourself (though we’d vote for the latter if forced to make a choice).
Take the money and teach healthy attitudes toward food. And then let the kids have the doughnuts.
Ethical dilemma solved.
Now the school board can get back to what many school boards do – figure out how to cut teacher salaries, spend more money on athletics, and protect the system rather than the kids who are in it. (Okay, maybe that’s a little cynical…)
