Parents, teachers who are also parents and maybe especially dietitian parents, this is for you.
Your kid came home with a good/bad worksheet, a list of lunch box rules, a story about how chocolate chips are not allowed at school and that they weren’t allowed to eat their muffin. Not cool.
I get it. The feeling of heat moving up your face and wanting to rush in and fix this, but let’s take a minute here. You are probably reading this blog because you already have some awareness of diet culture. The educator on the other side of this conversation may not be where you are, yet.
Perspective:
Remember that time at work when someone came up to you and started screaming at you and waving their credentials around, or came in your office and went on for 45 minutes about what you did wrong or emailed you 12 journal articles? Remember when that interaction led you to totally see it their way and led you to change your approach and have a great meaningful discussion with that person?
No?
Of course, you don’t. Those interactions lead us to get defensive, break trust and do NOT foster learning or change. People do not consider new ideas unless they feel safe. If you go in hot, I can pretty much guarantee you won’t get the outcome you are looking for.
Diet culture runs DEEP people. Educators are people (and professionals). If you would not approach a colleague like this, you should reconsider your approach with teachers.
The fact that we all exist in diet culture is not a side point, it’s THE WHOLE POINT.
We need to show up as partners with our kids’ teachers. Our kids depend on it.
Before you rush in, remember:
- Teachers are people. Caring and empathetic people who want the best for your kids.
- Teachers do not intend to cause harm.
- Teachers are not trying to be health professionals, or aviation experts or geographers, they have to be generalists – RDs, I know you can relate to this.
- Teachers are often NOT the ones in the classrooms at lunch times.
- Homeroom or primary teachers are often not the ones teaching “health”.
- Education is under resourced – resources available to teachers are inconsistent and highly diet culture influenced and often paid for personally by teachers.
- COVID in schools is not over, things are scary, teachers are balancing a LOT trying to our keep kids safe.
- Just as you and I have varied relationships with food and bodies, so do teachers.
- The curriculum is not very helpful for guiding teachers.
- Healthy eating does not have a universal definition, yet teachers are asked in almost all curriculums to “Teach Healthy Eating”.
- Teachers inherit resources and have to essentially plan full day meetings all day, every day with like an hour to do this. Stuff gets re-used.
- Dietitian parents, please remember that our profession is also problematic. Many RDs still teach diet culture also. Lead with compassion. We once were also taught that this was the right way to do things.
So, what can do you do:
Okay, you get it, lots to remember, but you still saw an awful assignment or heard about food policing from school. What to do:
- Take a minute.
- Reflect on what the assignment/video etc. actually says and what you are assuming came with it in the form of teaching or discussion.
- Talk to your kid.
- What happened in the class? Try to understand from their perspective how it landed. Does anyone else talk about food at school? Tell me about that. Do not to speak negatively about the teacher. My go to line: “Hmm, sounds like we think different things about foods.”
- Reach out to the teacher to chat.
- A short email. No journal articles. No resources (not even D4T). Dietitian parents, possibly not even identifying yourself as a dietitian. Just be a parent. You are a partner here.
- Script: “Hey, My kid came home chatting about this assignment today, I have some questions about it and would love to chat a bit more to understand. Can we connect at some time?”.
- Have the conversation looking for understanding and curiosity:
- Script option: I heard about this….. I am worried because….. Can you help me undersand more…
- Don’t assume you and the teacher are on different pages. They may have never considered it before and “it’s the way it’s always been done”.
- Ask for the change for your child:
- I would like kiddo to be able to eat the food in the order that they choose with no interference or food comment, how can we work together to make that happen?
- If this is positive, you can ASK if they are interested in resources.
- Teachers want helpful resources. Send them D4T, send them other resources that may support what they are trying to do in the classroom.
Resources to use with teachers:
Dietitians4Teachers’ main focus is to support educators to change approaches at school. We offer non-judgemental support through:
- 1:1 conversations,
- Small group conversations,
- Resources:
- Professional development speaking and presenting,
- and our very popular classroom posters.
Email Gwen to get started: info@dietitians4teachers.ca
Other great reading and resources:
Nurturing Healthy Eaters in Secondary Schools: https://www.odph.ca/upload/membership/document/2019-12/nurturing-healthy-eaters-secondary-schools.pdf
The division of Responsibility in Schools from the Ellyn Satter Institute: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Handout-Healthy-eating-at-school.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2L0J7lXj_lGyvJGAFISR3pGrkT0y1EQwtDiIz2Q9bJphlZrcN82IgkpYE
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