Gardening Lessons: A Solution To Child Obesity Crisis?

Health experts have recently revealed that the world is facing a child obesity crisis. That's why teachers have suggested that children as young as four should be given gardening lessons in schools as an option to help solve the current obesity crisis.

In the past three decades, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals. Between 2012 and 2016, one out of five children has been classified as obese and more than 2,000 overweight young people needed hospital treatment due to obesity.

Teachers, however, have quite a brilliant suggestion to address the obesity crisis. According to The Telegraph, the members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) are urging to place gardening as an integral part of the curriculum.

The gardening lessons suggestion came after the teachers passed a motion to persuade the government to incorporate gardening into the primary school curriculum. The educators emphasized that children will learn the benefit of eating healthy foods through gardening lessons.

"Gardening can be an extension of the Government's cookery program," Andrew Bradley, proposer and chair of governors in a primary school in Derbyshire, said. "We can see the development from planting to plate. The school uses gardening throughout our curriculum but I would like to see this extended to all schools so that pupils can learn where their food comes from and the value of the food."

"Give a child a carrot and you feed it for a meal," Bradley added. "Teach a child to garden and you can feed it for life."

Gardening lessons, however, do not have to be standalone subjects. According to Natasha Bradley, gardening could be introduced in different parts of the curriculum.

"You can introduce numeracy sessions asking children how many seeds in this packet, estimation, divide the seeds into multiple tray and do division," Natasha said. "Within science you can do experimentation. You can design a garden in art and design."

In other news, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is hopeful that the successors of her husband, President Barack Obama, will continue her garden in the White House, ABC News reports. The first lady started her garden as part of her signature initiative to eradicate childhood obesity when the administration began in 2009.