From Macintosh Bev and I headed out to Micanopy FL.  It is home to around 700 people and was the "first distinct U.S. town in Florida, with settlement beginning after Spain ceded the Florida territory in 1821."  The area was the setting for native Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings novel The Yearling.  We ate a lunch of homemade bread with hummus at the Mosswood Farm Organic Store & Bake House.  The kitchen is literally a small home kitchen you walk past to eat on the shaded backyard patio.  Nothing formal here!  The food and treats are phenomenal none the less!


Bev is a near lifelong diabetic.  She must test her levels several times a day and recalled how this medical condition was largely misunderstood and overlooked when she was in school.  As a student, she had to practically fend for herself to monitor and correct her levels.  Her mom even stitched sugar packets into the waistline of her pants in case she needed to ingest some in an emergency.  Bev noted that food was not allowed in school, but she almost always had some hidden away anyway out of medical necessity.  Her story got me thinking.

I explained to her how eating and drinking in class is still an issue in our more 'enlightened' (?) 21st century schools.  Despite an overwhelming body of research that concludes young people need water and nutrients throughout the day to maximize the development of their growing bodies, most classrooms are food and drink free zones.  It is reasoned that they should drink water from fountains in the hallway during their 4-5 minute passing periods.  More often than not, they don't.  In fact, many of us adults would not want to drink out of these fountains ourselves.  Untrained lips sometimes cup the spouts, spit often adorns the sink surface, and discarded gum is a regular occupant of various parts of the fountain.  If every young person drank as much as they should, the lines would be long and tardies would increase.  Besides, the water is often hot and tastes like something other than water!

Given all of this, why are snacks and water not allowed in the majority of classrooms in American schools?  One reason is that young people are messy.  Crumbs attract bugs, water destroys textbooks and technology, food allergies can kill... and, besides, wrappers are noisy!  The whole question lends itself to a legitimate cost-benefit analysis.

At least we now do better about taking care of the needs of diabetics and students with other special dietary needs in our schools.  At least now, students who---due to medical conditions---must use the bathroom more frequently than others are allowed to do so.  Educators are more informed about these special needs (when they have access to the information in a timely manner) and they tend to be more flexible in meeting them.  There are, however, still MANY exceptions.

One very preventable exception is when teachers are unaware of the special need.  In some schools, even when the information is shared by the school nurse or special education staff, the information is delayed in getting to the classroom teacher.  Often it is in a little red folder (or the equivalent paper communication) that is distributed at the beginning of school, but is often delayed by the start-up curve and frenzied pace of a new school year.  There is no reason for this delay and inefficiency!  Modern data management using online systems, like those EdClick offers, allow for immediate dissemination of this information, as well as easy access for review and reference as needed.  The information can be readily updated anytime throughout the year, as warranted.  It is all there, paperless and linked to the student profile for all educators with a need to know to see by clicking a couple of links.  Organized, readily-accessible, and timely.

This can be especially important when students are off-campus at school-sponsored activities or are in common areas being supervised by educators other than their regular classroom teachers.  What happens when a student gets injured during an extracurricular activity, field trip, or other such event and her/his records are not available to the supervising educators?  Modern day technologies, again...like those EdClick offers, allow for that information to be accessed quickly in times of need.  Information on allergies, medical conditions, and contacts in case of emergency should be available whenever school personnel are supervising young people...even off-campus.  Using a smart phone, laptop, iPad, or whatever other modern device, the supervising adult should have access to all critical information on each child.  EdClick's data management solutions make this possible for any school or district, at a very reasonable cost.