This week’s story about the difficulties many children have with getting drinking water at school prompted a lot of interesting comments. My interest in this story began in December after reading through the actual legislation that President Obama signed into law on that day.
Many people, especially those in politics and media, often make a big deal about the number of pages that make up federal legislation like health care reform, but what always strikes me is the opposite: How little is written to change so much. Think about it – the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 defines nutrition policy for America’s schoolchildren, and it’s 200 pages long with only 25 lines per page. That’s much less text than the book you’d read while sitting on the beach. And the section mandating that every public school across the country provide free drinking water? It's just eight lines long.
It’s so brief in fact it’s easy to miss – but when you think about what it's saying, it's a huge deal. Why is it in there? What is it trying to accomplish? That’s what led to the earlier article, and to all of your comments. Here are just some of the reader comments that struck me, grouped into similar themes.
Many readers shared their personal experiences with dehydration in school.
