Unscientific Poll

The Exite Poll for Sunday, Jan 18, was on removing pop machines from schools. Out of some 12,544 respondants, 64% favored removing the machines. 28% prefered to keep them. The poll was prompted by this Reuters news story: "Philadelphia officials have banned the sale of sodas throughout the public school system in an effort to fight obesity among its students." I voted for removal, though I think the responsibilty for obesity rests with parents and the students themselves, not a nanny state. My vote was based on two issues, one the caffine and sugar induced energy levels of students can disrupt their learning, their very purpose for being there, and second, I think that selling a potentialy disruptive product to generate income for schools (and it is a big money maker) puts the schools in a conflict of interest.

If parents (who are also taxpayers and voters) are happy with the pop machine arangement, there is no question: they stay. But, this unscientific poll (though the numbers are pretty handsome) suggests parents may not be. I also wonder how many kids voted to keep the machines out of self-interest.

This is an issue for me much more in the middle school than in the high school, where I think more responsibility should be placed on students, even for their own success and failure. Wither the nanny school as students get older.