Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Individual versus Collective

The format of our nutrition education is lacking to the point where we cannot address the issues of collectivity and nutrition. Our students leave the classroom and resume their post-individual lives. We lecture and deliver information on nutrition at an individual level and never on the collective level. You might wonder how do we deal with nutrition on a collective level? First of all, the school food program is a result of collective action. Secondly, socially we eat as a social function often. Thirdly, many of our eating habits are results of cultural inputs from friends, parents, and other meaningful community members. Therefore, us not interacting with this nutritional infrastructure of connectivity and communication puts our students at a disadvantage. They interact with this infrastructure everyday and yet we never talk about it.

The hybrid nutrition educator program designed to develop youth advocates directly intercedes in this miseducation process. Whereas, young people would be "learning" an implied "nutrition philosophy" socially when they visit fast food restaurants or corner stores, but with this program will provide the social context for a proper education and the development of a more well-rounded "nutrition philosophy".

It's the combination of the individual and collective education that produces the kind of inputs to create a well-rounded educational experience.

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