The January 2003 issue of Runner’s World reported the results of a study which indicated that obese children tend to score lower on standardized tests than children who are physically fit.
OK, let’s think about this for a minute…Nutritious food is expensive. Fast food is not nutritious, and it’s cheap. Since poor people have a tendency to eat large amounts of fast food it is easy to see why obesity is a major problem among people in lower income brackets.
OK, let’s think about this for another minute…In the U.S. public schools are largely funded by property taxes. Since people in lower income brackets tend to rent rather than own the neighborhoods they live in are not gold mines when it comes to property taxes. So, schools in poor neighborhoods receive less funding than schools in richer neighborhoods. This means the kids who attend those schools have fewer resources — older library books, no money for art or music classes, outdated textbooks, less or no funding for lab equipment — which makes it harder for them to learn, which makes it harder for them to score higher on standardized tests.
OK, keep thinking now. Kids who live in poor neighborhoods are frequently unable to play outside because of street violence. Street violence, not a particular problem in richer neighborhoods. Let’s add to that the fact that often, poor kids don’t have access to gyms and pools, and frequently can’t afford the fees to be on sports teams. Add that together with the fact that poor kids are eating less nutritiously and you get obese poor kids.
So, really, what this study tells us is that poor kids score lower on standardized tests than rich kids.