A school has forbidden children from drinking water in the classroom, maintaining it distracts them from learning, and the teachers complained students were misusing time messing about with water bottles.
But the kids have objected by smearing the word water on an external wall and water is bad on a nearby pedestrian crossing. Nonetheless, studies confirm that the regular consumption of water increases concentration and helps to study, so clearly, this should be regarded as advantageous in a place of learning? Not only that it prevents dehydration, not only that the dictate attacks a fundamental human right to drinking water.
But the headteacher said the embargo was due to extraneous distractions, and that it had created too many disturbances with students and teachers presenting their viewpoints on the matter rather than educating and studying.
Although in extremely warm spells the students are permitted to have their bottles of water out in lessons to ensure they were cool and hydrated, and that this practice did remain even after the warm weather, but now suddenly the presence of bottles on tables was jeopardising their education in lessons, but it didn’t appear to do this in the warm weather, and as a consequence have been ordered to keep their water bottles in their bags and that they can only have a drink between lessons to rehydrate if they want to.
Schools are not concentration camps and children aren’t there to be rounded up like sheep like it was done in Victorian times, although a lesson is only around an hour, so surely they can wait until the completion of the lesson?
Hydration in school is a great concept and it should be allowed without a problem, although those who went to school in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s were never permitted to drink water throughout lessons, and the class endured the desert for the entire hour, they must have been heroes, and it appears that they now consume more time drinking and going to the loo.
How did we ever survive at school? Oh, that’s right we all swigged from the same water fountain at class change or break time, but prohibitions on water bottles are frequently met with disapproval because of arguments that instant access to drinking water during the school day can keep pupils vigilant and observant, and even reinforce educational achievement.
When children are hydrated, they function better and concentrate better, and the amount of fluid each child needs diversifies depending on the height, weight, and level of physical exercise, but it usually wavers around 1.8 litres or approximately eight glasses of water or other fluids each day.
And the biggest selling point is that there is some documentation recorded that if children are hydrated, they do perform better, particularly on tests, and in addition to keeping pupils alert, ensuring that kids are hydrated can further lead to a healthier environment for both pupils and tutors, and could reduce a significant number of sick days in both pupils and tutors.
High schools are more likely than junior or middle schools to ban water bottles to stop pupils from sneaking alcohol into the classroom, but drinking water from bottles allows more fluid consumption than drinking from water fountains, which a lot of kids don’t like to drink from because the water is usually warm and the fountains are usually not clean.
