Water, Water, Everywhere
It never bothered me before, but I'm getting so tired of seeing people with water bottles. It amazes me that companies such as Poland Spring and Fiji have convinced people that they need to hydrate themselves every five minutes during all of their waking hours. Not only is this not medically necessary, it is terribly wasteful: it takes millions of gallons of oil to produce all of those plastic bottles. Then of course there are the numerous trips to the bathroom. Prior to water companies developing these marketing ploys, no one was fainting due to dehydration. There wasn't an epidemic of people suddenly dying on the streets because they didn't have their water bottle nearby.
Standards of behavior change with time, and the ubiquitous water bottle is a good example. Employers have guidelines regarding food and beverage consumption during work hours; mine does not allow either in the classroom. It's about maintaining professionalism, and limiting distractions. This is why teachers also have standards of behavior that students are expected to follow. It isn't asking much of students to come into class without food or beverages, ready to learn. If it is, then we're in trouble.
Standards of behavior change with time, and the ubiquitous water bottle is a good example. Employers have guidelines regarding food and beverage consumption during work hours; mine does not allow either in the classroom. It's about maintaining professionalism, and limiting distractions. This is why teachers also have standards of behavior that students are expected to follow. It isn't asking much of students to come into class without food or beverages, ready to learn. If it is, then we're in trouble.
posted by olgapolites at 6:38 AM
10 Comments:
Altough I do not disagree with the idea of this blog, I do disagree with the way it was worded. I am an athlete, a cross country runner. I have to run a ridiculous amount day in and day out. I need to CONSTANTLY keep hydrating if I plan on having a successful run. I tried to cut back on my water intake one day during school to a bottle and half because another teacher said it was not "medically necessary". I ended up passing out on a fairly easy workout. So, infact it is medically necessary to constantly hydrate during the day for athletes. Not doing so is just harming their bodies. All this hydrating does force you to go to the bathroom, but that is actually a good thing. Going to the bathroom flushes out any bugs in your stomach as well as any in your bladder. If i had to guess, the average person drinks about a glass to a glass and a half per meal. And each meal is about five to seven hours apart. Between those meals, peoples bodies do not shut down, they are always running so they will always need water to function properly and to their greatest potential. By hydrating only at meals, they are operating four to five hours at a time without any water intake. Which means that that persons systems are not running at their full potential, which means that their bodies will not be 100%, so they will become a more acceptable host to illnesses and viruses. Which will then spread around schools and to more children who arent properly hydrated. And all this could have been avoided if only they had hydrated.
I agree. Having a water bottle ever period of every day is not necessary. That is why we sell water bottle in the caf. and not in the hallways. If people feel the need to sip on some water every minute of every day, then there is a problem.
I agree that water bottles are a bit excessive at times. I however am one of the people who carry one around. My mom always says that your supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day and my dermatologist says that drinking a lot of water helps keep your skin clear. Therefore, I drink water for health reasons. I do think I should probably switch to using a reusable container to help preserve the environment, but I don't believe that students shouldn't drink water from water bottles throughout the day.
Recycle the water bottle after you're done. There is nothing physically wrong with water bottles, and there should be no limit to their consumption. Clean drinking water is nothing to take for granted. Just make sure to recycle, to help your community out.
This is an interesting subject. Sure, I'm all for a nice nudge to corporations now and again about their ways of marketing, but I don't think it applies here. Perhaps my memory has been blurred since 2008, but I can't remember ever being bombarded with ads for water. Maybe the aquafina (spelling that right? probably not...) "make your body happy..." commercials, but that's it when it comes to spring water. There are plenty of health benefits that go along with just drinking enough water. Yes, the need to pee is annoying, but your system needs to be flushed out every now and again.
The ads that I do find bothersome and unessessary are ones for "mineral water," which cost a rediculous amount more than a regular bottle for a little bit of color and flavor and calories. I hear its nice to have if you're an athlete, but all those extra calories aren't going to help you if you're just sitting in class.
The environmental factor is another issue with water. While water is a good thing to have, all these plastic bottles are a bit much. If I bring water to school I simply refill the bottle over and over again, but some people don't. Personally, I think it would be a much better plan to just buy 1 refillable bottle and never have to deal with this nonsense ever again (if my mom would stop going to BJ's for bottles by the case :P).
I never really noticed until just now, but I suppose you have a good point. What bothers me more is seeing kids walking around with half gallon jugs of iced tea. If anything is medically (or otherwise) unnecessary, it's that. Furthermore, if this is against the rules, then that rule should be enforced, period. The only thing making this ubiquitous is the number of teachers letting it slide. It's the same reason why you still see girls wearing short-shorts and spaghetti straps.
I understand that everyone has a water bottle and that the students use of water bottles may be a bit excessive but i know i always have one with me.I do think that we could last throughout a few periods of class without a sip of water but I know i am one who drinks my water maybe even a bit too much during the school day. My main concern with the plastic water bottles is the environment, and yes it does cost quite the sum of money for those companies to make those bottles. I think the best invention are those canteen looking bottles which i have invested in. They keep your water chilled and they are way less expensive than buying packs of the plastic water bottles.
I carry around a water bottle at all times, because most of the time it actually does help. Whenever I'm sick and coughing a lot, it's extremely convienent to have a water bottle right next to me than to have to get up in the middle of class to go out to the hallway to find a water fountain. In my opinion, that is even more of a distraction than drinking out of your own bottle.
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I'm not sure that I can say I agree with this article. As someone who carries water bottles with them through out the day I would not say I do so because of excessive advertising or because I fear the risk of dehydration. Unless the water companies are just very good at subliminal advertising, I cannot recall seeing a large quantity of advertisements for water. I carry my water bottles for a few reasons. One being that drinking water keeps me focused. Whether being a result of the placebo effect or not, I feel that taking a sip of water in class helps re-stimulate a dull mind and helps me to re-concentrate on the lesson. It can be compared to the common concept that eating a peppermint flavored candy as you work helps to focus; Water helps to flush the mouth of the stale, "natural" taste that tends to accumulate if you haven't had anything to eat in a while. If you've ever asked anyone if they have gum because "you just need to get this taste out of your mouth" you can understand that it can be distracting. I also carry water with me as a means to cool down in case I get too hot. Considering how convenient and propagated recycling has become, I don't think the issue of wastefulness is as threatening as it may have been in the past. Of course there are still some who do not recycle but that is a flaw in consumer behavior rather than a flaw in the recycling cycle; if everyone recycled, the dissipation of the materials used to make water bottles would be reduced to none. As far as maintaining professionalism I think that drinking water in class in no way infringes upon the theory of "professionalism" and the "proper way to act".
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