A lesson that should apply to lots of teachers, mentors,
coaches: lectures are usually the least effective teaching tool.
A study published in JAMA
Pediatrics looked at over 2000 teens and their parents, some of the teens
being overweight, some of normal weight.
Both among the overweight and normal teens, those parents
who used simple information to inform their kids about eating well were more
likely to have that teen follow a healthy diet than were those parents who
‘hectored “my choice of word) their teen to eat better in order to lose weight.
Even more instructive to me because I strongly believe
this is always the case, those parents who ate a healthy diet themselves were
much more likely to have their kids eat well, too.
You want your kids to eat well?
You want them to exercise?
You want them to use alcohol judiciously?
You want them not to text and drive?
Follow those healthy guidelines yourself and your kid is
more likely to follw them, too.
End of lecture.
