One more example of how schools banning something adults feel is bad for kids has little or no effect on their behavior.

A new study suggests that cutting sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks from school cafeteria menus will have little effect on teens’ overall consumption of the beverages.

Because these drinks are believed to be a major contributor to increasing rates of childhood obesity in the United States, many schools across the nation are banning them or curbing their availability to students.

The fact that students couldn’t get sugared drinks at school didn’t mean they drank less of it. It just means they drank it somewhere else or brought it with them.

Which comes back to a basic point of education…

Simply banning something rarely changes a person’s behavior, unless it’s to make many of them want the banned substance even more.

Helping them understand why that behavior is harmful and which alternatives are better, while not perfect, still works much better.

I know… I’m naive. :-)