By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Here's some food for thought for Monday's nationwide "Family Day":
Teens who eat dinner with their families two or fewer times per week are twice as likely to smoke daily and get drunk monthly, compared to their peers who have frequent family dinners (at least five per week.
That was one finding of a report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University sponsored by TV Land and Nick at Nite's "Family Table."
CASA's "Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children," is a national effort created in 2001.
"Since we have parents who work nights, we decided to bring it here to school," explained Penny Fowle, who teaches a class of seven emotionally impaired Cass County students ages 8 to 12 at Lewis Cass Intermediate's North Pointe School in Dowagiac.
Her students prepared parents a lunch of ham, baked potato, baked beans and tea or coffee.
This was the first time the study examined the relationship between a teen's tobacco and alcohol use and family dinners.
The report, "The Importance of Family Dinners III," also revealed that, compared to teens who have five or more family dinners per week, those who have two or fewer are:
More than twice as likely to have tried cigarettes.
One and a half times likelier to have tried alcohol.
Twice as likely to have tried marijuana.
More than twice as likely to say future drug use is very or somewhat likely.
CASA regards meals together as a "proxy for parental engagement."
Compared to parents who say their families have dinners together frequently, those who have infrequent family dinners are:
Five times likelier to say they have a fair or poor relationship with their teen.
One and a half times likelier to say they know the parents of their teen's friends not very well or not at all.
More than twice as likely to say they do not know the names of their teen's teachers.
Twice as likely to say that parents deserve not very much blame or no blame at all when a teenager uses illegal drugs.
These findings in conjunction with the sixth annual Family Day "prove that family dinners and the communication that occurs over the course of a meal are critical in building a relationship with your children and to understanding the world in which they live," says Joseph A. Califano Jr., CASA's chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. "Parents who have frequent family dinners are those who take the time to know their child's friends and the parents of those friends, know their child's teachers, chaperone their parties and have healthier kids."
"Once again, the study's findings serve as a wake-up call to the benefits of engaging kids consistently at the family table," said Larry W. Jones, president of TV Land and Nick at Nite. "At TV Land and Nick at Nite, our Family Table initiative serves to spread the word on why families need to make sharing meals a priority. Each year, the Importance of Family Dinners study reminds us that making the commitment to eat together on a regular basis can influence your kids' lives more than anything else you do."
This year, 58 percent of teens report having dinner with their families at least five times a week – the same proportion CASA has observed over the past several years. Consistent with what teens report, 59 percent of parents say they have frequent family dinners.
One in five teens and and parents who report infrequent family dinners say the main reason their families do not dine together more often is they are too busy. Parents most commonly cite scheduling conflicts. Teens say both parents work late.
Teens who have frequent family dinners are likely to get better grades in school and higher academic performance is associated with lower substance abuse risk.
Family dinners are more common than family breakfasts. Only 17 percent of teens and 13 percent of parents say they eat breakfast with a family member five or more times per week.
Twenty-six percent of 17-year-olds have family dinners seven nights per week, compared to 51 percent of 12-year-olds and 40 percent of 13-year-olds.
Teens who have frequent family dinners are more than twice as likely to say that parents are always home during the house parties they attend.
Fowle is marking her 20th year with the LCISD. When she arrived in Cassopolis she started out in the emotionally impaired classroom for high school students. She spent 13 years in that classroom and watched those young adults make changes in their lives that allowed them to "go on to do great things."
This is her seventh year with upper elementary and early junior high EMI students.
"This age group is equally rewarding," she says. "There is great satisfaction in knowing that these students return to their home school with such great potential. While working with this sometimes challenging population of students here at the ISD, I have had a lot of training in positive behavior management," including Mandt training, Cornell and non-violent crisis intervention (CPI).
"All of these have helped me successfully teach our students who to appropriately handle stress and frustration in their lives," Fowle said. "I really enjoy all of the students who come through my program. When I am able to see them grow and learn, it makes every day I teach the greatest day of my life."
Fowle attended Jackson Community College for her associate degree in general studies. She then earned her bachelor's degree at Eastern Michigan University with a Michigan provisional teaching certificate that allows her to teach all subjects in grades K-8, K-12 in special education for the emotionally impaired and ninth grade industrial arts.
While at EMU, Fowle had to complete several hours of student teaching. Her hours were obtained from a variety of experiences, including regular and special education in the public school system, juvenile delinquent centers and a residential treatment center.
She also received her continuing teaching certificate in 1991 upon completion of 18 graduate hours through Western Michigan University at Lake Michigan College.