What is Healthy Holly Teaching Our Kids?

If you live in or around Baltimore, you have heard the name “Healthy Holly” at least once a day. I have a copy of Healthy Holly Vegetables are not just Green, by Catherine Pugh, the Mayor of Baltimore, although many books are still unaccounted for. The book, created for students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade, show the many colorful types of vegetables that are available at the grocery store for families to eat to stay healthy. Holly and her brother Herbie visit the grocery store with their parents and pick vegetables of every color to try so that they can eat healthy.

If you are not aware of the controversy, you can easily find it through an online search. Mayor Pugh’s integrity is being questioned because of possible conflicts of interest that have been discovered. Sources say Mayor Pugh made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of her “Healthy Holly” books while working for the University Of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) on their volunteer board and working for the city of Baltimore as Mayor. Previous to be the mayor, Pugh was on a senate committee that funded UMMS. As mayor, Pugh awarded the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid Atlantic States Inc. a $48 million contract after the foundation purchased copies of the Healthy Holly books. Was Mayor Pugh making money from the medical systems while the medical systems were getting the funding they wanted from the city of Baltimore?

Back to the original question: What is Healthy Holly teaching our kids? While the book has a great message about healthy eating, it is now going to be known for being used as a money maker for Mayor Pugh as she helped medical systems receive the funding they wanted. When your child hears the name “Healthy Holly” (I don’t think they can avoid hearing it at this point!), what will you say when they ask, “Who is Healthy Holly?”

I think the saddest part of the whole controversy and other recent controversies of adults doing whatever they feel they have to in order to get what they want (even pay for their child to get into a college they wouldn’t be able to get into on their own), is sending the wrong message to children. How about hard work and perseverance? What about, “You can’t always get what you want”. Do they know who they can trust anymore when people often feel they are above the law?

No matter what your views are on this latest controversy, I think we can all agree that it is at the

very least, a teachable moment. Children need to be educated in values and morals along with academics in hopes that they will be successful well rounded adults.

What are your thoughts on this latest controversy and its’ impact on our children? What teachable moments have you had in response to the problems in our society? Please share!