Now, the story caught my eye because I’m overweight, and I began to roll my eyes (like this! :rolleyes: ) when I read that a lawmaker wants to set regulations on the girth of teachers. However, fat discrimination is a dead horse; I don’t even want to talk about it at this point.
What -did- make this pit-worthy to me is the following statement:
Yep. It’s too bad that the government can’t simply tell us how to raise our children down to the most minute detail. I’m not sure who to be more angry at; A lawmaker who seems remorseful that he can’t pass such laws, or a constituancy that supports the idea that the government should, indeed, step in and tell us how to live in our own homes.
Just makes me… Well, you saw the emoticon earlier.
I actually have mixed feelings about “legislating” the home. To an extent, we already do have laws that regulate the home lives of children, in order to prevent neglect and various forms of abuse. One could argue that allowing a child to get extremely obese (baring a causative medical condition) is a form of neglect in that it creates a living situation that’s harmful to the child, much like living in a filthy home or wandering around alone at night. I’m not convinced that allowing child protecection agencies to get involved in such cases is a bad idea; in fact, I’d probably be in favor of it so long as there were clear and suitable guidelines about what was considered “extremely obese.”
What does this mean? So teachers will weigh in every six months and then what? What are the “appropriate measures” for teachers who cannot meet the standard? What the hell is an obesity standard.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see fewer fat people in society, too, but how in the heck do their proposals accomplish this?
Knowing how savvy lawmakers and school boards are about education, I expect someting along the lines of:
“Of course, Mrs.X has increased the standardized test scores in her classroom over the past 5 years, and we fully realize how instrumental she’s been in the grant writing processes of our school. She has set a high personal goal for eductaion by obtaining her graduate degree and is current pursuing a National Board Certification, but her BMI is 28, so we’ve chosen not to renew her contract.”
:smack:
Make the law fair. Weigh all public officials. Make mandatory resignation laws for those who are too fat.
I can just see it now . . . the Dems try to get the White House Chef to prepare lots of tempty and tasty high calorie foods . . . someone slips a few dozen teaspoons of sugar in Delay’s morning coffee . . . Scalia notices there’s suddenly whipped cream on everything he eats . . .
In the remotest theory, I can get where you are coming from. That said, given the competence that we are used to with child protective agencies in discharging their current responsibilities, I would have to say that this is fundamentally a terrible idea.
Generally, the further away incompetent bureaucracies are from my day-to-day life, the happier I am.
Why would matters of fitness be any less a part of a child’s education than his mind? It used to be so. Gym class and extracurricular activities were considered crucial parts of a well rounded education (no pun intended).
bolding mine.
IMnsHO, this IS part of the problem in our country, we’ve swung so far away from paying attention to our bodies and toward “personal goals” and obtaining success that we’ve left caring for our physical selves properly far far behind. Keeping fit, active and healthy, both emotionally and physically SHOULD be part of our childhood education, as well as our lives as adults.
We wouldn’t have 30 percent of our fellow Americans being obese, and having these 'fat bashing" meltdowns if it were. IMHO, it SHOULD be brought back into our educational system as a viable part of it, rather than something pushed off onto parents to pay for (when I was in Jr High, and High School parents didn’t have to fork out hundreds of dollars to pay for sports). And also IMHO, teachers should be setting the best example they can, academically as WELL as healthwise.
This does NOT mean that I believe that the government should step in and declare who is “fit” to teach based upon their weight. But I understand the sentiment, and agree with the poster who said that allowing children to become obese is a form a child neglect (at the least).
This 'll come in handy when we start rounding up those that don’t conform to our physical standards - we’ll already have a standard nicely in place.
We should also weigh those about to marry - fat people have fat kids, thus they should not be permitted to procreate. If in the proposed marital union one party is fat, and the other isn’t - the wedding is off. the non-fat party should be stongly encouraged to mate with non-fatties.
We’re not just going to abandon the heifers though, we’ll avail them of the opportunity to re-educate themselves. We’ll set up facilities where we can transport them to, to learn new and healthier lifestyles. Given that excercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, we can probably get some work out of them to pay for the program.
Those not yet re-educated will not, of course, have health insurance - fatties are expensive to keep well, and an unfair drain on society. It’d be unlikely that they’d be offered insurance anyway, not being allowed to work in most professions and all. Any profession that could potentially entail contact with the public is closed to them - it is important to set a good example.
Ultimately, zis vill give us a society with a very fit population. Later, ve can work on a kultural cleanup.
We hold kids to a standard now? So… what, do they get held back a grade if they get an F in fat class? Do they get detention if they violate the fat rules three times? :rolleyes:
This is one of those aras where I tend towards a libertarian, or Old School conservatism - More govenment interference is a bad thing. There are certain areas that are none of their business and they should stay out of it. What’s next? SWAT teams invading donut shops? Street sweeps to round up anyone who isn’t built like a superhero?
Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face
Close your eyes, can’t happen here
Big bro’ on white horse is near
The hippies won’t come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!
“California Uber Alles”, Dead Kennedys
I’m not the only one to whom these lyrics suggested themselves, am I?
I agree that teachers should set a good example. However, I’ve never heard a child yet say, “I wanna be all big and fat just like Mrs.X when I grow up”. How exactly are we supposed to be this example of health? The children in my class don’t live with me, so they have no idea of my homelife habits. They don’t even see what I eat for lunch. Since I’m teaching, I’m not out walking or strength training. I have to do that after work- when my class is not around. I can teach good heath habits (and I do), but let’s not deny the fact that there are thin, fit looking teachers at school who will teach good health habits then go home to smoke or have a drink or have a bag of Doritos. Should they lose their jobs, too, or are we just going to reprimand the ones who the scales will “out”? If the parents smoke, drink, or are overweight should they be put on probation to have their children removed from the home and lose their jobs? How can you make a teacher more responsible for the health of a child than their parents?
Why doesn’t the government do something about those gawdawful school lunches if they’re worried about children’s health? I don’t feed the students. I don’t live with the students. But if I’m overweight, you’d support administrative intervention into my career because there are some fat kids out there in America?
I didn’t see anyone here denying that heath education was important. I will agree that physical education and heath topics are woefully ignored and underfunded, and that this is a contributing factor in our nations obesity rate.
But all the questions I asked in the post and "you"s I used were in general, NOT aimed specifically at CanvasShoes. Sorry if there was confusion, as I didn’t make that differentiation.
I realize CS had already stated her disagreement with the government regulating who is “fit” to teach. I got all “head up” and apologies in advance if it came off as railing at anybody in particular.
No, no, keep it at 28. We should be holding teachers to a higher standard, after all. It’s part of the new “No Child Left Staring at a Big Behind” Initiative.
