Read this
What do you think?
I am not really sure what I think yet. On one hand it seems like a good idea to try and get students started on a healthy life style at a young age, but on the other hand is it really the schools business/responsibility to take care of the children?
Hell no!! I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Telling a child they are fat is wrong, plain and simple…
These children know they are overweight. Children are already bombarded on a daily basis with what society considers to be the ideal body. Most likely they hear it from kids on the playground, from TV shows, from movies, from magazines, etc.
School is supposed to be a safe learning environment, not another place to be told “you’re fat”.
I agree, telling a child they are fat is just plain fucking evil. Personal trainer’s that are there to teach you about health and nutrition don’t tell ADULTS that they are fat. You can teach proper health and nutrition without telling the kid they are fat.
A parent should give the child the proper diet to keep them from getting fat, because for the most part, a fat child is not that natural. Kid’s are not fat naturally unless the parents don’t limit their candy and feed them cheeseburgers only. Unless there is some kind of problem with their thyroid or some other disorder. Telling a school-child they are fat is a good way to make them disaffected with the entire world. School telling them they are fat destroys the hope that “People will be better when I’m an adult”
Sorry, I just find that to be a horrific idea.
Erek
Well, the letters go to the parents, from what I understand, and I see it as an attempt to get the parents to try and change their kid’s diet/ lifestyle to make them more healthy.
I would definitiely be against it if the people at the school told the kids “your fat”, but that is not how it works.
I see it as a “kick in the ass” to try and get the parents to make their child live a more healthy lifestyle, although I am still not sure that it is the school’s responsibility to take care of the children while they are at home.
Sorry, I guess my thread title is a bit misleading
I do not think it is the school’s responsibility. I seriously doubt that many parents are aware that their kid is fat. Lot’s of parents let their kids get fat due to being oblivious to it rather than through neglect. So you can have one of two scenarios in those cases. The oblivious mother is going to tell the child that it’s not HER fault he has to diet, the school said so. The neglectful mother tells her kid, “You can’t have that cheeseburger, your school said you’re a fatass”
Or yet a third scenario, the kid has a thyroid problem that he’s seen Doctor’s about and the school is sending a letter to a beleaguered mother as though she didn’t care enough about her kid to give him the proper diet.
The school’s can mind their own f***ing business, being fat isn’t life threatening. Lot’s of chronically fat people go on to lead healthy and productive lives. Sounds like the perfect breeding ground for Bulimia and Anorexia to me.
Erek
horhay_achoa wrote:
The kids are probably already hearing “you’re fat” from their classmates enough as it is.
Oh, how horrible.
Poor kids.
I’m a bit dubious about this. On the one hand; You might reach a dimwitted parent. On the other; I’m afraid the kids will be the victim. [as they already are, ofcourse]
from a too thin person
As someone who has battled a big gut all his life, I heartily support the school district. I think parents can contribute to their children’s weight problem by insisting they eat everything on the plate or by being too indulgent when it comes to buying snacks.
To me, frankly, being the victim of the kids’ usual cruel jokes (and I heard a few insults in my younger days) pales beside the proven dangers of obesity.
mswas: fat itself may not be life-threatening, but obesity can aggravate a wide range of health problems. Fat is neither beautiful nor healthful, contrary to what some groups tell you.
doperchic: While few people have the ideal body, there are 'way too many kids these days who are much too hefty for their own good. I am frankly disgusted by the large guts I see on too many teenage boys, guts bigger than my own and I know they haven’t been drinking beer for 26 years either. There are not that many cases of thyroid going around; today’s kids don’t get enough exercise and they eat too much junk food.
If it is ok to bombard students with non-violence ideas, no smoking ads, and no drinking ads then why would it be wrong to start anti-fat campaigns?
Marc
Wow. For once, there’s a subject that I’m really on the fence about.
On the one hand, I can see where notices like these can perhaps help an oblivious family to see that there is a problem that ought to be at the very least tempered. For instance, my cousin has a fairly serious weight problem, yet my aunt and uncle, blinded by the eyes of love, can’t see it. If other members of my family were to point it out, my aunt and uncle would react with hostility, possibly removing themselves from family gatherings and what-not. However, if my cousin’s school were to send out a notice about his potentially dangerous weight–though I believe that such a notice should be mailed in an envelope rather than handed to the student–then perhaps they might take stock of the situation.
On the other hand, the notices could merely enhance the problems of children who are overweight. If the notices were to be handed out to the students–as would be likely–they would provide more ammunition for abusive peers to utilize. It’s not easy to be a fat kid at school; making it worse doesn’t help anything.
Also, many parents are already aware of their child’s weight. The notices would do no good–and could potentially make things worse. I was pretty overweight as a kid (not as bad as my cousin, but enough). My parents, and especially my dad, were acutely aware of the situation. The preferred course of correction for my dad in regards to this situation was yelling, insulting, and withholding food of any desireable nature from me while allowing the rest of the family to indulge in whatever they wanted. This did absolute wonders for my self-esteem and self-image. Even now that my weight has settled and adjusted and reduced itself into a form that is curvy and desireable re: others’ opinions, I have about zero confidence in my ability to be attractive. This doesn’t exactly help my love life or emotional health, you know?
I guess that I can see its worth in some cases. . .but in my case, it would have just made things a lot worse. Hence, the drawn-ness.
As far as whether it is the schools’ buisness. . .I don’t think it falls outside the authority of the educational system. The question is, in my mind, whether doing so is a good idea.
eugh.
i was fat in grade school. i knew i was fat. if anyone else mentioned the fact i was overweight, it only made me want to eat more (when i was depressed, i’d eat).
it was bad enough that classmates made fun of me. when my mom would say (paraphrased) “you need to lose some weight” i felt horrible. she didn’t mean it in a terrible way, but whenever she said that, it sounded like i was really disappointing her.
oh, as a side note: you can’t place all the blame on parents. haven’t most of you snuck cookies when you were small? even if parents are careful of what they feed their kids, how do you guarantee the kid isn’t going to sneak in food when they’re not around?
a letter from the school is the LAST thing i would’ve needed, even if it was sent to my parents and not to me.
Hell, I still sneak cookies my mom keeps for my sister’s lunch!
Would I support this? Not really. I can see the “kick in the pants” to get motivated angle, but that’s not sufficient enough to me to recommend it.
My high school used body fat percentages as part of the grading in P.E. classes. We were sorted into groups based on body fat % and several physical tests like running laps and situps. What group you were in determined how much work you had to do to earn an A – the more fit you were, the less work you had to do. I thought it unfair then (and I am relatively thin, at 5’7 and 130, and was about the same then) and now would not stand for it.
Actually, being fat can be life threatening. It’s a matter of degree. I don’t object to a gentle reminder from the school that a kid may be on the wrong track. There’s nothing in the OP’s cite that says the school told the kids they were too fat. That damage is done without the school’s help by other kids, and worse, by the kid’s own parents.
I speak from experience. Everybody in my family got the same meals, but my sister and I (two out of six in the family) were almost always overweight. I have been clinically obese most of my life. I’m not a 700-pounder, but I’d be a lot healthier if I were a more “normal” weight. My mother didn’t need a school to tell her that I was overweight, and she did her best to keep me from overindulging. My father, on the other hand, thought name-calling was the way to get at it. “Lardbucket” was a favorite of his. That’s another topic, and more suitable for the Pit.
Back to the OP: schools may not have the responsibility to tell parents things like that, but some families just don’t notice, or they may even think that a little extra weight in childhood is a good thing. The school’s reminder may be just as appropriate as letting the parents know that a student has an academic or a deportment problem. It isn’t up to the school to correct either one, but they are in a better position to know what the problems are.
The Peyote Coyote wrote:
I, too, have been saddled with a big gut since I was about 8-and-a-half years old.
My parents were made acutely aware of my weight problem by this one doctor they took me to see. My dad turned around and put me on a 1500-calorie-a-day diet at age 9. I hated that diet. I hated not getting to eat anything for the rest of the day after I’d hit my 1500 calorie limit. I hated the weigh-ins that came with that diet. I hated having to do it every day, day after day, month after month. It was like never-ending self-torture.
As soon as my parents (or that doctor) relaxed about my weight problem, I gleefully threw off the bonds of that horrible diet and ate whatever the hell I wanted. And as a result, to this day, I believe I ended up getting more overweight – and having more of that weight concentrated in my gut – than I would have if I had never started dieting in the first place.
Only in the last 2 years have I found a weight-control strategy I can live with.
If my mom had received a letter from the school nurse saying I was overweight, she would’ve thrown it out with a scornful laugh. I was big-boned! I was healthy! What did they want at that crazy school, a Twiggy? It’s not enough she’s brilliant, she sings like an angel, she plays the piano, plays tennis, now she should look like a homeless orphan?
Parents know what their kids look like; they buy their clothes, they know what size they are. Fat meant healthy to my family. I can’t see what good a letter home will do when losing weight means a life-style change that the person who is to lose weight must embrace. If I had known the school nurse had written my family to say I was over-weight, I would’ve felt judged to be a ‘bad’ kid but would’ve had no resources to change my life-style.
I’m against it the schools reporting on a childs obesity. Unless the
parents are strung out on drugs or alcohol, every damn parent is acutely aware of their childs weight problem if indeed that is the case. Us parents want the best opportunities and social adjustment for our children and juggle a host of strategies in order to deal with all the regressive tendencies that children exhibit. For those people who think some parents are oblivious to their child’s obesity I say bravo to those parents. That child knows her parents love her for who she is. Any father who raises the subject of his daughters weight problem is only thinking about himself.
When I was a kid, there were very few kids who were overweight. We all pretty well ate what we wanted, but we all spent a hell of a lot of time playing games and sports. We didn’t need to be supervised. That is the problem today. Somehow the kids today can’t seem to get to gether for impromptu sports unless some adult organizes it.
Yeah, I think parents are aware that Junior looks like something from Cliff Yablonski Hates You, but getting them to do something about it is a whole 'nother story. Parents need to learn to tell their kids to put down the soda and chips and get out from in front of the PlayStation2 and go outside for a while.
Obviously there are no simple answers as obesity is a very complex problem and its causes and solutions are different for each person. But, I think it’s a good way to get people to at least try and do something about it.
I don’t really fault the school district since their heart is in the right place (e.g. the best interest of the child). However, I sincerely doubt that sending a letter to parents will help the situation. I’d venture to say that a lot of the obese children have obese parents. And how can you expect someone who consistently makes poor dietary choices to raise a child who makes healthy dietary choices? It’s like expecting parents who smoke to raise kids who don’t. There’s a strong correlation between the two that no letter is going to affect.
Also, at least here in Ohio school lunches aren’t the healthiest alternatives either. I work once a month in the school cafeteria so I see firsthand what the offering is. Even if they offer fruits and/or vegetables, most kids pass on the carrot sticks and just eat the high fat/high calorie pizza. Now if the school didn’t offer that high fat/high calorie pizza, maybe more kids would eat the carrot sticks. But they want to offer something appealing to kids. And most kids today would pick the hamburger/cheeseburger over the fajita.