AZ Schools: Send Obese Kids Home With A Note?

[alp227]

Run time: 05:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--t5sWi2s6c   Posted on YouTube: November 19, 2010 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 18797   Posted on DU: November 21, 2010 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 1348

 

[rocktivity]

1. Why not work with the parents and doctors to put together

a realistic weight loss and exercise plan?

:eyes:
rocktivityy

[bluestateguy]

2. I don't have a whole lot of patience for negligent parents

This is not an ideal policy, but someone needs to tell the parents that they need to take nutrition and healthy habits a little more seriously.

[freedom fighter jh]

8. Parents are up against a lot.

If they're poor, they may be working all the time and not have time to deal with second-tier issues like getting the kids to play outside, where they will be active. In fact, I have heard parents say they *prefer* to have their kids inside playing video games, so that the keep out of trouble. Again if they are poor, they may not be able to afford low-calorie, healthy food like vegetables. Starches, sugar, and fat seem to cost less.

Even if they aren't poor, they are raising kids in a society where almost all transportation is by motor vehicle, rather than by foot or bicycle; where entertainment is watching TV or playing on the computer, rather than playing outside (although sports are still big in high school); and where work usually involves more sitting, rather than physical activity. And kids are often offered high-calorie junk outside the home, including at school cafeterias.

There are many forces in our society making people obese. The best parents can do is to serve healthy, nutritious food (which is usually low in calories) and encourage kids to be physically active. But that parental influence can only go so far in a world full of junk food.

[spooked911]

18. Yes, you summarized the issues pretty well

it is a very tricky, near impossible, thing to keep your kids engaged, safe, happy and also healthy, in typical American living environments.

[spooked911]

17. are you a parent?

I suspect not

[timefortherevolution]

3. Is that Cenk's original partner from the Young Turks?

If it is, so glad to see him back.

He was hilarious!

[suzanner]

4. I was a fat girl until junior high...

started as soon as I started school and sat all day. Back then, fat was not so common. Now, the very sister who most humiliated me, of all the people back then, is a fat Republican, while I'm a normal weight Democrat. My parents put me on RX diet pills (speed) and were pretty much ashamed of me, no matter how well I did in school pr how many achievements. I could write a book on the topic.

[Guilded Lilly]

5. Does this school offer Phys Ed classes? Does this school

offer nutritional food in the cafeterias? Does this school offer vending machines with healthier choices? Has this school thought of having *assemblies* for the parents in general at the beginning of the year that are mandatory and address some of these concerns? Do they send home literature to all parents at the beginning of the year regarding nutritional concerns? Do they offer sports programs? Supervised recess activities?

Sending a child home after being weighed at school stating that they are fat is PREPOSTEROUS for a place of supposed *education* Just exactly what are they hoping to teach these overweight children...that they aren't worthy of education because they are heavy? That the parents are BAAAAAAD and must be reprimanded because their children are heavy?

Parents can be tutored on small but effective ways to approach this problem at home. However,it isn't always because of parents' negligence that a child carries extra weight. These kids are also probably ridiculed enough by their peers with a ridiculously hateful social standard of thin/skinny/emaciated, etc etc. That depression can lead to even MORE eating problems.

Address the mind and education, not such harsh and negative actions about the body weight.

It is a very serious problem, agreed. We have got to become a healthier nation in body AND spirit. But this country is getting so damn coarse when it comes to gracious and caring ways to address problems. If you want to use the word *fat*...try FAT HEADED with some of these ridiculous administrative decisions. What diet, pray tell, will cure THAT?

[niyad]

6. wish I could rec this post--most excellent.

[bbdad]

12. I agree with what you say, but I'm concerned about

the sort of P.E. classes that some people would recommend without much, if any, consideration. Does the traditional sports-centered approach to P.E. encourage nonathletic students, such as those who are fat, to become physically active? I'd say the opposite is true. Fat boys, along with boys who are physically weak, are often bullied in such P.E. classes. Never mind the question of what sort of physical activity is actually needed for fat children. Does a fat boy get much exercise standing in a baseball field? Of course, not. The traditional sports-centered P.E. should be retained as an elective for the athletes and other students who want to participate in sports. Nonathletic boys should not be forced to take such P.E. classes, which are often taught by neanderthals who look down on them in the first place. In other words, what are needed are genuine fitness classes for nonathletes, NOT sports classes in which sports are used as weapons to bully nonathletic kids. PE4Life is an excellent innovative program that actually promotes physical fitness instead of fear and resentment of coaches and athletes. (For the record, just so you'll know what my own perspective is, I've never been overweight; and for over two years I've been working at a health club with a personal trainer on a bodybuilding program.)

[PA Democrat]

14. Our high school offers a personal fitness class

that is an option to traditional gym class. The activities are non-competitive and students monitor their own progress.

They run, walk, do yoga, kick boxing, weight training. The students are allowed to listen to their MP3 players when they are running or walking and many of the other activities are done to music. My youngest opted take the class for her entire senior year even though she had already fulfilled her PE requirements for graduation.

[bbdad]

15. This is wonderful news. Speaking as a 60-year-old man

who has been working out at a local health club on a bodybuilding program for about two years (i.e., a confirmed gym rat), I'm delighted to hear that such fitness classes are being offered to students who have no interest in sports. In the mandatory sports-centered P.E. that I was forced to take when I was a boy, there was not even any mention whatsoever of exercise programs or bodybuilding (from which I could have benefited immensely in terms of gaining self-confidence). There wasn't even any instruction as to how the games were played. In the "old P.E." nonathletic boys frequently were bullied for no justifiable reason. They hardly got any exercise and only learned to fear (and resent) coaches and athlete classmates. Again, this is wonderful news. Thanks for telling us.

[spooked911]

19. yes, that sounds so much better than what I had when I was in high school

I hope that do that where I live; my kids aren't in high school yet.

[bbdad]

23. I just noticed a statement in your post that disturbs me;

and that is, the fact that there are still P.E. requirements. I assume that this is the same old sport-centered P.E. The class you've described does more than enough to help students get into shape. Compulsory sports does absolutely nothing to help nonathletic students get into shape and only teaches them to hate their bodies instead of helping them to get in touch with their bodies. Sports-centered P.E. should be retained for the athletes and other students who want to learn sports. It should be retained as an elective, but dropped as a mandatory course.

[NYMdaveNYI]

7. THE SCARLET F

HAHAHAHA I LOVE IT

Every time I make a scarlet letter reference on DU, no one gets it.
---------

but in all seriousness, I used to be obese, and if I were ever to be sent home from school for being fat, that would be the most emotionally damaging moment of my life.

[herbm]

9. How about no pop sales on school grounds, no nachos at lunch, how about weighing in teachers, admini

strators, school board members, cafeteria workers, school nurses, coaches ..... No? Just knock the kids around. A lot of wieght gain has to with stress, too. Deal with those in authority? Nope. Too many political complications. Let's do away with free school meals that could be a guarenteed suppliment to an uncertain diet over costs that don't even amount to the amount the US spends on bubble gum each year. ( http://www.chacha.com/question/how-much-money-does-america-spend-per-year-on-chewing-gum ) Nah, lets marginalize a group of kids, and not teach them how it is when discrimination happens, rather in step by step pattern teach them exactlt how to dicriminate and rationaize justification if some vestage of conscience or ethic latently theatens to sprout. Adults of good intention who ought to retink their plans a bit can really screw things up.

And more people are on food stamps daily. Nutrition seems to be a weapon in class warfare.

[NYMdaveNYI]

10. Mayor Bloomberg had a good idea regarding

food stamps. He proposed that they could be used only to buy healthy foods, and not sodas and candy or junk like that.

He’s a visionary...

[herbm]

11. I like that. Why should the Corn Welfare Queen get subsidy off both ends?

[donheld]

13. I wonder how many kids commit suicide

due to bullying over obesity. Bet it's more than we know.

[bbdad]

20. Forcing obese kids to take mandatory sports-centered P.E.

(as opposed to genuine fitness classes) is sure to cause these kids to be bullied, which means more suicides. But who cares? After all, sports are more important than anything else (sarcasm intended). (And, no, I've never been overweight in my life; but I know what I'm talking about.)

[K8-EEE]

21. Fat kids just need to be made to feel as bad as possible

THAT WILL HELP!! :sarcasm:

[bbdad]

22. Guess what happens when fat kids are bullied

in mandatory sports-centered P.E. (which, incidentally, does NOT provide the right sort of exercise that they need to slim down). When they're humiliated and bullied day after day, they turn to food for comfort and become even more obese! My, how effective.

[Xicano]

16. The irony is I bet many of these teachers are fat themselves.

I am just saying....