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And in my school in the 80's and 90's in Illinois, we had PE every day - K-12. We also had recess everyday so I would say that yes, it IS a new trend to not have recess. Schools in some parts of Georgia still have recess everyday and PE every day. Then there are those that don't. Those are the schools to which I am referring.
I am not saying parents should rely on the schools for their kid's exercise so I'm not sure why you have told me that. It's really outside of the scope of our correspondence. I am simply answering the original question in my comment about schools, obesity and measuring BMI. To me, it does not make sense for a school to take on additional work if they are not even doing what they have done (at least in some states) traditionally to help with fitness...daily PE and recess. So they stop doing this and go off in another direction. To me, that makes no sense. We spend tons of money on a gym and some schools are using it less and less.
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Originally Posted by Katiana
Again, in my kids' schools, back in the 90s, PE was always just a couple of days a week. No one should count on school PE classes to meet their kids' exercise requirements.
The school I went to for first grade back in 1955 didn't give recess. This is not a particularly new trend.
This reminds me of the obese, smoking nurses you see standing outside of every hospital. It's so ironic.
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Originally Posted by magoomafoo
In our school, the embarrassment of checking the BMI of an entire class is nowhere near the humility our PE/health teacher doles out to obese kids even though he is obese himself.
As an obese schoolchild, such a program could have been a huge wake-up call for my mother, who was in denial. It may have saved me the effort I went through when I was 18, and now am doing again at 24.
Here in the fattest state in the union, I would guess that at least half the students at my school are overweight, with about half of those being obese. We have quite a few morbidly obese students. Most of the students eat junk food constantly. Outside school, most of them eat fast food. The family dinner table is not common among my students, and they eat what they want, when they want. It's a shame to watch them go from being moderately overweight as freshmen to being truly obese by the end of their senior year.
Because obesity is the norm here, most of our students don't recognize healthy weights. The adults don't either, now that I think about it.
While I understand obesity is a huge concern, so is overall health. Are school children not still required to have a complete physical every three years? To me, that is the minimum required to chart things such as height and weight, and I think the responsibility for that falls upon the parents, not the school. To me, that would be the preferred method of alerting parents to growth issues.
How much more are we going to ask our public schools to do?
Yes, childhood obesity is a problem, though there is evidence that it is decreasing. I think there are very few parents who don't know their kid is overweight. You do have to tread lightly with kids. Here is some good stuff from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Plus, I would encourage people to read the eating disorders site as well. The eating disorders professionals in particular have a problem with labeling food "good" and "bad". Obesity - HealthyChildren.org
I am curious as to how measuring BMI is teasing or ridiculing based on size or weight?
While I agree eating disorders are an issue, obesity is a much, much larger one. Over 30% of people today are obese, and that number is even higher for being overweight. Most of what people die from is directly related to lifestyle issues that stem from obesity and it costs our national millions upon millions of healthcare costs each year. I'm not saying simply measuring BMI is the answer (it's not), but I fail to see how informing a child's parents that their child is obese is going to lead to an eating disorder.
And for what it's worth, I don't think weighing and getting heights is a new thing. I did it in elementary school, and I'm 45. I have no clue what they did with the data back then, nor do I know what they do with it now.
I'm on the fence about it. The schools are only trying to help. My parents say that I was a normal kid, but looking back I was always heavier than everyone else and probably 15 lbs. overweight. This is why I support it. However, I oppose it because when you're weighing a bunch of kids, they're going to compare each other. And if the majority of the class is 65 lbs. and you have a kid who is 50-something or 70-something, they are the black sheep.
We already know that there is a correlation between obesity and having a low-income.
Kids already compare each other......and they don't need to know the BMI or weight of their classmates to know which ones are fat.
When I was in first grade there was one kid in my class who was fat and we all knew it without being told how much he weighed.
BTW.....he died of a massive heart attack in his early 50's, his younger brother, who was also fat, didn't even make it to 50, also heart attack.....they weren't low income but mom and dad were also fat. At 58, the fat sister is the only one left.
While I understand obesity is a huge concern, so is overall health. Are school children not still required to have a complete physical every three years? To me, that is the minimum required to chart things such as height and weight, and I think the responsibility for that falls upon the parents, not the school. To me, that would be the preferred method of alerting parents to growth issues.
How much more are we going to ask our public schools to do?
We in Mississippi don't ask our public schools do do much at all. In our state, there is no public health presence in most schools. No school nurse, no physicals except for athletes. Our school does have a nurse two days a week, but few students take advantage of it. As far as I know, there is no requirement for parents that they take their children in to the doctor's office for check-ups.
I understand the purpose behind it but I don't like it. My two children are like their parents - genetically underweight. They both are very healthy, but thin and have always been that way. Neither of them care for the options available for school lunches so I make their lunches most of the time. Sometimes, I will pack a cupcake or a special treat for them and they are not allowed to have it. In some cases, they are told to throw the item away. Again, I understand the purpose of the rules and am glad that many children have access to meals at school who would otherwise not have them, but it's not fair for the "policy makers" to tell me what I can and can't feed my own child. They would have NO problem coming in to take them from me if they were not gaining enough weight, but turn around and get to dictate when I can give them an occasional treat? It's way too "big brotherish" in my opinion.
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