Childhood Obesity & Report Cards

What will they think of next ?

Several of the school districts in Texas are now thinking of putting your childs weight and height and BMI on their report cards.

I realize that there is great concern over childhood obesity, and there should be. I recently saw Arnold Schwartnager giving his speech regarding snack machines in the California schools. People were ranting that if anyone could get the kids in shape he could. Maybe, maybe not.

But putting a childs weight and BMI on a report card is going a little too far. I mean in most cases the kids get the report card and bring them home to their parents. And what parent that has daily interaction with their child does not know if their kid is overweight or not.

I mean I see my daughter every day. I don’t need her report card that I see every six weeks to tell me that she’s fat or not.

To me this is a great waste of time and energy.

Agreed, but this made me think. It could be a good thing to be done as part of a Phys Ed progress report. You know, at the beginning of the year, record the stats, and then again at the middle and end of year. It could be interesting if nothing else - not specifically to tell whether or not the child is overweight, but as a measure of progress in PE class. I think that PE is often just supervised playtime and could be taken more seriously.

Maybe so Cabin, but here I dont think its the case.

PE here is rarely taken after elementary school. If you are atheletic you are given classes by your choice of sport, which is just basically more pratice time. As your coach is your teacher. If you are not involved in sports then you're not required to take PE. Therefore, those that are basically not in shape and not in sports are not given the opportunity to get in shape. Of course you could put your child in a class based on a sport, but unless you're a player of that sport, you're just sitting and become the team helper or team manager, while the rest of the class pratices the sport.

If it was going to be used to measure progress, good. But so far its going to be put on there for parents information only.

That's depressing :( .

And what is really stupid in Texas....they replaced the stuff in the snack machines and snack bar with "good nutritious stuff" like things VERY HIGH in carbs!!! They are still folloiwng the low-fat guideline. yeah low-fat but huge amount of carbs which is what most kids that age eat and makes them fat. They put Gatorade for instance in the vending machines, huge amount of carbs and sugar instead of cokes or some of the newer gatorade type drinks which have low carbs and very little sugar......how is that better for you? And low-fat granola bars....huge amount of carbs.

The average "healthy" school lunch is a whopping huge amount of bad fat and carbs.

Personally I think they are missing the whole point here. Our school lunches when I was a kid were packed full of stuff bad for you and we had unlimited candy and junk if we wanted to buy it, and A LOT LESS fat kids.

I think the whole thing is portion control. Our restaurants, schools, everything gives massive portions of food, a lot more than we used to be able to buy or recieve, and I remember you did not get seconds when we were kids, you can get that now, and you only got one milk. Ive watched kids go back for 3-4 milks and only eat their dessert in elementary school. And just to think we get refills on soft drinks is enough to put pounds on. ONe soft drink, non-diet, is about 300 calories, and some of the kids drink 2-3 refills per meal.

That is the cause of obesity in this nation is the size of our meals have increased, I really believe.

Miss B,

In my kids school, if you are not in a sport, just P.E. you have to work out the same, run, and do weights. Maybe it depends on the school program? Im in Texas by the way.

The bad part is that they'll spend time and money paying someone to make sure that the information is placed on the report cards.

I wonder how much this new position will pay.



My daughter is not overweight, but she was playing basketball in shcool. A couple of her grades dropped to C's. C's is failing in my house, so I called the school and requested that she be removed from basketball, as she had this as a class instead of PE as well as had pratice early mornings and games during the week. To me this was just too much basketball and not enough time for studies.

Her coach let me know that there was no regular PE class that she could go into. She could be a team manager but she had to continue in the basketball class for the rest of the semester. I got her off the team, but she was still the manager until the semester was completed. Good thing is that the grades are back up.

Great topic of discussion. Hope you don't mind if I move this to the Parenting Forum.

They give them choices but in my school district there is no more regular PE at the high school level. You have to pick a sport and if you're not in a sport then you get to pick from the Arts or another elective.

Marie....

You are right regarding the food choices in the schools. Some schools even have fast food resturants provide food on certain days of the week.

And then they wonder why the kids are getting larger.

There are some days when my daughter spends her lunch money on ice cream because she has the choice. She'll say they didnt have anything good to eat, so I just bought ice cream. For her that works, she's healthy but not overweight. But I think they are given too many choices of bad foods to pick from.

They keep the vending machines full because the vending companys provide the schools with money. And I'm sure some of the schools are getting quite a bit of money if its anything like here at work. We have 200 employees, and only 6 vending machines and we get 300.00 to 350.00 per quarter from the vending company. Nothing like a school with 1500 students and who knows how many machines.

I see this problem as getting a lot worse befor it gets better.

Several of the school districts in Texas are now thinking of putting your childs weight and height and BMI on their report cards.

Parents are neither blind or ignorant. However, BMI's can be misleading. My 15-year old son is always listed as overweight, which is hilarious. He is a gymnast and solid muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. Our pediatrician laughs at how he shows up on the weight charts, but his school sends home literature constantly about how I need to moniter him so he does not become obese. Geez! Can't they look at him and see?

I hope that Texas reconsiders.

autumn

The average "healthy" school lunch is a whopping huge amount of bad fat and carbs.




I agree completely, Jannie. I've been complaining about this for the past 16 years in our school district. My child's daily lunch menu always consists of some sort of fried food or another. They rarely get decent vegetables, and rarely are they green. And because they get choices, she always picks the food on the menu that is the worst for her. I think our school system needs to go back to having the kind I grew up eating. You got an entree and two vegetables, a roll and milk or juice. I don't see any reason for these kids to be able to have a selection to choose from.

In addition, they have far less recess time than I did when growing up. I think she's lucky if she gets out for recess 2 days a week. Kids need physical activity combined with a balanced diet. I would rather see my school system spend more time focused on improving those areas than in trying to "educate" me about my own child's health by telling me her BMI. :rolleyes:

Whiterose.......

I think you're right on. The kids get too many choices. When I was in school, you got an entree, 2 vegs, milk, bread., there wasnt anything else for you to chose from. It was that or nothing else. Our big treat was a fish patty on Friday.

Now my daughter like so many others are picking all kinds of foods that are bad for her. Why.....because they can.

I'm not saying that kids shouldnt have a choice in matters, but kids were a lot thinner in school then than they are now.

When a child is over weight or even obese it is in all likely hood the parents fault. Unless there is a medical issue. I have yet to see a case where it is a medical issues as opposed to pure over indulgence. I know it exists I just have not seen it.

Children are cruel. Period. We do not need to point out to them that they are fat. Their peers are doing it for them. I think including it on a report card is absolutely the worst thing an adult educator can do to a child. Why not hire a nutritionist instead of someone to print bmi' s on report cards? Why not hire another pe teacher to work specifacally with these kids?

Instead of making this silly new report card requirement why not make it a requirment to take part in PE every year through all the school years?

I know here that they don't have PE more than twice a week and that disgusts me. They do have vending machines and the school store. So put together the lack of PE with the store and the vending machines, then have these kids sit for 6 hours a day and what do you get?

Not to mention the teachers are pulling their hair out because these kids come from the store full of sugar and hyper!! Yet, the teachers run the store and decide what is bought for it!! DUH!!

However a child who is involved in physical activity everyday will learn better, faster and more. That is proven.

I think to much time is spent on the problem and not the solution.
~Jenna

Hey everyone,

I live in Australia and down here we dont get served lunches at school, we bring our own which for most of us are usualy sandwiches (yes vegemite usually) or we can buy food from the tuckshop/canteen but most of the time this food is fresh fruit, salads, low fat burgers with a few odd treats like milo bars or boost bars and eucalyptus lollies. WE also have to do a compulsory 1 and a half hours a day of sport at most schools in my area in sydney and this is usually after school so it doesn't take over lessons and if you take sports based subjects you do more.

I think its kinda insulting to put a kids weight and height and BMI on their report card. Number one if the kid isnt obviously overweight or has a weight problem then it shouldnt be the schools problem. If it is affecting the kid in their schooling then they can take it up with the parents but it's really got nothing to do with their education and should be solved through the family not the teachers. It's quite degrading and offputting. Who would want their teacher knowing the personal deatails.
Thats all for now..... love Mabz.... ;)