Posted on 05/10/2007 3:00:54 PM PDT by Baladas
Four times during the school year in Campbell County, Wyo., the school sends report cards home. Anxious parents and worried students are provided with the typical grading categories -- academic performance, attendance and a work ethic score.
But here in Gillette, there's an additional grade that has some families up in arms.
It's called the body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on height and weight that indicates whether your kid is too fat. The school chooses the word "overweight." If your child scores too high, it's the fitness equivalent of a bad grade. When Taylor Barbour came home with a BMI score of 32, seven points over the "normal range," his mother, Rosie Barbour, was none too pleased. Her anger was directed not at her 12-year-old son but at the school.
"It just doesn't have any place in the school," said Barbour. "It's fine if you want to teach them how to eat healthy, and make better choices during health class, but I don't think giving them BMI on their report card" is the answer.
'The Strong Kids Club' On top of that, the school district sent a letter in the mail inviting Taylor -- and 172 other kids with high BMI scores -- to join an exercise program three times of week. It's called the Strong Kids Club and came free to his family, with a promise that "it will be fun."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
When I was growing up there were **no** fat children in my elementary class. (Hey! I was thin!) Chubbiness only seemed to show up in adolescence. Perhaps it is because all the children walked to and from school and went home for lunch. In high school we rode public transportation.
And,,,I have never met a fat homeschooler who has been homeschooled from the beginning.
Tape the teachers and fire the fattys.
This isn’t anything new. I remember my older brother had “obesity” marked on his report card in grade school.
BMI is probably a step in the right direction. (Assuming you think this is the purview of public schools) Weight tables are deceptive, because muscle weighs more than adipose tissue. Very buff, muscle-bound weightlifters bust all sorts of standard “you should weigh ___lbs to be healthy.”
The Presidential Fitness Test (something like that)
I failed. Might have been the pullups. It was pullups for boys. Good thing I didn’t know anything about psychology, or I would have been really screwed up or life.
I remember the physical fitness test. As if I didn’t feel like enough of a loser. By high school we would do the 50 yard dash, the other kid would be ahead of me and I’d just walk the rest of the way figuring it just wasn’t worth it.
BTW, we ran the mile. About half a mile I’d be having a bronchial attack.
So what? I know of at least 6, and 2 of them are the brattiest bullies I have ever met and will not permit my daughter to associate with them. Of course the parents thrive on their "better than anyone" attitudes, and like me, the rest of the homschooling parents do not let their children associate with those 2.
My anecdotal experiences are just as valid as yours - whether you like it or not.
Government schools are evil.
Brace yourself.
I agree with you on this one. Take the drink machines out of the school. I have students who have 2 20oz Mountain Dews for lunch.
“Why on earth are parents still institutionalizing their kids?”
For the most part, they don’t know any better.
And the sad part is, there was NOTHING like this when I went to CCHS (Campbell County HS) back in the early 80’s.
When did the libtards invade the coal mines and the oil fields?
How many times do I have to tell you? EFG ;^)
My own son is a chubby homeschooler. It’s just a genetic thing. His father and uncle were the same way as children.
Did he teach religion?
Tell me which of your many wise things? I am not sure which one fits this! I kind of like the global warming one. Did you get my email today??? lmao. EFG ~Pandora~
Yes, the President's Physical Fitnes Test. They were still doing it in the 1980's and 90's when I was in school. At the start of first grade they had all of us six-year-old's outside running a mile in the late August Texas heat... wearing our navy slacks and button up oxford shirts. Ugh.
As I got old enough to think about such things, I began to find the whole program a little creepy. School was supposed to be about enriching the mind, not being physically conditioned and evaluated like livestock. I still feel the same way.
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