Where I live, there' beena huge push to fight against obesity in schools. But I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this: What this means is that on top of schools checking your vision, your spine (scoliosis), and hearing, now they get to tell you you're fat? I can't believe it. I don't know; I feel that's taking it a little too far. What happens when it's not just diet, but family history or genes? Thoughts?
....this is bull. What if your BMI is too low, does that mean that you have to gorge yourself with food? I don't think that schools should moderate this. Albeit, weight can impact your health, but still. I feel that this is something that should be done with a consultant doctor, NOT at school.
They won't be telling you that you're fat, they'll be telling you your current health status and how you can improve. I don't see what's so wrong about this...
I think people could really take this the wrong way. They might become bulimic, or anorexic. It could ruin your body image, and how you think about yourself...not to be dramatic, but this could potentially kill some students...because of anorexia or other related diseases. I totally think its wrong.
If this happened, I'd end up dead. I weigh normally for my body shape, but for my hieght and age my is a little bit chunky-munkyish... I'd probably stop eating all together and die. That or commit suicide.
I know I'm going to get my head ripped off for this, but... it's not that bad of a thing to do. The school isn't going to be telling you you're fat. They're going to tell you your BMI. In today's society, things like this are necessary but they don't happen because of reactions like this. Child obesity is the largest growing health problem in the US. Grades 1, 4, 7, and 10 are good times to do it. Believe it or not, there are parents of overweight children that honestly don't know their children are overweight. Although it may temporarily hurt the child's feelings, isn't it more important to know that they're unhealthy and that it needs to be fixed. Seriously, it's like not telling a teenage girl she has an STD cause you're afraid of being accused of calling her a ****. It's ridiculous. Sure, it might hurt the kid's feelings. But would you rather them be unhealthy. BMI is a measure of health. Schools can tell you other things, like what your sight and hearing ability is. But they can't tell you your BMI? Stop thinking of it as telling the kids they're fat. They're not. It's a number. They're just telling them another important fact about their health.
i don't understand why this is a bad thing. it'd be in your best interest to know if you're unhealthy anyway.
This isnt a bad thing,really. Its sort of got to do with PE/Health lesson. Most students should be aware of their weight and if they are not then the BMI should help them if they are or not overweight or healthy.
Knowing their BMI isn't such a bad thing in all honesty, don't forget that your BMI can also tell you if you are UNDERweight, not just target people who are above what's healthy for them. I think a lot of people have forgotten that. I'm pretty sure they wont just be like "Hey kid, you're a fatty go lose some weight" it sounds like they will also explain it to the parents of the children which is definitely a good thing. Some parents are completely oblivious to the health of their children in that regard. At the end of the day, I would rather that my children were healthy that wrapped in bubblewrap and left to get ill from being too big or too small. So their feelings may get hurt at the time, surely that is better than them developing things like diabetes or heart problems (in the case of the children who are overweight) or becoming ill from defficiences and in some cases stunted growth and delayed puberty (in the case of children who are far too thin).
It never said once in that article that the children themselves would be told the results of the test, it goes straight to their parents. As CtR said, many parents don't even realise their child is overweight (or at least, refuse to admit it) and being told in black and white how their child is fairing could be very beneficial. On the other hand, the BMI index can be woefully inaccurate as it only takes your height and weight into account. Although most of these problems are connected to people who are very muscular as they could come up as obese and have very little body fat. This obviously does not apply to children.
