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Schools to monitor obesity in students

teamosil said:
Why? The schools feed the kids 1-2 of the meals they eat a day, the schools have the kids for 7 hours a day during which they have control over whether the kids are active or not. Lots of times the kids are in school until 3, then they're in after school activities maybe until 5, and have a bed time of 8... If the kids are getting fat, that seems like it's at least as much on the school as it is on the parents. Maybe they cut PE too much, maybe PE isn't strenuous enough anymore, maybe they serve too much pizza and too little broccoli at lunch, maybe they need to get rid of the vending machines, etc. Seems like the least they could do is help the kids understand how physical activity relates to their health.
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And this is necessary to help them understand?

While we're on a mission of understanding: I'd like some explanation as to how they decide to choose the food sources they do - and why . . . let's here some truth as to what's really in school lunches since they're all about exposure all of a sudden.
 
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teamosil said:
Why? The schools feed the kids 1-2 of the meals they eat a day, the schools have the kids for 7 hours a day during which they have control over whether the kids are active or not. Lots of times the kids are in school until 3, then they're in after school activities maybe until 5, and have a bed time of 8... If the kids are getting fat, that seems like it's at least as much on the school as it is on the parents. Maybe they cut PE too much, maybe PE isn't strenuous enough anymore, maybe they serve too much pizza and too little broccoli at lunch, maybe they need to get rid of the vending machines, etc. Seems like the least they could do is help the kids understand how physical activity relates to their health.
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I'm not saying schools shouldn't provide better lunches at school, because they should. The sh** that passes for "food" in a school cafeteria is absolutely mind-blowing. And I don't just say that because it's healthier or because of overweight kids, I say it because half of it I wouldn't feed to my dog- and that speaks volumes. I just don't think it needs to go beyond that.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
And this is necessary to help them understand?
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It certainly seems like a good way to do it to me. The kind of thing that would get the kids interested.

Aunt Spiker said:
While we're on a mission of understanding: I'd like some explanation as to how they decide to choose the food sources they do - and why . . . let's here some truth as to what's really in school lunches since they're all about exposure all of a sudden.
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Well, you can read through the transcripts of the House Republicans shredding the dietary guidelines for school lunches from last month. The infamous one where the declared pizza to be a vegetable.
 
Kids don't eat 1/2 their lunches anyway - I found my school actually gave food in a form that was inedible without a knife to cut it - did they really think giving a slab of turkey passed as providing lunch and I wouldn't say something?

But all in all: school lunches in this area are actually healthier - if you calculate up all the values - than what they eat at home . .. of coures: the majority of this state is overweight.
 
melg89 said:
I just don't think it needs to go beyond that.
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I still think you guys are picturing it as something very different than it is. Like some sort of program where all kids are required by law to wear these monitors all the time and parents have to come in and explain themselves during conferences or something. lol. It isn't that. It's like they do a lesson in health class about what calories are and how you burn different amounts when you do different things, and then they give the kids these bracelets for a night so they can see how their own heart beats faster when they're running around then when they're reading, and faster when they're reading then when they're watching tv, and so on. I really don't see how that is some kind of big issue...
 
Boo Radley said:
Let me get this straight, it's voluntary?


"A program like this should only be voluntary. Nobody should be forced to reveal biological indicators," he said.
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It doesn't matter if its voluntary or not. Its still the government or some other body in society actively spying on people.

And who is even making this decision? The parents or the child? I would assume the parents, and in all honestly, I don't see how they have the right to make the decision or to the information either.
 
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Boo Radley said:
Let me get this straight, it's voluntary?


"A program like this should only be voluntary. Nobody should be forced to reveal biological indicators," he said.



Read more: Schools to monitor obesity in students - UPI.com

And it allows kids to know, and not for the schools to anything?

Sounds like a study to use technology as a tool for improvement. Someone articluate for me what the complaint is. I have to understand that before I form an opinion.
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To me it sounds like a dangerous baby step. Today its voluntary and tomorrow its mandatory. Because we all know how the government deeply cares about the constitutionality of something before making it a law.
 
jamesrage said:
To me it sounds like a dangerous baby step. Today its voluntary and tomorrow its mandatory. Because we all know how the government deeply cares about the constitutionality of something before making it a law.
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It doesn't sound like anything to me other than a new toy for the athletic people to play with and maybe give some new information to their students. Not only do I not see a larger step that would or should scare anyone, I can't even find where you've articulated one.
 
Henrin said:
It doesn't matter if its voluntary or not. Its still the government or some other body in society actively spying on people.

And who is even making this decision? The parents or the child? I would assume the parents, and in all honestly, I don't see how they have the right to make the decision or to the information either.
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It's not spying. Don't be silly. We do this type of thing all the time and have since I was a kid, if not before. Go home and record the groceries you buy, how much is wasted, how do you spend your time, to see if you have more wasted time than you think, for example, not to mention carrying the egg, or wearing the preganacy outfit. None of this is really new, and it isn't spying. It's having a student look at his or her life and choices, for self reflection.
 
Boo Radley said:
It's not spying. Don't be silly. We do this type of thing all the time and have since I was a kid, if not before. Go home and record the groceries you buy, how much is wasted, how do you spend your time, to see if you have more wasted time than you think, for example, not to mention carrying the egg, or wearing the preganacy outfit. None of this is really new, and it isn't spying. It's having a student look at his or her life and choices, for self reflection.
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It is spying. The information other people have access to that is very personal private information that they can not gain any other way than to watch you.
 
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Henrin said:
It is spying. The information other people have access to that is very personal private information that they can not gain any other way than to watch you.
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No. That's merely silly. We've done, as I've noted, this stuff since before you and I were born. We share a lot about ourselves in learnign environments.
 
The obsession with how active kids are does not make sense. A lot of modern obesity is caused by industrial food and the hormones contained within it, and not just lack of exercise. Maybe we should stop feeding kids crap that is loaded with chemicals whose names you can't even pronounce, as well as wrapping food in layer upon layer of plastic that gets cooked in the microwave?

If someone's hormone system is messed up, all the exercise in the world won't help them.
 
Temporal said:
The obsession with how active kids are does not make sense. A lot of modern obesity is caused by industrial food and the hormones contained within it, and not just lack of exercise. Maybe we should stop feeding kids crap that is loaded with chemicals whose names you can't even pronounce, as well as wrapping food in layer upon layer of plastic that gets cooked in the microwave?

If someone's hormone system is messed up, all the exercise in the world won't help them.
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It is not a bad idea to be concerned with activity. But regardless, as long as we have PE classes and atheltic departments there will be a focus from them on activity. It's waht they do. And they,like everyone else, are looking at technology and what more they can learn.
 
teamosil said:
Sounds good to me. Childhood obesity is becoming a real problem. Part of the role of schools has always been physical education. There is no reason that element can only take place in the gymnasium. Besides, lots of schools have been forced to cut gym class altogether due to budget cuts. Something like this would probably at least give some fallback for that. Kids are at school like half of their waking hours during the school year. If they aren't being active enough, the schools share half the blame for that, so I'm glad to see some of them are stepping up and doing their part to address the problem.
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Translation:
Obviously they aren't smart enough to do what's "best for themselves" so the State needs to step in and help them, for their own good of course.

Tyranny has many masks, not all are monsters dumping bodies in mass graves or throwing people into work camps. Sometime the Tyrant wears a smile, and speaks soft words.
 
Boo Radley said:
No. That's merely silly. We've done, as I've noted, this stuff since before you and I were born. We share a lot about ourselves in learnign environments.
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Now if I actually approved of those things and some of them weren't also spying you would have a point. And I don't care about learning environments, I care about private information about our lives staying private.
 
Henrin said:
Now if I actually approved of those things and some of them weren't also spying you would have a point. And I don't care about learning environments, I care about private information about our lives staying private.
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What's private? My daily schedule? How well I took care of an egg? What extra activies I do after school? Seriously, there is nothing here that should cause anyoen any concern. It is only self awareness that is being pursuded. how dare educator try to help students be self aware. The bastards!!!

:coffeepap
 
MrVicchio said:
Translation:
Obviously they aren't smart enough to do what's "best for themselves" so the State needs to step in and help them, for their own good of course.

Tyranny has many masks, not all are monsters dumping bodies in mass graves or throwing people into work camps. Sometime the Tyrant wears a smile, and speaks soft words.
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Dude, they're kids. You think it is paternalistic for the school to teach things to kids? We should just assume they're "smart enough" that we don't need to teach them science?
 
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