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Some school districts have started giving kids a new grade on their report cards: their BMIs. The Body Mass Index is a scale developed by the National Health Institute to provide a rough idea of your body condition, from unhealthily thin to uhealthily overweight, based on height and weight. The many criticisms of the BMI scale include the fact that it does not really take into account muscle, so a very muscular person will score worse than a chubby person of the same height. The standard scale is only designed to apply to adults, not to children, so although the New York Times does not note it in their recent article, we will assume that the children's BMI scale, which also factors age into account, is being used at these schools. The results are probably marginally more accurate, but children grow and develop at such different rates that it is doubtful as to how useful the readings are regardless of scale.
The schools' goal in instituting this system, which is being used in Delaware, South Carolina and Tennessee with legislation pending in several other states, is to motivate parents to watch their kids' weight and have their kids eat healthier and exercise more. Unfortunately, kids also see these report cards and seeing that one, flawed number can wreak havoc on a small child's self perception. Many have reported want to stop eating when the see their results and others simply tease the skinny kids (reports are used in grades k-8). This is not helped by the fact that many of these schools are not offering healthier food options or an increased number of physical activities.
Finger-pointing has rarely helped anything and, when six year olds decide that they are too fat and begin to refuse to eat, the issue needs to be reexamined and better solutions need to be offered. At the very least, the schools could offer some suggestions to parents as to what types of activities they might encourage their kids to engage in and send the results home separate from the report card with a letter explaining what they mean.
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1-10-2007 @5:05PM Foodie Bride said... Weight issues have *no* place on an academic report card.
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1-10-2007 @9:33PM calamari said... Heck, let's put on the report card the kid's percentile for height, whether they're better or worse looking than average, and maybe their progress toward puberty.
If the kid is unambiguously fat, do we really think the parents' first clue will be some unexplained number on a report card?
We can almost guess it's the poorest schools that have the most hefty children, but heaven forbid they serve healthful meals or maybe even use the time spent judging BMI on teaching reading and math.
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1-10-2007 @10:56PM esmereldagrubb said... THis has EATING DISORDER written allll over it.
WHy not just shove your fingers down the kid's throats and call them fatty.
THis disgusts me.
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1-11-2007 @1:53AM Marianna said... It also infuriates me that the BMI categories: underweight, "normal" and overweight have the same boundaries for men and women. It's ridiculous that the CDC and NIH support the use of the BMI.
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