BMI

ray a

"Texas school districts would be required to include the body mass index of students as part of their regular report cards under a bill introduced Tuesday by a lawmaker seeking to link healthy minds with healthy bodies."

Maybe, we should begin including this information on annual evaluations, too.

lhill

Yikes! That is too scary to comtemplate. To me, BMI stands for "Blatantly Malicious Information".

POPEYE

Here's the formula:

BMI =

weight divided by

(height in inches X height in inches)

times 703.

25 - 29 considered overweight

over 30 considered obese

Shadowfax

How do I program my mirror and my scale to accept this formula? It must be a conspiracy. That calculation says I ain't; the mirror and scales scream I is!

System

You sure about that? Man. That's messed up.

Whatever

And to think I make fun of the New York Legislature.

marc

We used BMI as one of the reward categories in an early model of our Wellness Program. We kept it confidential, but it was an effective motivator for some.

HRinNH

I read somewhere that 85% of the residents in Houston are Mexican. If the school children there are like the ones we saw in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, last year then this requirement may be a good thing. The majority of the young people we saw (teenagers) appeared overweight. Rice, beans, avocados, tortillas and fried foods are very fattening.

Don D

If this bill becomes law, which is doubtful, and the program is not entirely voluntary, ONE lawsuit will stop it dead in its tracks. Health issues and personal opinions aside, the state has absolutely NO right or business monitoring or regulating our children's personal habits or requiring their personal information from which they can form bureaucratic opinion. My God! Next they will be tracking the periods of teenaged girls to ensure they have the right lifestyle and stress management program in place. And, as an aside, the teachers I remember and most of the dieticians I see on television are either lard asses or haven't seen a stair-stepper in years, if ever. I hate to always be such a shrinking violet. x:-)

ray a

Don, get off the fence. Tell us what you really think.

HRinNH

"shrinking voilet"? Is that a Southern version of "negative Nelly"?

Don D

It's the universal version of straightforward and honest.

JudyT929

I understand that weight is a big problem amongst our youth as well as the adult population. But this is not the school's business! Leave this to the parents/physicians. Kids always compare their report cards, who got a's b's etc and the ones who don't get good grades feel bad, with this stupid law they will be comparing their BMI and have more to feel bad about. I think this kind of legislation will cause even more eating disorders, and that's already killing our youth. Good ole "Dubya" screwed up our schools when he was governor of Texas and they just keep on going south. I'm glad my daughter is out of the school system but unfortunetly if she has kids they will have to suffer.

Whatever

I'd be curious to know what is sold in the vending machines in the school cafeteria (or if any of it is healthy.)

marc

Those that call for the school system to stay out of the issues that should be the sole purview of parents are missing one sad fact. A very large portion of the parents responsible for this are not getting the job done.

This overweight thing is an epidemic. It is effecting nearly every segment of our society. If it is not getting done at home, then what do we do?

Ignore it and hope it will go away? That will never work.

lhill

Whatever: in answer to your question about what is served in school cafeterias, my grandson's school (jr. high) serves pizza twice a week!

Whatever

Lhill's response proves my point--I love Pizza, but no one can claim it is a healthy, low fat, low calorie food. It is hypocritical for a school to tell a student that they are overweight and then sell them pizzas, donuts, soda, juice drinks (rather than 100% fruit juices) etc., etc.
Also, I refute that the argument that it should be done because the parents are not fulfilling their responsibilities. This is the same argument I have heard from people who want prayer in schools (and you don't want to start me on that).

HRinNH

"it should be done because the parents are not fulfilling their responsibilities. This is the same argument I have heard from people who want prayer in schools"

...or to teach sex education because the parents aren't doing it at home. Will it stop kids from being curious and experimenting? No.

marc

Just saying you refute the arguement does not address the substance of the issue. I don't think schools are the best place for these things to happen - however, for some children, the school system may be the only place they can get the information they need to make informed decisions. Sex Ed does not stop experimentation, nor is it intended to. Neither does promoting abstinence. But when that experimentation leads to deadly diseases, unwanted children for children unprepared for parenthood, etc - then what?

But for the question on obesity and the general overweight condition of our society - if the parents aren't doing it, do we just throw up our hands and say, well it is their choice and their consequence? The consequences don't stay confined to that set of parents and their children - the consequences burden all of us. I won't or can't list all of them, but just consider the burden on our health care system alone. Does it really need any more upward pressure?

Whatever

I have no argument with teaching healthy eating. I strongly believe that junk food should not be sold on school grounds. I believe in phys. ed. classes. However, a child's medical history (including their BMI) is confidential. Putting this information on a report card is the beginning of a "slippery slope" downward.

marc

I don't disagree with any of those points.