Slashdot Mirror
School Children Are Now Too Fat to Fit In Class Chairs
A recent survey of 750 Australian schools has revealed that on average children have grown too large for their chairs and desks. From the article: "The Education Department said schools were running healthy eating programs. 'The department takes the issue of childhood obesity seriously and works with a number of agencies to address the issue,' a spokesman said. 'We have a number of initiatives to support school communities as well as promote healthy eating.' He said parents needed to enforce the message about healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle at home."
'News for Nerds'? 'Stuff that matters'?
What, all of them?
No, just some of them. And when I was that young, we had kids too fat for the desks, too.
And that article even admits they were teaching class for 5th and 6th grades in desks made for 3rd graders.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Glad they are fixing the real problem by ordering some chunky desks.
activestudios web design
Using the ones that can no longer learn because they can't fit into desks could be sent to market as feed for livestock.
"We have a number of initiatives to support school communities". Looks like they'll need some more if they want to support these students weighty dilemma.
activestudios web design
In America companies are allowed to market foods as "lean", "fat free", "diet", "full of vitamins" and "healthy" even though these foods are actually full of calories and nothing like healthy. It's also impossible to buy cereal without lots of sugar or HFCS in it at many malls (i.e. everywhere I've looked) - if you want a normal breakfast cereal without crap in it, you have to go to some specialty shop (I haven't found any in my area), or you have to make it yourself. From my experience here, you have to actively go out of your way to not end up obese while living in the US.
We should send some of our used desks from American schools to them, now that our larger ones have arrived.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Previous story: Aussie Kids Foil Finger Scanner With Gummi Bears
This story: [Australian] School Children Are Now Too Fat to Fit In Class Chairs
Coming up: Australian Kids Fingers Too Fat to Fit In Class Scanners
Probably from all those Gummi Bears.
Physical activity (i.e. not just playing in computer/cellphone or watching tv) is an important factor... and they are in te right place to promote or enforce them.
It seems, and this is my opinion, that high frucose corn syrup and other "sweeteners" they use these days are more the problem. We need to get back to putting sugar in our junk food.
While it's up to us to monitor what we and our kids (if it applies to you) eat, but it's pretty hard to avoid HFCS in stuff, since it's in almost everything that used to have sugar in it.
Of course, the companies that use it don't care, since it's cheaper then sugar, and since they are corporations and only care about squeezing every extra profit they can.
So, we need to not only monitor what we are eating, we need to hold the companies accountable for the crap they are using in their products also.
Of course, that will never happen until after the revolution...
Be seeing you...
Half the battle with weight is realizing that dieting isn't something that is prescribed to be applied only for the duration while you're obese. Most people (often myself included) hear the word diet and immediately think of it as being something of a temporary nature. "Oh, I'm currently on a diet." "I need to diet for X." The cultural definition of "dieting" is, well, wrong. The word diet comes from the Greek word diaita which means "a way of life" or "a way of living".
Food dieting must be permanent, or else it is doomed to failure as soon as it is believed to be no longer necessary. The problem comes in by the fact that, due to the cultural misnomer of "dieting", diets are used and advertised as a temporary fix. "Diet for X period of time, then you'll be fine" and thus are by their nature/design not sustainable. Who can eat Jenny Craig food for the rest of their life (diaita)?
What is needed, and what doctors/scientists are realizing, is that the obesity epidemic requires an entirely different relationship with food for the rest of your life. You have to change your relationship with food in a way that is still enjoyable to you for it to be sustainable and healthy.
For my house, this means things like the following:
* Meals themselves are balanced. Less meat, decent-sized portions, more greens, etc.
* Junk food (chips, cookies, ice cream, soda, snacks, etc.) are treated as luxury items. We never go to the store and allow ourselves to say, "Oh, we're out of [JUNK_FOOD_ITEM]. Let's get some more." Instead was ask, "When was the last time we had X. It's been a while, so let's get some."
* We eat when we're hungry. In between meal snacks are at a minimum. And for our kids, we enforce the, "Well, if you're hungry you should have eaten more during the previous meal. You'll have to wait for the next meal."
There's a lot of good research in the last few years around obesity as we're understanding brains and genetics more that shows that it is better treated as an addiction rather than a disease (google David Kessler; former FDA commisioner).
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
Take the children away from their parents, chop them up and sell them to starving countries. Also, prohibit the parents from ever having children again until they can prove that they're up to the task. Problem solved.
A Princeton study found some evidence. Here's an article about it:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
Australia needs Rowdy Roddy Piper!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJJ3yBsvAw
For now...
Bwahahaha
News for Nerds, Size does Matter!
Seriously, as someone who has kept relatively healthy over the years it astonishes me how some people let themselves go. I'm not talking about the guy who weighs 200-300 lbs that can still walk up stairs without collapse but people in their 20's and 30's on obesity scooters and toilets for people who weigh up to 2000 lbs.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Replace the chairs with treadmills.
The Internet has given stupid people the resources of intelligent people.
...Nice cold tile should cause them to shiver continuously, causing them to lose weight.
Case closed.
In my case, it's simply a matter of being 6'1" and still growing, and the crappy little combination desk/chairs my school uses simplely aren't made for people of my height.
Stop it! Stop it right now!
Who are you to ruin the delusions of the 'enlightened'?
What are people going to do when they realize their conspiracy theoristesque nonsense is patently absurd?
Do you think they can handle the simple fact that their own lack of self control; their direct, personal choice to shovel food down their greasy gullets, is what makes them fat?
THE TRUTH?! THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! ...Nor can they handle personal responsibility. Welcome to the end game of civilization.
or is it an abrogation of parental responsibility?
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
Please, someone help me out with this. From TFA
So they aren't fat but risked weight problems. Where does the weight (and weight problems) comes from if they aren't fat?
And what the heck means "looking older than their age" and how's that a problem?!
You don't know what you don't know.
Australia is a federation and education is a state power, so it would be rather useful to specify in the summary which Department of Education, given that there are 9 of them (one for each state and territory and the federal government). The article clearly states that it's the NSW Department.
I can't help but wonder if this is related to the previous idle story about Australian schoolchildren defeating fingerprint readers with gummy bears. Perhaps the circumvention wasn't intentional, but merely residue off these fatties' fingers...
I am not trying to be intentionally argumentative, but people worry much too much about weight. Us fatties will live the longest and have the best chance of surviving the upcoming global famine. People overeat because it is instinctual, and ensures the best chance of survival.
I know plenty of 'fit' people who are withing their BMI, yet can't seem to do a push up. Friggin David Letterman, had a quintuple bypass surgery, and he is skinny as f&*, and jogs all the time.
Everyone is going to die, so why worry. Just buy bigger chairs.