More flap over "Childhood Obesity"
Unintended Consequences
As I turn on my television this morning, I see that we're once again being subjected to an onslaught of information about the epidemic of childhood obesity in our nation. "Does your child's weight affect his/her math scores?"
Don't get me wrong, I'm as concerned as anyone about the fact that Americans are getting "fatter and fatter"! My point is---What did we expect???
If you drag out your family scrapbook and look through the photos from your youth, do you see fat people? In particular, do you see fat children? Probably not, unless you're under the age of about twenty-five.
If you travel to Europe, will you see fat people? I've been there twice, and the only heavy people I saw were in my own group of Americans.
When I was a kid back in the fifties, we saw very few "fat" kids. Look at the old black and white TV shows--"I Love Lucy," "Leave it to Beaver," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." By today's standards, those women were anemic! The only "plump" character I remember was Andy Griffith's Aunt Bea.
How did this happen?
The fast food chains can take much of the responsibility with their "Supersize it!" motto, but there are other factors at play, and we all know it.
What happened to high school physical education classes? When I was in high school, we all had to take the classes. We grumbled about it, but we had to run, to jump, to learn to play games like softball or soccer or badminton.
"PE" went the way of the dinosaurs, didn't it? Did you notice that it was gone? Were you one of the people who considered it a "waste of time"? Were you pleased when your school district could save money by eliminating a PE teacher's salary? Were you delighted when your school could use that "foolish PE time" to focus more on the State-required MAP test? Oh, yeah, all those tests are really doing our kids a lot of good, aren't they??
I'm well aware that a lack of PE in the schools isn't the only culprit in our current epidemic of over-weight youngsters. How many of these kids have been allowed to plop themselves in front of the television for more than the recommended limit of three hours a day? How many of them actually have TV sets in their bedrooms? How many are given video games for their birthday? How many parents actually know how many hours their children spend in sedentary activities?
Hard questions! But the answers provide insight into the problems our nation faces in the future.
I really don't like to think about a government program to dictate how much food we eat or how much time we spend exercising. Surely, we can do that ourselves.
As much as I would like to mount a movement to get PE classes back into our schools, I'm realistic enough to know that government rules and lack of funding simply won't allow the addition of more physical activity in the classroom.
It's a sad state of affairs in a country that prides itself in being the greatest nation on the earth.
From the rugged hills of Tillman, MO., this is your rural journalist, Madeline, just trying to keep from drying up into dust and blowing away...
Comments
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 10:57 AM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Wed, Jun 20, 2012, at 5:23 AM
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