Do you think schools should institute mandatory weigh-ins to identify overweight students?

Question

Why or why not?

I don't have a problem with overweight people at all. This is just a question to get some opinions. There's a local school that does mandatory weigh-ins here, and my elementary school always did weigh-ins. Just seeing what other people think about this.

Answer 1

Absolutely not. It's the schools responsibility to teach, not impose mandatory weigh-ins. If they're worried about overweight students, then perhaps they should focus on teaching nutrition. They could then offer healthier choices in the cafeteria, get rid of the vending machines and get back to what they're supposed to be doing... teaching.

Answer 2

The more I think about it, the more harmless it seems. The only concern I would have is the fashion in which the school carried this out. In my middle school, we had fitness checks in gym every few weeks, and you would be wieghed by your classmates. Although I was normal weight, it still made me feel very self concious in front of other students. Even younger children, and highschool students alike may all share the same insecurities about their weight alike.

An alternative may be educating students and gaurdians on the average weight for a certain age and height. From there, you can send home a note asking parents to weigh their children and sign the form, but those are never dependable because anybody can easily place any number on the sheet and forge a signature (I signed my own detention slips all the time).
Or, the school can request that parents send their children to receive checkups that include being weighed. But this also demands a budget and a deadline and a whole lot to mess with.

But definately, schools should somehow monitor the health of all their students by having mandatory gym class, and providing healthy foods in the lunch room.

Answer 3

Testing for eyesight and hearing are one thing. Doing weigh-ins is another. Some kids don't eat well, and are very inactive, because the parents just don't care. You eat what's in the house when you get home from school. I know this from personal experience. Doing weigh-ins will not help kids know what to eat, how much to eat, etc. All it will do is single people out from the rest of their peers and, if they're overweight, that will make life at school even more miserable for them. I always felt it was a violation of privacy.

Answer 4

Wow
, thats a bit extreme. As an educator I think the best way to address this issue is by offering healthier choices (not so many fried foods, less tator tots and fries) in our schools cafeteria and make physical activity other than PE mandatory for all grades Pre-K-12th.Most schools have done away with recess or the length of recess, when I was in elementary we had 3 recess. One in the morning at arrival, after lunch, an in the afternoon around 2. We were a lot healthier than this generation, I think.

Answer 5

Um, no. It's the responsibility of the parents and the individual students in question, not that of the schools. Do you really want more rules and regulations in the education system? Personally, I think that any more government involvement is a very poor idea. By instituting a mandatory weigh-in, you are only taking away responsibility from the parents, and that's not right.

Answer 6

No, because there's enough teasing and bullying going on in schools as it is. Why make a spectacle of people and their weight problems? It's easy to identify the overweight kids because they're overweight. Do we really want all of our teenaged girls to become anorexic or bullimic because they weighed a couple pounds more than some other kid? Maybe a mandatory course on nutrition would be more useful.

Answer 7

Only if it was required that the teachers weigh-in, too. But why a "weigh-in"? Can't you just tell by looking? Also, once identified, then what? Don't let them eat lunch? Where would it end? If you think the drop-out rate is high now, make the students ashamed to come to school and then see what happens. Are you fataphobic, or what?

Answer 8

Schools do a basic physical in the lower grades (eyes, ears, height, weight). It's up to parents to take their kids to a pediatrician, yearly, and that is the yearly weigh in....most people don't know that the school physical in the upper grades is confined to eyes and ears and neither is a thorough test. Parents should take their children to an optometrist yearly as well for a thorough examination. In high school a sports physical is given to those on the teams and starting in 5th grade a scoliosis screening is done.

Answer 9

NO, THIS IS AMERICA!!!!!! NOT NAZI GERMANY!!!! How many rights have to be forfieted before a free America is no longer free. Why can't people mind their own business, and who in the school gets to decide that burning question? As if its not hard enuff to be a teenager just think of the stigma you could put on them! Its a health issue not an educational issue.

Answer 10

Yeah that sounds like a great idea. It's not as if the overweight kids aren't going to hear every single day from the other students how fat they are anyway.