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recording BMI's in schools
MPR reports that there is legislation in consideration that would begin recording student's BMI's. .
36 Reader Comments
The BMI provision was stripped out of the House bill in committee, but it's still alive in the Senate bill.
Here's an idea... fund the schools so they can actually afford PE classes again. I think it's disgusting to even consider this bill.
I think BMI monitoring is the parents' job.
I think BMI monitoring is the parents' job.
Ofcourse, they may still get fat
I distinctly remembering doing body fat analysis in high school using the calipers method. I'm not sure if that was for an elective class or not. I'm fairly certain they didn't actually record the results in my permanent record.
I think the BMI thing is a rather bad idea being pushed by good intentions.
Mpls Simpleton, they did it to me too a few years later. It was for a required gym class, but it didn't go in a permanent record or anything.
I suppose it wouldn't matter for me though, my mom works for the district and went through and removed the personal information from our recoreds that were not imporant for the school to keep. Thanks mom.
bad idea being pushed by good intentions.
The history of the democratic party described in seven words.
The things I could tell . . .
what a fucking hypocritical joke. have you seen what they are serving these kids in the school cafeterias? nothing but corn-syrup laden processed crap.
two things need to be done before they go about tracking BMI:
1) nutrition needs to be taught in the schools, starting at an early age
2) nutritous, healthy, whole foods need to be offered in the school cafeterias.
bad idea being pushed by good intentions....The history of the democratic party described in seven words.
amen. i say "educate...don't legislate". and if you put that on a bumper sticker I want 30%
what a fucking hypocritical joke. have you seen what they are serving these kids in the school cafeterias? nothing but corn-syrup laden processed crap.
two things need to be done before they go about tracking BMI:
1) nutrition needs to be taught in the schools, starting at an early age
2) nutritous, healthy, whole foods need to be offered in the school cafeterias.
Depends on where you're talking about. Minneapolis and Saint Paul have some of the most progressive cafeteria programs among urban districts in the country. Especially Saint Paul. And there are federal dollars tied to school food programs -- meaning that a lot of the processed crap can't even be served anymore if a school uses those dollars. Not to mention the simple fact that many districts are wising up to the news that kids who eat right learn better.
That said, schools have to be able to serve kids food for something on the order of $1 a plate. That necessitates some significant compromises.
crap...someone beat me to it
two things need to be done before they go about tracking BMI:
1) nutrition needs to be taught in the schools, starting at an early age
2) nutritous, healthy, whole foods need to be offered in the school cafeterias.
Agree 100%. I've gagged at some of the things I've seen served at my husband's school.
BMI is an indicator of nothing. what a waste of tax money.
It's an indicator of SOMETHING. And I think it's a good measurement in most circumstances.
Christ, they might as well hand out laxatives and hydroxycut after the weigh in's. How about reinforcing healthy lifestyles in gym and health classes and leave the stigmatizing to mean 15 year old girls and Cosmo?
BMI is crap for a lot of healthy people. If you are the type of person who puts on muscle mass easily, weight lifter build rather than marathoner build, BMI tells you that you are fat. If you are taller than 6'4" you have to be a scarecrow to fit within their parameters.
Also, whenever this topic comes up, why do some folks conflate morality with weight?
BMI is an indicator that schools and businesses need to place undue burden upon fat kids and fat adults to lose weight in order to fit a ridiculous standard. the standard reveals that nearly all of the athletes who participate in the olympics and professional sports are considered overweight or obese. how can anyone take that seriously when the BMI scale states that Manny Ramirez is too fat for his own good? it's completely ridiculous and, again, an enormous waste of money.
Skinny people die younger than the slightly overweight, so maybe they have to trouble me with this nonsense.
the standard reveals that nearly all of the athletes who participate in the olympics and professional sports are considered overweight or obese.
Then we're talking about a very small percentage for whom BMI is not an accurate measurement, right?
For the vast majority, it might not be perfect (but what is) but it's usable.
The BMI may be flawed but to try to use the case of professional athletes not fitting in to the system is disingenuous. I consider myself to be on the heavy side of fit, just a tad, and that is exactly where I fit into the BMI, the low side of over weight. In high school I was on the thin side of the healthy scale.
If you were to apply the BMI to me it would work perfectly. I am a classic mesomorph though.
It's far from a perfect tool and it probably doesn't really help to tell people that are overweight that they are overweight. They know that fact very well.
Just odd to try to debunk the tool by saying a professional athlete would be fat using the scale is silly.
Some of the other objections on this thread may be relevant, but I agree with the Rat's last post.
Honey Bunny: "BMI is an indicator that schools and businesses need to place undue burden upon fat kids and fat adults to lose weight in order to fit a ridiculous standard..."
Upon what do you base your assertion that the standard is ridiculous? Yes, it is well known that BMI isn't relevant to athletes but most people aren't athletes. When athleticism skews the BMI, it's usually pretty apparent and other measures can then be employed to figure out a body fat percentage insted.
A really fit person or someone in training is often for body fat with the calipers.
Hydrostatic weighing is where it's at.
give me a break. BMI is NOT a good indicator of health and wellness! i have a high BMI but my doctor considers me healthy, in the respect that at 32 years old, i have none of the major health issues associated with the dreaded high BMI to speak of. and i've been told that since i was 15 years old. so, in my opinion, BMI measurement is a load of horse shit. especially since the BMI measurements that tell me that professional athletes with a high BMI are also also "in danger" (sure, professional athletes are a minority of the population, but come on!). just like one of the posters above stated, someone who is over 6' tall has to have a ridiculous (and dangerous) low weight in order to fit into the BMI measurement of "healthy". really? it's healthy to be over 6' tall and weigh 170 pounds? really??
there have been a number of reports that state that BMI is NOT a good sourse of measurement to determine one's health. just because someone LOOKS "fat" to you or me does NOT mean they are unhealthy. it's a total crock but completely acceptable in todays society.
ok, we get your point, and we actually agree. but just know that if you keep it up, people who don't know you are going to assume that you're fat and angry.
and manny ramirez is too stupid for his own good.
really? it's healthy to be over 6' tall and weigh 170 pounds? really??
My husband is 6'3" and weighs in the 170s. I definitely consider him healthy.
the whole "fat and angry" statement speaks volumes about you, not me.
give me a break. BMI is NOT a good indicator of health and wellness!
Now you're to veer the discussion in another direction. We weren't talking about health and wellness.
everyone who knows me is well aware that I'm fat and angry.
Honey bunny: "...just because someone LOOKS "fat" to you or me does NOT mean they are unhealthy. it's a total crock but completely acceptable in todays society."
BMI is based upon trends and averages; I think that it's well-known that there are always exceptions. However, I wonder if you are not taking the exception and assuming it is the rule?
I think there are some very good reasons not to have BMI measurements at school but your assertions aren't among them so far.
I object to the BMI measurement in schoold for several reasons:
1. Schools are being asked to do so many non-core functions these days that adding more could be onerous. (and a topic for another day: maybe we, as a society, should redefine what a school actually is)
2. Eating disorders/bullying etc. are big possibilities in a process like this. I know that the world is a tough place but it doesn't have to be all slog all the time.
3. The weight fluctuations many kids go through before rapid growth spurts could really skew their numbers.
4. Excessive excercise stunts a kid's growth(probably just an urban legend). Maybe not a bad thing if you have to buy them clothes or shoes.
I think BMI can be a tool used with other tools to help understand a person's overall health.
It seems the current legislation is only for research puruposes, but if we start going in that direction, the concern would be that we would follow other states in putting BMI on report cards, which i think is a terrible idea. Shame is not a way to improve health in children. Yes, obesity is a problem, but so are eating disorders. and you know the funny thing about bulimia? most adolescents that have bulimia have normal bmi's, so although they obviously are being very unhealthy, their BMI indicates that they are just where they need to be.
Healthy school lunches and required physical education are a much better use of funding.
My husband has 3 second graders in his class that barely speak a few words of English. How about we take care of getting these kids successfully integrated before we worry about their weight?
Regardless of it's accuracy, BMI tracking has ZERO place in schools. With the exception of science experiments and the like.
So how is pushing the whole BMI thing really going to help anyone? Are there really a significant number of people out there who are overweight but don't already know it? Besides, kids, who are growing and changing rapidly, need to focus on healthy habits, not on numbers that may or may not mean anything in their specific case. Too much focus on the number on the scale can be destructive.
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who?
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