"Two bills being studied in the Maryland state Senate would require public schools to evaluate students using the body mass index, a formula that estimates body fat based on height and weight. One of the proposals even calls for sending home the results with report cards -- essentially, a fat grade.
One of the bills, introduced by Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George's), would require body mass and diabetes screenings at the same time that students are checked for scoliosis -- typically in middle school. Notes would go home to parents of students whose body mass index falls at the upper or lower extremes.
The other bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Gwendolyn T. Britt and Gloria G. Lawlah, Prince George's Democrats, would measure the body mass of students in the first, third, fifth and eighth grades and send a "health report card" to all parents along with regular grades.
Both measures specify that results would be confidential and delivered with explanatory materials and that parents would be permitted to opt out."
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There were no fat people when I was in grade school. True. There were no fat people walking the streets, or on TV, or in the movies, except for the comedian-type actors. Was okay to be pudgy if you were funny. Or vice-versa, I forget.
There were big kids and small kids, but no overweight kids, and we're talking Manhattan here, not West Bubble Fuck, so the neighborhoods were what anyone living on planet earth would consider to be largely populated. Some of the kids who were borderline on the baby-fat meter...people we wouldn't even consider to be fat today...became heavier as they aged, but their parents didn't so all of a sudden it became noticeable that we were becoming one fatass nation.
In high school you put on some weight if you went out for football, and we had one, maybe two kids who'd be considered overweight by today's standards, but not by much. There were no fast food joints except for McDonalds and the few failures that were McDonald copycats, and these were places you'd drop in on if you were in a rush and needed something, well, fast. It wasn't a planned trip to go get a burger and some fries, it was a, hey, let's stop and get something quick.
Not any more. Que sera sera. A lot of folks decided to stop cooking one or two meals at home and did the burger thing. Then the Taco thing, and the crappy Pizza thing, and the crappy Chicken McBarf thing. What was once a sinful treat became an everyday deal, and here we are. The kids are fat not because of a snack or two at school. The kids are fat because the other two meals of the day are quite often taken at greasepits that flourished once advertisers had us convinced we were all in so much of a rush there was no time to cook at home anymore. We have less work and more play than any generation ever, but we feel rushed so we eat out.
As far as the nannystate of Marlyand wanting to grade kids on body mass index, well, that's a boondoggle too. Boys go through a muscle-mass acceleration curve that quite often puts them at the wrong end of the scale and of course they aren't fat, but of course aren't reed fucking thin, either. It's no business of the school, no business at all, unless we're talking Orca-sized students, but as long as the grades are acceptable and the other health parameters are within reason, then stop the nonsense and leave the kids alone.
Should parents stop feeding their kids swill? Of course they should. Is it anyone elses right to force such a regimen upon them? No. Hell, no.
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