Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.
Elementary School Gym teachers telling kids to restrict calories!
Options
Replies
-
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »First of all kids need proper calorie intake for proper growth. If kids are active they should be able to eat what they want. If concerned about eating healthy teach healthy eating habits. They should not be counting calories and going to the extremes this teacher is teaching them.
She is setting those kids up for an eating disorder and she should be reported to the administration. I think that is absolutely horrible.
I would disagree with most of this. Children should never be allowed to eat what they want. They'd likely live on chips and candy. Parents should teach children how to eat properly - proper portions along with proper nutrition.
Yes and no. My girlfriend's ten year old son is a rare exception to this. Dude still has several huge bags of candy kicking around that were given to him as gifts about two years ago.
The screwed up part? He's starting to have weight problems. He doesn't eat what most would call "junk food", but he outeats his energy expenditure. I don't care if it's fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains, too much of anything can cause fat gain problems. We all know this, so the people in this thread pretending like it doesn't apply to children are just baffling me.
A possibility occurs to me regarding your girlfriend's son. That was around the age where my son's hormones started going whack and he'd pudge up a bit then have a growth spurt and thin out. Lather, rinse, repeat. He's 14 now and is still doing the same thing and getting taller and taller.
Not being able to see your girlfriend's son, his weight may be beyond this simple explanation, but I thought I'd put it out there for you to consider.
It's not just the bodyfat levels, though that's a bit excessive as well. It's more the fact that he can't walk at a decent clip for more than a few minutes without being totally gassed out anymore. Fortunately, he appears to think a lot of me, and his seeing my getting myself in better physical order is prompting an interest in strength training in him.
Hopefully it sticks, because he's still got a lot of growing to do, and his joints are already quite large for his age. He very likely has a chance to do some incredible things from a strength perspective (and his intelligence for his age will definitely help this as well), so if he gets into it now and sticks with it, little man will be a beast before he even hits high school. Puberty: nature's steroids. xD5 -
Is it appropriate? Of course! This is the gym teacher. Nutrition and diet go hand in hand with physical education.
Evidence of a genetic link to eating disorder is tentative at best. Behavior is the dominant factor here.
As for the context - this person needs to get a better understanding of the basics of weight management and refine their communication skill.
OP - your kid is the outlier. The gym teacher needs to make a statement about this. You should initiate a conversation with this person to get first hand understanding of what was said, then you need to have a discussion with your kid and explain this. You could even establish a calorie chart to ensure that he is getting enough calories to hit his goals.3 -
-
On one hand, I think it is important to teach kids how to read nutrition labels, what calories actually are, teach them about healthy food choices, and the effects of eating a diet of mostly junk. Educating children about a healthy lifestyle is extremely important. Studies have shown that when children are educated and are given the choice, they make better eating decisions all on their own without anything being forced on them.
But this teacher is obviously going about it the wrong way. Telling children they have to calorie count and basically skip meals? That's pretty much encouraging eating disorders. Either those kids will take that to heart and and severely limited their calories, or they may start to see most foods as out of bounds and want it more, I know I always want junk food more when I tell myself I can't have it, and start binging.
Anyway you look at it, that's promoting an unhealthy relationship with food. If I were you, I honestly would be throwing a fit about this teacher.2 -
lol, I read that the teacher had set personal consequences for his/her behavior. Nothing disordered about skimping on dinner when you've pigged out earlier in the same day.7 -
lol, I read that the teacher had set personal consequences for his/her behavior. Nothing disordered about skimping on dinner when you've pigged out earlier in the same day.
That is fine for her but she does not need to project her own issues onto 11 year old kids.5 -
Projection? Disordered thinking? You've heard from one side of the story - told secondhand.
Projection abounds in this thread.4 -
This kind of thread really illustrates to me WHY 50% of new teachers quit within the first 5 years.6
-
This kind of thread really illustrates to me WHY 50% of new teachers quit within the first 5 years.
Why would this be? The best course of action is to passive aggressively make comments on an internet forum with a collection of strangers...not confronting the issue and individual directly. Seems like a rational course of action to me. I expect good results. Scratch that...I expect great results.2 -
Lack of control is a another big reason. Look at all the posters on here that wanted to hang the teacher before the facts were discussed.
Parents often think their little snow flakes can do no wrong.7 -
lol, I read that the teacher had set personal consequences for his/her behavior. Nothing disordered about skimping on dinner when you've pigged out earlier in the same day.
That is fine for her but she does not need to project her own issues onto 11 year old kids.
You are the one doing projection here. Teachers are expected to share their own experience when it is relative to the instruction. A gym teacher talking about how he sometimes eats badly and responds is not an 'evil'4 -
I don't think that is the issue. I am all for taking responsibility for your own child. But when the teacher starts talking about skipping meals, doing extra exercise to burn off some calories when they are young and can burn off those said calories. I'm hungry but I am over my calorie limit so I need to starve or exercise 1 hour longer, look at fat kids you dont want to be like that. It is a bit much. These are young children. She should teach proper nutrition and exercise. Not making them feel guilty with her personal issues.5
-
I just knew my kiddo was full of kittens when he was in second grade. We are putting a lot of faith in this kid without hearing the teacher's side.
Secondly the op stated that the principal had wondered why he kept this teacher employed at his school. I seriously doubt he would say this out loud to anyone especially the parent.
5 -
Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »I just knew my kiddo was full of kittens when he was in second grade. We are putting a lot of faith in this kid without hearing the teacher's side.
Secondly the op stated that the principal had wondered why he kept this teacher employed at his school. I seriously doubt he would say this out loud to anyone especially the parent.
Yep discussion of an employmennt issue with parents is a quick path to a lawsuit.
Plus throwing the teacher under the bus in front of parents, even if.the teacher was wrong gives a bad precident to other teachers and how the principal supports his staff.3 -
When I was growing up discussions like this were a normal part of health or even physical education. Now, they did not tell us to count calories, the discussion was usually geared more toward not over eating in general and not eating too much junk, along with the importance of physical activity. These lessons were never an issue because they weren't like what you mention here. Have a talk with the principal, if that fails go to the board of education.0
-
.0
-
Most schools have packets that parents have to sign so they can see what curriculum is covered in classes. I had to sigh off on movies shown, and just recently information for sex education.
So if a parent signed off and the PE teacher is allowed to teach about nutrition in the curriculum, parent is SOL. In the very end, it's still up to the parent instill the habits they want their kids to follow.
Let me just say that I don't think this teacher may have it altogether on her nutrition.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
[/quote]
1 -
I truly believe that nutrition needs to be taught in school, however the way this teacher went about it wrong. you don't restrict claories, you don't work off every meal, and you definatly don't tell them you eat nuts for dinner cause you don't have any calories left.
my sons are in elementary school and already are learning about nutrition in 4th grade. however they are learning why what you eat has more importance than how much you eat. they are learning about making healthy choices and choosing wise treat in moderation. this last week they made vegetarian chili in one of their classes with help from this group.
http://www.purefoodkids.org/
and brought home recipe cards to the families. in our house eating healthy is not a struggle but I think a program that teaches the children and inturn the parents is greatly needed across America.3 -
lol, I read that the teacher had set personal consequences for his/her behavior. Nothing disordered about skimping on dinner when you've pigged out earlier in the same day.
That is fine for her but she does not need to project her own issues onto 11 year old kids.
You are the one doing projection here. Teachers are expected to share their own experience when it is relative to the instruction. A gym teacher talking about how he sometimes eats badly and responds is not an 'evil'
The teacher confirmed everything when confronted by the Principal. No projecting here.
3 -
If the teacher or the school want to teach kids about appropriate eating they should bring in a nutritionist or a dietitian.1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 913 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions