# Hey Fatty... Quit Teaching our Kids...



## Cryozombie (Mar 30, 2005)

http://www.ktvu.com/education/4322022/detail.html



> A state lawmaker has suggested Hawaii's public schoolteachers be forced to weigh in as part of the fight against obesity in students, KITV in Honolulu reported.
> 
> State Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced a resolution in the house requesting that the Board of Education establish an obesity database among public schoolteachers.


Uh... Uh... What the hell? I think thats pretty damn stupid myself... what do you think?


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## Brother John (Mar 30, 2005)

NONE of their business.
Has Nothing to do with teaching.


what horse-droppings!

 :bs: 

Your Brother
John


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## dubljay (Mar 30, 2005)

Parents need to quit blaming society for THEIR mistakes.  So by this idea its bad to be obese but ok to discriminate against those who are?  This is the message parents want to send their kids?!


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## Lisa (Mar 30, 2005)

OMG, this is an unbelievable quote:

"As a matter of fact, we should start at home, but since the legislature has no way to regulate homes, we can at least start in school," Cabanilla said. "And teachers have a lot of impact to these students."

I am speechless, this is so asinine..


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## shesulsa (Mar 30, 2005)

Unbelievable.  This is Hitleresque.


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## theletch1 (Mar 30, 2005)

I don't think I ever thought of a teachers size as having anything to do with their ability to teach me or my children.  Sounds very close to being descrimination against someone because of their "culinary orientation".


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## Ping898 (Mar 30, 2005)

I think the only teacher where their weight "might" matter in their ability to do their job is the gym teacher, if the gym teacher isn't active then bad example.  But this proposal is just awful and I would think count as an invasion of privacy.  I hate the fact that politicians keep getting involved like this.  It is hard enough being a kid if you are in anyway different from whomever is considered popular, fat included.  Now these politicians just keep drawing more attention to it, not really doing much that would help the problem and saying how bad it is, making it worse for the kids who are overweight.  Just another example of how politicians will do anything other than tackle real problems of the states and country...


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## Andrew Green (Mar 30, 2005)

Guess it depends on what the teacher is trying to teach... it is kinda hypocritical for a 300lbs teacher that takes the elevator to the second floor every day and has a "supersized McDonalds" meal for lunch everyday to be teaching health, fitness and nutrition classes...

 But for academics?

 Yes, they "should" set an example and live healthy lifestyles, but to force that as part of the job requirements is silly...


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## Rich Parsons (Mar 30, 2005)

Well being considered Obese by Obesity.org, because my BMI is 33 or greater.

They move the calculator around search the site and you should be able to find it.

Yet, as my BMI is high I am obese, yet, I only have 18-20% body fat so I am in the healthy area for my age group, which is 15-20%. 

So, I can see that this cannot be executed for they do not consider health an issue, only mass.


Personally I do not think it is an issue, as long as the person can do their job and teach. It still requires the students willing participation for it to be called education.


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## MA-Caver (Mar 30, 2005)

<cue music;  Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" >
You gotta love the stupiditity of the people we put/vote into political office. Never mind that they were stupid before they put their names on the ballots but the fact that WE voted for these idjits and then a couple months or a year later they come up with these idiotic proposals. 
Hawaii... where the native people look at obesisity as a matter of cultural pride. I've a few friends who are of the island races (Hawaiian, Tongan, Samoan etc.) and they're great people. Warm and beautiful. 
Oh boy, this... this just doesn't surprize me at all... laughable at best, enough to make you cry at it's worse.


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## dubljay (Mar 30, 2005)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> Guess it depends on what the teacher is trying to teach... it is kinda hypocritical for a 300lbs teacher that takes the elevator to the second floor every day and has a "supersized McDonalds" meal for lunch everyday to be teaching health, fitness and nutrition classes...
> 
> But for academics?
> 
> Yes, they "should" set an example and live healthy lifestyles, but to force that as part of the job requirements is silly...


 Just wondering....
 It may be hypocritical but does it make that person a bad teacher? Does it no longer mean the material being taught is no longer valid?


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## bignick (Mar 30, 2005)

Hey, hey....used the calculator...I'm obese too...


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## Simon Curran (Mar 30, 2005)

bignick said:
			
		

> Hey, hey....used the calculator...I'm obese too...


Ditto here, doesn't really take into account muscle mass that calculator does it, I am pretty sure anyone who knows me would say I am pretty damn far from obese.
As for regulating teacher's weight... Are you kidding me?
By the Body Mass Index calcualtions most of the Island folk I have met would be obese, but I'm not sure I would want to say that to the Fiji rugby players I met once...


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## ginshun (Mar 31, 2005)

That is just stupid.

 It will never go through anyway.  The lawyers will have a field day with this if a teacher actually gets fired for being too fat.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 31, 2005)

dubljay said:
			
		

> Just wondering....
> It may be hypocritical but does it make that person a bad teacher? Does it no longer mean the material being taught is no longer valid?


 I'd expect a math teacher to be good at math.

 I'd expect a English teacher to be good at English.

 I'd expect a health teacher to be healthy.

 It may not effect the validity of the material, but it does effect how well it will be picked up.  Part of being a leader is leading by example.


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## Flatlander (Mar 31, 2005)

> Part of being a leader is leading by example.


 Someone should tell this to the people making this into an issue.

Have they nothing better to do?  For crying out loud, there must be some other issue out there that takes precedence over obesity.

Someone said "Hitleresque", no kidding.  Why is this approach even being considered?  How about educating people on the positive benefits of good health?  Other than that, let them make their own choices.  We should mandate the body style of our citizens?  This is wrong in so many ways.


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## Feisty Mouse (Mar 31, 2005)

Absolutely stupid idea.

Nice way to try to legislate body weight - how utterly bizarre.


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## Tgace (Mar 31, 2005)

Maybe there should be a weight standard for public office too then.....


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## Makalakumu (Mar 31, 2005)

Technopunk said:
			
		

> http://www.ktvu.com/education/4322022/detail.html
> 
> 
> Uh... Uh... What the hell? I think thats pretty damn stupid myself... what do you think?



That does not really do anything to *solve * the problem, but it does make it *look * like something is actually being done.  And, heck its cheap.

A far better solution is to require our students to take more physical education...

Yeah, it will cost a little more right now, but in the long run, when people are healthier as adults, it will save a tenfold amount.


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## loki09789 (Mar 31, 2005)

upnorthkyosa said:
			
		

> That does not really do anything to *solve *the problem, but it does make it *look *like something is actually being done. And, heck its cheap.
> 
> A far better solution is to require our students to take more physical education...
> 
> Yeah, it will cost a little more right now, but in the long run, when people are healthier as adults, it will save a tenfold amount.


Measure health by blood pressure, Heart rate, body fat percentage, ht/wt charts in COMBINATION instead of simply saying "your fat...unhealthy"

One of the BEST things to do for a school is to invest in the cafeteria so that the snack machines, lunch choices AND juice/soda machines promote this 'healthy' propaganda that is getting so much lip service.

Healthy menus are expensive to keep...more expensive than writing up a statement like this.

From what I see, teens don't eat enough greens/veggies, drink enough water and get enough sleep to be at their best.  I have a lovely, polite and sports active student that was just diagnosed with kidney stones.  She says that she 'hates water' and only drank soda and juice (more soda than juice)....where are the parents on that crap!  Sounds petty to tell a 15-17 year old "Get a glass of water" but I would rather that than foot the medical bills her parents are facing now.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 31, 2005)

Flatlander said:
			
		

> Someone should tell this to the people making this into an issue.


 yep



> Have they nothing better to do?


 Nope 



> For crying out loud, there must be some other issue out there that takes precedence over obesity.


 Well, society goes on its media crazes, lately obesity is one.



> Someone said "Hitleresque", no kidding. Why is this approach even being considered? How about educating people on the positive benefits of good health? Other than that, let them make their own choices. We should mandate the body style of our citizens? This is wrong in so many ways.


 Or adding to fitness classes instead of cutting them, removing any games to strenuous for some and telling kids to sit still all day and then wondering why they are getting lazy and chubby...


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## Deuce (Mar 31, 2005)

If schools are going to hire teachers based on their weight, they should hire obese people. When I used to sit in class with a skinny teacher teaching at the front of the room, not once did I think to myself, gee, he looks healthy, maybe I should eat right and exercise so I can look as healthy as him when I'm his age. But, when I had a very obese teacher, I thought to myself: Oh man, that's a big dude. I don't want to be that big when I'm his age. I better start eating right and exercising. 

Now, I didn't actually change my lifestyle at that time, but, to me anyways, the obese teacher made me think more about my health than the skinny one.

When it comes down to it, the appearance of my teachers had nothing to do with my health or weight. The only way that I can see it having much of an effect on me is if the gym teacher had massive muscle mass and was willing to teach the class how to get into good shape. With the hormones raging, and the desire to look good for the ladies, it may have had an affect on some.

This whole idea is down right stupid. I can't beleive that  someone would actually think this, let alone say it.


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## Phoenix44 (Mar 31, 2005)

Let's see...birth control...sexual activity...embryos...stem cells...death issues...

Yes, I think it's time for the government to get involved in our appearance.


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## ginshun (Mar 31, 2005)

> Have they nothing better to do?


 Obviously not.  If people had better things to do, we wouldn't see proposals like this, or lawsuits over gummi candy shaped like roadkill.


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## Rich Parsons (Mar 31, 2005)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> I'd expect a math teacher to be good at math.
> 
> I'd expect a English teacher to be good at English.
> 
> ...



Yes, the health teacher should be healthy or understand how to be healthy.

Just because they are male and are 5'8" and 165 lbs, does not mean they are healthy. They could smoke, or have cholesterol issues, or other issues. So, are we now going to not only weigh the instructors but also get regular blood work done?


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## arnisador (Mar 31, 2005)

There's something unsettling about an overweight physician or health teacher. But, one pays for their advice, not their model--they're not fitness coaches.

 Calling this 'Hitleresque' however is simply ignorant. Hitler is not remembered because he weighed government employees.


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## shesulsa (Mar 31, 2005)

arnisador said:
			
		

> Calling this 'Hitleresque' however is simply ignorant. Hitler is not remembered because he weighed government employees.


 Hence the use of the "esque" at the end of the name. No, Hitler did not weigh his employees, but he did forward a movement based on appearances reigning superior - blonde hair, blue eyes? Ring a bell? 

 Hitler used appearances and genetics to determine the superior race and forwarded it. How exactly is the term "Hitleresque" offensive or ignorant? Does it not play to the appearance value of a person in position?


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## Tgace (Mar 31, 2005)

Nothing wrong with a blue eyed blonde IMO....

Never dated one myself though.


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## arnisador (Mar 31, 2005)

shesulsa said:
			
		

> No, Hitler did not weigh his employees, but he did forward a movement based on appearances reigning superior - blonde hair, blue eyes? Ring a bell?


 Not to me, no. His ideology was based on anti-Semitism and the concept of the Aryan master race ("principle of the blood"). It wasn't based on having blond hair and blue eyes--would you describe Hitler himself as blond, for instance?--but on being Germanic, which he associated with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. Note the distinction--he favors ethnic Germans, who tend to have a certain appearance, rather than a certain appearance, which Germans tend to have. It was always about the intellectual, cultural, etc., superiority of the German (more broadly, Aryan) race, and of course his rabid anti-Semitism. After he determined that the Aryan race was the most perfect race, he inferred that they were superior in all ways...including physical beauty.

 It's basis, however, was in his notion of a master race, not of a physical ideal of appearance. I disagree with you on the basis of his movement; in fact, you're wrong.



> Hitler used appearances and genetics to determine the superior race


 No, he didn't use appearances to determine the superior race. He determined that he was a member of said race and worked from there. I don't know that he thought in terms of genetics as we understand the term today as much as simply a distinction between races ("The racial question gives the key not only to world history, but to all human culture." (_Mein Kampf_)). Dark hair was to him a signifier of miscegenation, not a crime in itself.

 So, I find the comparison ignorant, that is, uninformed by knowledge of the facts, and offensive, as it compares the actions of Hitler to a suggestion to maintain a database of weights of government employees. Not all stupid ideas are equal. Weighing teachers makes no sense, but no one makes a suggestion like this expecting it to be enacted. It's an attention-getter for a politician--a statement that appears to be pro-children and pro-health, akin to coming out against crime. To compare that to Hitler's enacted plan to murder civilians based on their race is offensive.


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## shesulsa (Apr 3, 2005)

:lol:

 Surely you jest that you could not glean context from my statement? Clearly, you think I'm an ignorant fool who cannot logically distinguish the methods of Adolf Hitler from the political posturing of discriminatory fat cats.

 You did not see a lengthy compare/contrast analysis from me, thus your over-application of logic and history upon my opinion is indicative of that which you accuse me of - ignorance.

 I will not draw a picture for you on this, since you seem to be an intelligent man and will not insult you as you attempted to insult me. 

   That said ...

 The tighter controls called for on our society to maintain certain proportions, though well-intentioned, are blindly sought. Though this may simply be bait and though Cabanilla has received free press, these tactics are petty, but speak a dangerous truth of American politics.


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## Shaolinwind (Apr 3, 2005)

dubljay said:
			
		

> Parents need to quit blaming society for THEIR mistakes.


I couldn't agree more.


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## Shaolinwind (Apr 3, 2005)

Technopunk said:
			
		

> http://www.ktvu.com/education/4322022/detail.html
> 
> 
> Uh... Uh... What the hell? I think thats pretty damn stupid myself... what do you think?


 I can't see how a rational mind would think that hare-brained scheme would work. :disgust:  Yet at the time of this post 19% of people who voted on that page think it's a good idea.  

The teachers aren't the only portly folk on the island and the government knows it. Hawaiians have had things like spam and ramen noodles as a mainstay of their diet since WW2.  There is a staggering number of obese people in Hawaii.  Fat is normal there and there is very little incentive to stay trim.  Parents do the cooking and their influence will most certainly nullify any influence a teacher will have, be they fat or fit.

Anyhow, doesn't the US government suggest that children eat lots of dairy and grains?  Those things are an absolute dietary curse when consumed regularly and in quantity.  I guess they think teachers make a nice scapegoat.


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## arnisador (Apr 3, 2005)

shesulsa said:
			
		

> Surely you jest that you could not glean context from my statement?


 I don't know what this means. The "Hitleresque" statement was exaggerated beyond any notion of reasonableness and the "appearances" comment was incorrect. I don't know why it would matter whether your statement was lengthy or concise. I interpreted your statement that "Hitler [...] did forward a movement based on appearances reigning superior" to mean that you believed that Hitler based his political movement on appearances of certain individuals or groups being superior or inferior to those of other individuals or groups. As to the application of logic and history, I suppose I'm guilty there. Do I misundertand the purpose of The Study vice The Locker Room?

 I think we agree that continuing this side discussion can serve no useful purpose.


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## Tgace (Apr 3, 2005)

shesulsa said:
			
		

> Surely you jest that you could not glean context from my statement?.


I never jest...and stop calling me Shirley.


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## Shaolinwind (Apr 3, 2005)

Chobaja said:
			
		

> I can't see how a rational mind would think that hare-brained scheme would work. :disgust: Yet at the time of this post 19% of people who voted on that page think it's a good idea.
> 
> The teachers aren't the only portly folk on the island and the government knows it. Hawaiians have had things like spam and ramen noodles as a mainstay of their diet since WW2. There is a staggering number of obese people in Hawaii. Fat is normal there and there is very little incentive to stay trim. Parents do the cooking and their influence will most certainly nullify any influence a teacher will have, be they fat or fit.


I forgot to mention something.  A business associate of mine told me a story from when he was in Hawaii on vaction.  He was taking a cab to a hotel, and quickly noticed the short, 400 lb woman walking on the sidewalk.  The driver of the cab comments "oh look at her".  He was about to concurr that she was indeed quite large when the cab driver PULLED OVER and and attempted to get her phone number.  This is an excellent example of just how much the Hawaiians love their big people.


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## arnisador (Apr 3, 2005)

Heh. It's all a matter of perspective!


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## TonyM. (Apr 4, 2005)

My My, I haven't heard the concept of fat,barefoot and pregnant in thirty years and again it rears it's ugly head.


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## Shaolinwind (Apr 4, 2005)

TonyM. said:
			
		

> My My, I haven't heard the concept of fat,barefoot and pregnant in thirty years and again it rears it's ugly head.


I don't follow your meaning, in which post was the subjugation of women discussed?


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