disgusted at staffroom conversation
While sitting in the staff room today with a science teacher, I listened to what she was doing with her 1st yr science class. She went on to enlighten me with what she was teaching. She had been concentrating on balenced diet/eating with her class. I immediately became clued into what she was going to say.
Her project that she had given her students was to buy a little notebook and note for the next week what food they had eating, what the nutritional content of the food and how many calories was in the food they were eating. Next she went on to instruct the students to look at the fat content, weigh themselves before doing all this and see if their weight changes with the amount of fat they were eating over the course of a week.
Well, I was disgusted. Unbelievably taken aback. Perhaps a little sensitive at first but I could feel the anger rising inside of me. I felt like screaming at the women, knowing that if I was 12 and in that class it would have set me off on condition thinking, questionioning what i eat, did I put on weight etc. I just couldn't believe it, this is what she was teaching for a healthy balenced diet. Whats more, she was ingraining in them what is good/bad food.
I still have no words to describe my anger and revulsion at how she taught this.
I don't know, What do you think?
amanda
hey,
I was shocked by this too. i think it's crossing a boundary and is inappropriate. I don't think the purpose of Science class is to interfere in the personal lives of students. it's also unfair on parents who may be cooking family meals that are, because of this class, up for scrutiny. It's more like weight watchers than science class. And there definitely seems to be an over-emphasis on the food aspect of the science course - which is very minimal. To me it sounds like the teacher is nosey and is indulging maybe an ED of her own that she may be unaware of. it definitely is not a proper nutrition class and I don't think being a teacher qualifies her to play such a vital role in the everyday lives of her students. Food is a greater module in Social-Scientific class, not Science
What she is asking people to do is time-consuming and unrealistic for normal, healthy students. it forces them to focus on every mouthful they eat; to weight themselves when they are going through a time of pubertal development in front their class is inappropriate. it leaves people open to bullying, abuse and insecurity. I think it is potentially harmful to sensitive people and a focus on writing down everyting you eat is going to put people's lives out of balance. and if they forget to do it, they are punished for not doing their "homework" _ this means students have to do homework round the clock and cannot escape it - as eating is a function most healthy people do quite a lot, several times a day It's not her business and I think parents would object to this kind of teaching approach as it seems to be an invasion of family life instead of proper education about the Science aspect of food i.e. the way it is burned, the nutritional content etc. It just shows the teacher's ignorance, which is quite ironic
This kind of carry on is happening all of the time. Not only in secondary schools but also in primary. Its quite awful to think that this is what children are being taught and led to believe. The adult planting a seed into the mind of the child. I was only talking to someone yesterday about the important role a teacher can play in a child's life and how much of a positive role model they can be. The potential for them to instill a healthy attitude towards food and well being is hugh yet they are sometimes so caught up in what is happening in their own head that they forget they are dealing with very vulnerable minds. I sometimes think that it is the adults that should go back to school and educated themselves a bit more before advising the children on how to behave. There is hope however as I have seen in schools that not everyone has this attitude. There is some awareness out there however a lot more is needed. The work that is being done in schools by our own team is to be applauded and hopefully little by little it will start to make a difference.
Jackie
Dear Amanda, thank you for your post, I can feel your anger, I feel it as well when I hear this type of news. The irony is this week is ‘Fat Talk Free Week’.
If people only realized how dangerous this strategies are, and how important ‘fat’ actually is.
I think the only way we can learn on this is – so much needs to be changed, at least we have the understanding and even in a small way we can bring some more understanding here on Iceberg. I fully agree with Jackie, that so much starts in Primary school.
Maybe even here on Iceberg we can start to work on some guidelines for teacher and send it to schools?
Would anybody have some suggestions – maybe we can make something good out of these situations….
Have a good day everyone
M
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MArie
To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start giving some suggestions to tackle this problem. Perhaps one would be to go into schools and train the teachers before trying to educate the children on food. What really gets to me is that kids are constantly being told such and such is a bad food and I feel that that pushes the kids into wanting to eat it all the time. You know the whole kids always wanting to go against the adults. Kids should want to eat whatever they want and should know what food helps the parts of our body. Kids are more responsible than we give them credit for. I feel this needs to be done in primary school, because by the time they get to secondary school, the teenagers dont care.
And I guess, the teachers need to not do what my particular teacher in the staffroom did. Kids shouldnt be afraid of food, they should feel comfortable with food, not scared of it.
amanda xxx