A War on Weight in the Classroom

Do I remember every science lesson from when I was in school? Every physics experiment, chemistry explosion or dissection? No. (Well the latter yes, because I walked out every time with animal rights cited as the reason which was invariably respected).

I do however remember a biology lesson on calculating our BMI, and though I can honestly say this did not cause me to have an eating disorder, I can go back to the moment I had to calculate it and picture my little self being astonished that a number could tell me how healthy I was.

Years later I sat by as a teacher whilst children in my class got taken out in small groups to be weighed. This was not a GCSE biology class where hopefully, now, one young adult would be able to stand up and say that worth is not determined by weight. But the pre-pubescent 10 years olds to whom, their bodies are quite alien and scary. The National Child Measurement Programme was established in 2006 and requires all children in reception and year 6 to be weighed at state-funded primary schools. Despite how loudly I, as a teacher raised my concern to the senior leadership about this happening, I could not stop it from happening due to the fact that state schools are currently being thrown numerous amounts of documents, requirements and tests from the government that are ‘recommended’ and often framed in a positive light.

On the same level as this were the remarks I was met with by other staff members - which were ‘surely you think that parents should be told if their child is fat’ and ‘but it’s better to stop them from getting fat now’’. School values are often referred to in primary school assemblies and held in high regard. Never have I been to a school where being thin or within a certain BMI is a school value.

The NCMP implies that it is the law to be within the correct weight range. Which rings alarm bells of it being against the law to be gay, lesbian or a different religion. To me, the implication even without the fact is enough to confirm the fat-phobic and diet-obsessed country we live in. There is a reason that terms and conditions are often in such a small font or that when trying to speak to someone human on the phone by the time you have pressed every option you have been timed out.

You can and should (biased) opt out of the NCMP. Not because you want your child to be a certain weight or fit a pattern or stereotype, but because you want them to not. To not watch their parent open a letter that deems their worth, not ask their friends if they too have been put on diets or told to go for runs more, to not worry that when they start secondary school their bodies will determine their group of friends or level of popularity.

Am I saying that because your child is weighed at school this will happen? No, just like I am saying that because you smoke I can’t promise you will get cancer, or because you don’t wear a seatbelt I can’t assure you that you will go throw the windscreen.

However, studies show that children whose parents are told they are ‘over-weight’ according to their BMI (which I will point out, was made up by a white male mathematician in 1830 and is scientifically inaccurate as it does not take into account bone density, fat percentage, racial or cultural figures) are more likely to be put on a diet and be told casually to "watch what they eat". Furthermore, the children themselves are far more likely to take to social media to search for body norms, acceptance and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

It is scary to fight against the system, and send in that opt-out letter - to suggest to those you know that they should opt out of something that aims to help their child stay ‘healthy’, but trust me, it is scarier to try to explain to a twelve-year-old that no amount of food or lack of food will heal them.