Any graduation is always a scary, exciting, fun time. It means you get to move on, start a new section of your life, meet new people, etc. Everyone wants to graduate. There are always those few who don't and those few who unfortunately can't, but I've never in my life heard someone not being allowed to graduate because of their weight.
At Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa 25 students will not be able to graduate because as freshman they had BMIs over 30. I found
this article explaining what Lincoln University has done. If you are obese as a freshman (i.e. had a BMI of over 30) and do not lose some weight you will not be able to graduate. As first glance, of course I was shocked. How could someone clearly discriminate against certain people? I then noticed that the students also had the choice to take a course if they didn't want to/couldn't lose the weight. This made a bit more sense. At least it isn't "lose weight or else". Still in shock I read on to find that the author of this article commended the idea. He thought it was harsh but great, saying "Congratulations on taking an unpopular but principled stance that reflects a commitment to the well-being of your students".
Now as I thought back over the article I became mildly conflicted. On one hand this is horrible discrimination and can really cause great depression and sadness in someone. Not being able to graduate is bad enough and now it's because of something that is probably very hard for the person to control? Not to mention pressure like this can cause eating disorders. Yet, on the other hand I get that the school wants their kids to be healthy. Graduation is a huge day so it can really get someone moving to help make themselves healthier. I just wish there was some other way they could do it without seeming so discriminant and without putting so much unneeded pressure on students who are already under so much pressure.
I understand compulsive over-eating, I do it quite a bit. I do, however, agree with the stance of the school. I think that having the motivation to graduate is a great way to get people to lose weight. I will say that weight is hard for some to monitor. I think that most people wouldn't be object to a person who has trouble being told that they couldn't graduate because they had failed. School pushes you to focus on your goals.
ReplyDeleteI think this program should be matched with diet plans and trainer(s) available to the students.
This is why I was torn. On one hand it seems like a great way to motivate kids, and it is. School and graduation are very important to almost any kid. But I still have that feeling that it's not right. Students already have to deal with so much pressure and I feel something like this can severely hurt one's self esteem.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of the diet plans and trainers. If the school had some sort of program (other than a random class) to help push the kids to lose weight in a healthy and safe environment than I think I would feel much happier.