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Working with Fat Children in Schools
Working with Fat Children in Schools -- Posted by I Jah Rastafari on 06-10-05 09:18
Working with Fat Children in Schools
Sandy McBrayer, the 1995 national Teacher of the Year, tells of
visiting an elementary school that was proud of its ethnic diversity
and the integration achieved within the school's social milieu. The
principal walked her to the newly built multipurpose "cafetorium" and
ceremoniously pulled open the doors to reveal children of all colors
eating, talking, and laughing together.
As she entered, a contrasting scene near the door caught her eye.
Separated from the rest of the student body were two large children who
sat at a table eating their lunches in silence, staring directly ahead.
They were not laughing. They were not talking. They were just bringing
their forks to their mouths and down again, trying to be inconspicuous
and to finish quickly. This day, they were too slow.
As other children finished their meals and exited the cafetorium, they
threw their uneaten food at the two children. The fat children appeared
oblivious as food hit their table and slid to the floor or hit their
hands and fell onto their plates. They just kept eating and staring
directly ahead. They behaved as if they did not know what was happening
or as if this was a normal occurrence and they expected nobody to
intervene.
The ridicule and torment of fat children by others is a story told
again and again by fat children and by adults who were fat children.
What effect does such ridicule-often accepted and endorsed by
society-have on its young victims? How can educators and counselors
intervene to support fat children?
Prejudice and Its Effects
The literature on prejudice reveals that fat children are the target of
ridicule and disgust both by their peers and by the adults in their
lives, such as teachers, counselors, and parents. This is no small
problem in schools: according to the Centers for Disease Control
(1994), 21 percent of people ages twelve to nineteen are overweight. As
early as preschool age, children have accepted the stereotypes about
and developed prejudice against fat people. Given the opportunity to
play with fat or thin dolls, all children, even those who could
correctly identify that the fat dolls looked more like them, preferred
to play with thin dolls (Dyrenforth, Freeman & Wooley, 1978; Rothblum,
1992). Given pictures of children who were in a wheelchair, missing a
limb, on crutches, facially disfigured, or obese, most children said
they would least like to play with the fat child (Rothblum, 1993).
By elementary school, children describe fat children as lazy, sloppy,
dirty, stupid, and ugly (Levine, 1987). Fat children are less likely
than other children to receive "best friend" ratings from their
classmates (Rothblum, 1992). When shown silhouettes of fat and thin
males and females, nine-year-old children rated the fat figures as
having significantly fewer friends, being less liked by their parents,
doing less well at school, being less content with their appearance,
and wanting to be thinner (Hill & Silver, 1995). A group of six- to
ten-year-old boys rated fat children as most likely to be teased
(Staffieri, 1967).
By adolescence, the subjective importance of physical appearance is
particularly great among girls (Wadden & Stunkard, 1987). A
longitudinal study of one thousand high school students revealed that
more than 50 percent of the girls wanted smaller hips, thighs, or
waists. Of ninth-grade girls, 63 percent wanted to lose weight. This
figure rises to 70 percent for tenth- and eleventh-grade girls
(Huenemann, Shapiro, Hampton & Mitchell, 1966). Canning and Mayer
(1966) found lower acceptance rates into prestigious colleges for fat
high school students, compared with average-weight students, even
though the two groups did not differ in high school performance,
academic qualifications, or application rates to colleges.
Teachers and counselors are subject to the same stereotypes and biases
as parents and children. In a study of more than two hundred teachers,
it was found that for such characteristics as attractiveness, energy
level, leadership ability, self-esteem, and the ability to be socially
outgoing, large children are consistently perceived by teachers more
negatively than average-weight children (Schroer, 1985). In another
study of education professionals, a picture of an average-size teenage
girl received higher ratings on scholarship, while the picture of a fat
girl was rated highest on risk for personal problems and recommendation
for psychological referral (Quinn, 1987). A study of fifty-two mental
health professionals indicated that counselors have the same biases as
the general public: they tend to stereotype fat people negatively and
thin people positively (Loewy, 1994).
Parents have a strong impact on children's self-image and
self-esteem. One study found that girls were less likely to receive
support from their parents for college education if they were fatter
than average (Crandall, 1991). Controlling for income, ethnicity,
family size, and number of children attending college did not change
the results. Further examination found that reluctance to pay for large
daughters' educations is a matter of parental choice, not ability
(Crandall, 1995).
Parents and educators often project their dissatisfaction with their
own bodies on the children over whom they have influence. It cannot be
stressed enough that adults must deal with their own negative body
image and fear, loathing, and disgust of fat before they can stop
teaching children to hate their bodies.
Educational materials and instruction should be free of derogatory
representations of fat people. Avoid using materials with text or
illustrations that endorse negative stereotypes about fat people as
lazy, sloppy, stupid, mean, or eating too much. Material should not
depict fat people whose problems are solved because they lose weight.
To the contrary, there should be positive images of fat people of all
ages, both genders, and all ethnicities in educational materials. Those
of us who are educators must demand that the publishers of educational
material provide us with unbiased tools.
Re: Working with Fat Children in Schools -- Posted by equinox on 06-16-05 03:42
I Jah Rastafari wrote:
> Educational materials and instruction should be free of derogatory
> representations of fat people. Avoid using materials with text or
> illustrations that endorse negative stereotypes about fat people as
> lazy, sloppy, stupid, mean, or eating too much. Material should not
> depict fat people whose problems are solved because they lose weight.
> To the contrary, there should be positive images of fat people of all
> ages, both genders, and all ethnicities in educational materials. Those
> of us who are educators must demand that the publishers of educational
> material provide us with unbiased tools.
Well, the so-called professionals must overcome their own prejudices
first ... seems to be impossible. It would be a fine thing to do but I
don't think it will happen in this fat-phobic world.
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