It's just the beginning of public shaming and acceptance of the idea that it's the teacher's business if you're overweight. I'm not against educating kids. I just don't think personal measurements should be on their report card because it violates a person's right to privacy, and it conditions kids to believe that such violations are normal and acceptable facts of life.

On the other comments, I do believe we are well on our way to the "Fat Police". Now that we've got rid of all those nasty smokers, these fat selfish pigs are a drain on our national health care! What about the children? We don't want socialized or a single payer health care system, and unless we do something about all these fat healthcare hogs the insurance companies and hospitals are going to keep raising their rates on us.

quote]Some schools are already putting kids' BMI on their report cards, though, so that's the beginning of publicly identifying people as being obese and sticking a trackable number on their record for authority figures to see. It goes beyond educating and informing kids and raising their awareness. If schools wanted to do that, they could include a section on BMI in health class or pass out pamphlets.

It's just the beginning of public shaming and acceptance of the idea that it's the teacher's business if you're overweight. I'm not against educating kids. I just don't think personal measurements should be on their report card because it violates a person's right to privacy, and it conditions kids to believe that such violations are normal and acceptable facts of life.

Report cards are so strongly associated with success or failure in children's minds, it doesn't really matter that the BMI is not a real grade. If it's on the report card, they are going to associate it in their minds with passing or failing.

I especially don't think schools have any business putting that information on report cards when they do such an abysmal job of feeding the kids low-calorie, nutritious foods. Most schools are still doling out cheeseburgers, fries and pizza in their lunchrooms, which does nothing to help overweight kids learn to avoid calorie-dense foods.

It might seem like a small thing, but what children are conditioned to accept in grade school can prepare them for a lifetime of governmental bullying.

If the health nazi's are so keen on warning labels, they should put them on their own statistics. Most people when they hear or read that 2/3 of the country is overweight, will probably think, "oh my word, there's a crisis we have to do something", instead of "okay, how are they defining overweight? How did they arrive at that figure? Are they taking into account frame and bone density, etc?"

I think Body Mass Index is not an accurate measure when applied to individuals who have low bodyfat levels, but are heavier than usual due to extra muscle mass. I'm not sure why it gives a false reading and puts more muscular individuals outside the "normal weight" range, but it does.