Reader comments
Utah film links childhood obesity to the NCLB law

Anonymous | 6:36 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

I've said before that nothing can compete with pizza and french fries--they just taste too good. Neither children or adults are going to eat green beans if they can have pizza or french fries. I can't buy the notion that the schools are the problem, when the problem is originating at home. Mom's don't cook much anymore, most moms work, and cold cereal (can you say packaged sugar?) has become the staple on many, many home, kids eat it for breakfast and lunch, and often times for dinner too.

Pamela Swenson | 7:08 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

I have felt for the past two years that the NCLB law is one of the contributors of child obesity. At my children's school that don't have regularly scheduled recess and they have P.E. for 3 weeks and then nothing for 3 weeks. They are not encouraged to get out and play. Our lunch room has tried to create better food choices for the kids, but they offer poor choices for the snacks they feed kids. I for one send my own snacks because then I know my kids are eating more healthy. I think another problem is skipping breakfast or just eating sugar coated cereal instead of good food.

Anonymous | 8:03 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

Oh, please. There is an obese child in our extended family, but it has nothing to do with the No Child Left Behind initiative. It is due to the parents overfeeding this child when a toddler, using food as rewards, and being over-protective to the point of limiting her physical activity. She spends too much time sitting, but it is not because of doing homework--video games are the culprit.

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Bill | 8:08 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

Duh!! Do the parents get a free "Get Out of Jail" card on this. Is this for real or just political propaganda? Are they really saying that it is the school's fault because kids have lunch at school and the school is not giving them enough exercise. What about the parents who feed kids the other two meals or let them sit in front of the TV and snack all night? This really reeks of young liberals trying to take a crack at a Republican administration by ignoring all the other reasons that children as well as adults are overweight in our society. Are the schools or the Bush administration to blame for the overweight adults?
Get real!!!

Mom | 8:08 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

I think tying obesity to the NCLB law is a ridiculous, politicized conclusion. Obesity has to do with overeating and not enough exercise, probably too many video games and too much TV are contributors. I doubt that most kids sit too much because of homework.

Anonymous | 8:40 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

Just what we need, for every last minute (and bite) of our day legislated.

Get real | 9:04 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

NCLB causing kids to be fat? How can any rational person think that with a straight face? So, what act of congress is making adults fat? The reality is that educators don't like NCLB, and are pinning the worlds ailments on it. They claim it is because of an increased emphasis on academics, but they aren't measuring up there either. Childhood obesity is a societal problem. It comes down from fat parents and fat educators serving as fat examples. Go to the local elementary school and look at the faculty; the problem will be obvious. If you want kids to get off their large butts, then the adults need to get off their butts first. NCLB has nothing to do with it. Get the kids and teachers out 10 minutes every day in vigorous activity, and you will see improved health and improved test scores.

Film Producer | 9:59 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

Steve is a propagandist with a mission. His films reflect his personal agenda. As a result they don't honestly explore any issue a neutral point of view. From the Michael Moore school of film, he relies on sensationalism and controversy to get an audience for his voice. Understanding that, watch the film and see for yourself if he has anything to say of value.

No Recess | 10:21 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

There are many school districts that have dismissed recess all together across the country. They have "break time for lunch" only. The district I spoke to said this gives them more classtime which should correlate to higher test scores. In addition, teachers, including pre-service teachers, all know the "benefits" of giving out snacks to their students to help them study and do well on tests. There's always a question about how a person is supposed to perform well on a test if they're hungry? No recess and an increase in snacks can be attributed to the focus on teaching towards the test that interpretation of NCLB has caused.

Makes Sense To Me | 10:48 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

So, for all of you people that disagree:

1) No Child Left Behind has all but dried up physical education in schools. Consequently, kids aren't exercising the 30 minutes a day as suggested by the nation's doctor, the Surgeon General.

So, they're getting less exercise.

2) The USDA's school lunch program consists of pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fruit salad (with high fructose corn syrup) with juices and sodas (not to mention gobs of vending machines)

So, they're eating junk.

Are you people, who disagree with the film producers, saying, "Less exercise and eating junk does NOT contribute to obesity"?

Uh, because it makes sense to me.

Rubicon | 11:53 a.m. Dec. 6, 2007

No doubt some government program, bureaucrat, political philosophy, or anything that people politically disagree with, is the cause for a)obesity, b)mall shootings, c)bad grades, d) any other issue people want to pawn off on anyone but themselves.
Isn't is possible, just possible mind you, that the kids & their parents have made "BAD" choices? Is it not possible that blaming everyone else for whatever problems one has in life, is simply scapegoating responsibility for one's actions in life. (ie:The devil made me do it!)
NCLB, as much a concoction of Teddy Kennedy as it was George Bush, has done a world of good. Making it responsible for all the wrongs one can conjure up, is simply a way of saying, we the teachers do not want anyone to actually determine we have not really done our jobs and taught the children. If you measure our work, you may realize we have been sucking the life out of taxpayers, while doing a bad job, because we too are failures!

veedub | 12:30 p.m. Dec. 6, 2007

I think Steve is exactly right! I also think NCLB contributes to global warming, tsunamis and hurricanes, not to mention Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration! What was Bush thinking!?

Tenorlove | 3:02 p.m. Dec. 6, 2007

It should be called No Child Gets Ahead, because ALL we do (I am a teacher) is "teach to the test". By the way, food choices are NOT on standardized tests.

brisonc | 12:01 a.m. Dec. 7, 2007

If "No Child Left Behind" is being used as an excuse to eliminate recess or PE; that is an issue the SCHOOL BOARD can address and correct.

There were tests to qualify if children were learning before NCLB and there should be. What Bush did was put forth actual consequences for not meeting basic skills requirements that all should be able to meet at grade level and if PROPER TIME MANAGEMENT practices are used to cover the subject matter, there is no need to eliminate recess or PE.

It is the teacher's Unions(NEA) that oppose NCLB the most because it can single out those teachers that teach below standard and it can identify exceptional teachers that regularly teach above the standard, regardless of the pool of students.

Teachers unions believe there is no such thing as a bad or substandard teacher. They continually make excused for bad teaching, blaming environment, funding, supplies, training as reasons teachers don't succeed. The problem is, many schools that suffer under the same bad conditions can be shown to have regularly met and exceeded the NCLB standards so it is untrue that the standards for NCLB are not attainable by poorer areas.

a teacher | 8:57 p.m. Dec. 9, 2007

This is just one more thing to blame on our teachers and public schools. Parents, wake up and shoulder part of the blame. We're not the ones plopping the kids in front of the TV and video games. I am getting tired of society pointing their fingers at the school system every time something looks bad.

Allen Jackson | 2:01 p.m. Dec. 10, 2007

Federal demands on schools with little funding to meet those demands, something had to give. Many administrators choose to cut non-academic programs to facilitate for additional time and resources for the three Rs...

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