The government schools might not be doing a very good job of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, but they certainly keep finding more things to occupy their time and attention. Since they consider themselves as the keepers of the children, they constantly increase their interference in the lives of families.

In the interest of the children’s health, Texas is considering measuring students’ body fat.

Headline WOAI San Antinio News: S.A. Lawmaker Wants to Grade Children on Weight

A Texas lawmaker filed a bill Tuesday that would require school districts to measure the body mass index of students and include the information in regular report cards, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

“We should be just as concerned with students’ physical health and performance as we are with their academic performance,” said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. …

It sure is nice to know the Nanny State is out there looking out for the children. If the government schools do as well at teaching the kids how to be skinny, we will have lots of illiterate, chubby graduates.

One way to make the children skinny not discussed in the article would be to link funding for the schools to the percentage of body fat in the students. When the schools don’t measure up, just like with other measures, they can lower the standards, declare everyone skinny, and take the money. The students get skinny without any change and feel good about themselves, and the school gets the money. Everyone’s happy. Except the taxpayers who have to foot the ever increasing bill. And the parents who realize what a waste the government schools are. But back to the article.

Most parents don’t need to be told their child is overweight, said Eric Allen, a spokesman for the Association for Texas Professional Educators.

Hmmm. Do you really think so? Is it possible that the parents might be able to know what is going on in their children’s lives to the extent that they notice if they’re overweight? If the parents didn’t care before the school told them in the report card, why would they suddenly care after being told? I suppose it could be the first time some of these parents realized that their child eats too much and doesn’t exercise enough, and they could intervene to change the life patterns of their child. But I have to think that most likely the child is just doing what the parent is doing, and nothing will change.

But the patronizing attitude of the government is offensive. The assumption that parents aren’t aware of something as obvious as whether their child is overweight is just astounding to me.

But here’s what really caught my eye in the article. (Note: The article talks about how Arkansas has already instituted a policy where the schools have to measure the student’s body fat and report it to the parents.)

“I know they’re trying to tie academic success to a healthy body and healthy mind, but it doesn’t have a place on a report card,” Allen said.

That was a big concern of parents in Arkansas, too, said Martha Hiett, chair of the Child Health Advisory Committee. One newspaper cartoon even showed an overweight child with his head in hands sitting on the curb, she said. The caption below: “Oh no, now my parents are going know I’m fat.”

Via: Drudge