School Desks Too Small For Obese Children

[Reeve]

There is a difference in reading a whole post and applying a desk to a saying at the end.

The point was chairs and desks aside, obesity is not something that should be accomidated but rather something that people should be encouraged to overcome and not be treated as something that garners special treatment or specific accomidations.

I did read your whole post, and if you think that obese kids don't have to face down adversity due to their obesity, it makes me wonder if you attended public schools at all.

[Lethey Alexandros]

I attended private but I teach in public. While I will agree that being made fun of is an obsticle to overcome I do not agree with the way the school makes special allowances that seemingly undermine physical exertion of any type for the kids. They do not have to participate in gym class other than dressing out into uniform. They are allowed to use the lifts for for wheel chair bound students to move between floors. And are given special seats to accomidate for their size while other students have to make do with the standard seats everyone compalins about, they have to participate in gym, and are not allowed on the elevators.

Now this gets into the area of "There is nothing different about my child that sets them apart from the others." If that is the case why do they need these allowances?

[Raiju]

I attended private but I teach in public. While I will agree that being made fun of is an obsticle to overcome I do not agree with the way the school makes special allowances that seemingly undermine physical exertion of any type for the kids. They do not have to participate in gym class other than dressing out into uniform. They are allowed to use the lifts for for wheel chair bound students to move between floors. And are given special seats to accomidate for their size while other students have to make do with the standard seats everyone compalins about, they have to participate in gym, and are not allowed on the elevators.

Now this gets into the area of "There is nothing different about my child that sets them apart from the others." If that is the case why do they need these allowances?

Being 'made fun of' is basically what causes a lot of teenage depression, childhood isolation, and even a fair amount of the suicides in those years. Bullying is hardly a small deal and fat kids are usually prime target no. 1.







Especially because they usually can't run faster than the other kids.

[Wikiy]

BMI is stupid. According to BMI, I could drop 80 pounds and still be in the "normal range." There isn't 80 lbs of fat on me! I'd have to like chop off my legs or something!

I'm not sure BMI works on giants.

[Hedleyazg]

I'm not sure BMI works on giants.

According to BMI quite a few athletes are overweight/obese.

[Reeve]

Someone the other day was telling me a simple method at least for taller people is if your waist size is less that 55% your height, you're within the "normal" range. I'm 77 inches tall and wear a 40 inch waist. That puts me at 51.9%.

[Tinykong]

It's really not that important, but I took a college course over the summer just for general interest, and there was a rather large woman in the class who, every class without fail, got stuck in the desk, tried to stand up with the desk wrapped around her, and would either fall over or make some other scene. I figured she just did it for attention.

There were a lot of younger people in the class, on the last day (was a two week class) there was a can of Crisco sitting on the desk. I sure am glad I'm not a kid.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure BMI works on giants.

BMI does not work for anything but "average" people.

If you are taller it says you are overweight when you are not. If you are shorter it says you are underweight when you are not.

The forumla does not take into account the fact that if you increase the height of someone the mass does not increase at the same rate proportionally, but at a much greater rate.

[Lilly32]

Get off your fat ass, put down the PS3 controller and bag of cheesey poofs, and go outside and get some exercise.

[Mormolyce]

Sometimes School desks ARE too small! Believe it or not.
A lot of schools still have those old desks i guess because of low budget? They're pretty poor. At my school when i was a kid our desks were old aswell but i don't recall having any fat kids in my class so it wasn't much of a problem. I suppose back then obesity wasn't too much of a problem yet?


We had desks similair to these

Some were higher for taller kids but never wider.

Is that chair backwards? Why does the table have a metal cross bar that seems to serve no other purpose than to crush your genitals?

[Windfury]

Now this gets into the area of "There is nothing different about my child that sets them apart from the others." If that is the case why do they need these allowances?

But every kid is an individual who has individual characteristics/learning styles/strengths and weaknesses. To the best of my knowledge schools and teachers try to recognise that already. Your problem seems to be that we're talking about extending the same supports to big kids that we already extend to anyone else because you personally don't like fatness.

Why do we give computers to kids who have writing difficulties? Why do some kids get teachers aides? Why do some kids get extra time in exams and on assignments? Why do we provide scaffolding when we give work? Why do we differentiate our work to suit different levels of academic achievement? Why do we provide extension work to some students?

Current educational practice is all about knowing your learner and providing the necessary supports that they need to achieve their best, whatever that might be. We do it all the time with all the other kids (see above examples). It's hardly unusual or unprecedented.

If kids are getting bigger then they're getting bigger. That doesn't change the fact that they still have the same right to an education. How else can you manage it? Especially without making them targets for bullying, which is not helpful in any way.

[Deleted]

Is that chair backwards? Why does the table have a metal cross bar that seems to serve no other purpose than to crush your genitals?

The chair is at the other side of the desk

[Sidegrade]

To be fair, it's shocking how small those desks are. I was a skinny-ass kid, and I always felt cramped in those desks.

Just how obese are these children, I can see complaints about the little plastic desks used in k-3 but the bigger wooden models were more than adequate "even though the seat was slippery as a slide and it took effort to not slip out the bottom"

I mean I was a pretty big teenager, were talking 280 pounds at my peak and I had no issues fitting my fat ass in a school desk
"bellies are squishy and blubber is pliable"

I mean hell at that time I had a neglected medical condition that prevented me from being in the least bit active I was depressed.

As someone's who been in that position and tormented daily by my peers I can kind of understand the position kids are in but they shouldn't be coddled.
I mean honestly when you toss a bra at a obese boy and tell him you support moobies that's motivation to diet/exercise. when you proceed to torment him for being overweight or otherwise believe his weight makes him less of a person well that just means you are a jackass.

Then again I also believe that any parent who willingly indulges such unhealthy eating habits in their children should be publicly stoned and shamed..

---------- Post added 2013-03-01 at 12:10 AM ----------

Get off your fat ass, put down the PS3 controller and bag of cheesey poofs, and go outside and get some exercise.

Maybe Mommy needs to peel herself away from facebook unplug the babysitter and tell Johny to go outside.
I mean now days the little shit would just go sit under a tree and dink around on their smartphone. (which you are a bad parent for getting them)

Kids need a phone to contact you should it be necessary (not to watch netflix or socialize on facebook) I mean its no wonder we got so many ignorant little porkers running around.

[Adam Jensen]

To be fair, it's shocking how small those desks are. I was a skinny-ass kid, and I always felt cramped in those desks.

I hated those damn desks where the chair was attached. They were cramped, and I was pretty damn skinny too.

[shimerra]

It's really not that important, but I took a college course over the summer just for general interest, and there was a rather large woman in the class who, every class without fail, got stuck in the desk, tried to stand up with the desk wrapped around her, and would either fall over or make some other scene. I figured she just did it for attention.

There were a lot of younger people in the class, on the last day (was a two week class) there was a can of Crisco sitting on the desk. I sure am glad I'm not a kid.

Yeah kind of a weird assumption to make because for 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the population that would be an absolutely mortifying experience to be avoided at all cost that most of us would only make because the only other option is stand all class.

[Bakis]

I imagine squeezing all those fat kids into their chairs and after 5 mins they start to pop like champagne corks.
A popcorn serenade just louder.

Go Texas!

[Deleted]

No.... Obese children are too big for school desks.

[Gref]

Trying to do the maths here but it's not working... how would a bigger desk make any difference? surely if you were fat you'd move your chair back a bit and it'd be sorted?

I think it is about how big their asses are. If you take your classmates chair and connect two however it should be fine, that skinny dude can simply suck it.

[Reeve]

Holy necro

[Kapadons]

This entire problem can be solved with the use of tables.

I'm more concerned that the desks with the chairs attached were racist against left handed people. Do you know how hard it is to write at a desk like that with your left hand ? It sucks.

Bring on the tables with independent chairs