I know my opinion on this subject is not a popular one, but I strongly disagree with the writers of the Aug. 5 letter to the editor, “PE classes are needed to fight childhood obesity.” The two physicians who wrote the letter were Peter Buttrick, MD, chief of the Section of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago and chair of the Illinois Advocacy Committee of the American Heart Association, and Lloyd Klein, MD, professor of medicine in the Cardiology Section of Rush Medical College and spokesperson for the American Heart Association.
They failed to mention that some children are obese because of undiagnosed hypothyroidism. Also they completely ignored the fact that some children are just not cut out for organized sports or forced calisthenics or other physical activity in a public setting like school.
Children who don’t have a natural bent for gym-class functions can suffer permanent mental harm by being forced to attend gym, where they are often exposed to ridicule because they don’t perform well in general and where they are always the last to be chosen by fellow students for various teams because they are known to be bad at sports.
They’re bad because they don’t like it, and they don’t like it because they’re bad. The students who hate sports can be harmed psychologically by gym class. Emotional wounds can be just as damaging as physical ones. Maybe more so.
As for the charge that “treating obesity-related health problems is costing Illinois taxpayers billions,” wouldn’t the cost to taxpayers be only in regard to overweight people on public aid? All fat children (and adults) in poor health aren’t on Medicaid, and the “billions” sound more like a phantom figure, something picked out of the air by the two doctors who wrote the letter, rather than actual statistics.
They’re just parroting the glut of stories in the media about childhood obesity, which is sometimes caused by genetics (other than hypothyroidism) rather than eating the wrong foods or too many of the right ones.
I strongly believe that gym class should be optional in public schools, and that it should be up to the parents to teach their children how to eat right and be active enough to burn off excess calories in order to prevent or correct some cases of childhood obesity.
And yes, even genetic obesity can be treated with the proper psychological tools. They don’t include ridicule.
