To think that school pupils should *not* have compulsory lessons in Body Image and Self Esteem.

[somebloke123]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18260133

Of course, schools should be on the lookout for pupils with such problems and support them as far as possible.

But compulsory lessons? With national guidelines and monitored by OFSTED???

It seem that these MPs once they get into parliament and get put on a committee imagine thmselves in front of some gigantic console where they twiddle a few knobs which are attached via a set of levers to the wider society. By deciding on the correct settings they think they can determine the way society is.

It doesn't work like that.

Well it's a sad reflection on today's sleb culture and society. It's probably a response to one of the recent surveys where "WAG" was put down as an aspirational career choice by young girls and teenagers!

Yabu. The world and the media has changed so much, these are issues that need introducing. Many parents don't have the experience or insight to discuss them with their children...children and teens need to be encouraged to question things in this area.

I like the idea.

YABU. I am all for it

i'm not sure self esteem is something that can be taught in the classroom

YANBU. Parents need to be wise to this. We can't say of every difficult issue "well some parents struggle to talk about this so we'll make it the schools responsibility. " Teachers have enough to worry about.

It could be covered as part of form time discussions (do they still do this?") or personal education sessions that cover sex, well being etc. I don't see how it can possibly justify space in the curriculum on its own.

I like it. I think it's an important subject to address

YANBU

Every societal issue can supposedly be fixed by forcing schools to teach lessons on the right things to think/do.

WTF would a "body image" lesson even consist of?

What is the educational value of this?

I would rather my girls had a good academic education to enable them to get a well paid job than waste valuable teaching time on this faddy non subject.

Teenage girls have always been ridiculously self conscious and self obsessed. Age cures it.

ithaka the media isn't the way it used to be. Age won't cure it anymore.

You need self esteem to get a good job. Sometimes age doesn't cure being self conscious, sometimes they get anorexia or bulimia.

Education isn't all academic IMHO.

My thoughts exactly Sparkling education is also about social skills and getting along in the community.

Do you really think lessons on body image are going to prevent serious eating disorders from taking hold? I think it's more complicated than that.

No, I don't think it will necessarily prevent all serious eating disorders. But it won't do any harm to discuss it with children in a classroom environment. get them talking about it and be aware. Would it?

YABU. I'd hope that any of my DDs had the self awareness, possession, and confidence that Jessica Ennis displayed this week. I know that they don't, and neither do I. I don't know any of their friends that do either. I do recognise how important it is for their later life, getting jobs, getting into the right course for them at uni etc that they do have as much of this as possible though.

If someone other than me, with good up to date information, and supporting materials can supply it in school, as part of a rounded education, why would I not want it?

"You need self esteem to get a good job."

You need self-esteem for a lot of things, but it is not something you can teach in a lesson.

Building pupils' self-confidence and social skills should be at the heart of any good education.

But you don't sit down and learn it in a classroom.

And teaching "body image" is just a joke. WTF does that even mean?

I'm not saying it would do harm to discuss it in a classroom environment but only as part of existing personal development lessons or whatever they call them now. Dedicating a lot of time to it seems silly given the pressure on youngsters to achieve academically and compete in a global economy.

I worry about my DD as much as any other mother with regards to fucked up body images but I consider discussing these things to be my responsibility.

I am not aware that anorexia and bulimia are on the rise? These are serious and potentially fatal mental health conditions and to suggest a few 'body image and self esteem' classes could prevent them is to fail to understand and trilivialise these conditions.

Good academic results can lead to opportunties in life that will build genuine self esteem based on real achievements. 'You go girl' type nonsense is patronising and irrelevant.

YANBU

Who will be taking the lessons? Will it be the same teachers who tell my children that butter is unhealthy and homemade flapjack is bad food ?

Actually I hadn't read the link properly and want to modify my view.

I'd like it for secondary school pupils. I'm not sure that the issue is best addressed at school at primary age.

Interesting variety of responses.

It wasn't particularly addressing and discussing it that I would have a problem with. It seems to me that any issue that affects children is a valid subject to tackle at school, one way or another. Clearly many young people are very anxious about their bodies and always have been. Mostly people get over it in time but in some cases it's much more serious. Whether it is addressed in form lessons, or in the mainstream curriculum could be for individual schools/ teachers to decide.

But looking at the MPs report it seems as if an edifice, or mini-industry is being ushered in. Are we to have body image and self-esteem coordinators in future? Is it going to be an extra set of boxes that all schools must in future tick for their OFSTED inspections? I don't personally see how trying to run this at a centralised national level is going to help.

As the mother of two young girls, I'm all for it. Going by the attitudes of a lot of friends and acquaintances, academic, social and/or career successes don't necessarily have any positive effect on self esteem or body image.

I think they are valuable lessons to learn. But is this really new? Back "in the day" when I was at school we covered this in RE (our RE covered "moral" issues as well as stuff to do with religion). My DC both cover self esteem and what they look like in PSHE (primary).

As the mother of two young girls, I don't want their time wasted being made to sit through pointless body-image lessons.

What exactly is body image?
How is an individuals body image constructed?
At what age does this happen?
Has something happened to corrupt this process?
If so, what? How can it be remedied?

What will the content of these lessons actually be?

Just sticking something on the compulsory curriculum doesn't mean pupils are going to learn anything remotely worthwhile.