To complain about teacher weight comments

[jd88123]

My Daughter is in S1 aged 12 and was in biology class. Her teacher made them all weigh themselves.
My DD went through puberty age 10 and has boobs and a bum. Her BMI is 22 which is normal.
She said the teacher told them to "put 50kg down if you don't want to put your real weight as this is normal".
I am fuming about this as my DD is already weight conscious and has said she is going on a diet which I don't condone as she is healthy.
I think the teacher was very irresponsible to comment this and I sent a complaint about it to her guidance teacher which they've said they are looking in to.
I feel it's so wrong for children to compare themselves to each other as everyone is different. It's so damaging to their self esteem and at this age all girls especially have so much pressure to be thin and beautiful from the media.
Would you have complained?

The original post says the teacher made them weigh themselves, where does it say they weren’t forced?

I don't mean this rudely at all, but I am slightly confused about what aspect you are objecting to (and I think some respondents might be too).

Is it asking then to weigh themselves in the first place? If so, I take your point - but this almost certainly isn't the teacher's decision, she will be following the school's approved curriculum. So yes, complaining about this might well be appropriate, as it may not be an issue the school have considered before.

I don't however think the teacher did anything wrong by making a suggestion to the kids to put down an average weight if they didn't want to write the real one. That sounds like she was attempting to avoid any potential issues of bullying/shaming individuals.

As a teacher myself I know how stressful and upsetting parental complaints can be. That doesn't mean I think parents should never complain (and I have even done so myself on one occasion). Bur I would want to be very sure the teacher had acted with deliberate malice - and I don't think this one has.

The most important thing you can do is to educate your daughter about self esteem, societal pressure, healthy bodies etc etc. Which it sounds like you do. I highly doubt this one lesson will do any damage. Nontheless, flag it up as a curriculum issue if you feel strongly.

OP The teacher didn’t force or encourage a single person to weigh themselves like you said. She just said they could if they wanted to. It was optional. For those that didn’t want to weigh themselves, she was completely sensitive and gave them a weight they could use for their data instead. The “average” weight she gave for that age group was incredibly generous anyway (in the 80-90% percentile) probably to be sensitive and not make any larger children feel out of place.

Not seeing what the teacher did wrong at all. Gave students the option who wanted to and gave students who didn’t want to an average weight they could use for their calculation instead.

Your daughter being offended and the teacher being offensive are two completely different things.

Of all the data they could have chosen, they chose this? For a class full of teens / nearly teens?

Why not choose data about height, or eye colour, or numerous other biology data sets?

there is no benefit to them weighing themselves in this setting, I think your right to complain.

You're being daft. She needed data for the example and told students if they didn't want to say their weight to say 50k. Perfectly reasonable

But like so many on mn, you are going on what a child has heard, or rather thought they had heard. Often it's clear the kids has completely misunderstood and I'm pretty sure it's often not a deliberate act but fitting in with their own internal thoughts/beliefs/worries.

I'll give an example of this phenomenon in an adult. I was union rep for a large multinational insurance company, who merged with another similar company. Due to the need to provide customer service, lack of meeting rooms and sheer number of people to be briefed. The staff were briefed on what was going to happen in batches. After the first one, a woman was leaving and her friend, who was going in to the next, asked "what did they say" , the woman said "they are going to make us all redundant" she was really upset when I snapped "no they didn't, only 50 out of 2000 are going locally" . We talked later and she genuinely thought there was an announcement of mass redundancies locally. I showed her what the hand out she had in her hand said....2000 redundancies overall, mainly in other parts of the country....50 here....and she still didn't believe me.

Yes, this. Bit of an overreaction, really.

Science teacher here, rolling my eyes.

1. Weigh-ins are a standard part of a science lessons. In days gone by almost everyone would weigh themselves; those numbers have decreased as more and more people are overly conscious about the number on the scales (which needs to be taken in context anyway). We use them when teaching about BMI, daily energy need, pressure and weight on different planets. It makes what could be a very dry Maths-based lesson a little less so, and we get complaints if we teach things that are not relevant to the kids (who needs to know the daily energy requirement of a pumpkin ffs).
2. An alternative option for weigh-ins was given for those unwilling to weigh themselves using a nice, round number to work with. It also works well for any students who is a bit shite at Maths (if S1=Y7 I'd use 45kg usually and tell them it's average). That's taking care of sensitivities and makes an inclusive classroom.
3. If your problem is with the word "normal", get a grip. Normal means average in everyday usage, usually median average, which is how the word is used in society. If you always find perfect words for everything you say, cast the first stone, but otherwise please accept that teachers are human and the word normal just means average. Any biology teacher will be happy to explain that weight is linked to height and muscle mass, among other things.
4. You actually complained? Jesus Christ on a motorbike! It's complaining about what, a fact? You're causing unnecessary stress and workload and will no doubt be complaining when your child has a supply teacher instead, because this could well be the last straw. I had a similar situation a while back where using one "wrong" word (out of context) led to a complaint. I quit shortly after and they still haven't replaced me.

Some people are happiest when they’re moaning.

So you didn’t like the lesson? Suck it up, buttercups, there’ll be another lesson the next day, and another lesson the day after that.

Core subject teachers deliver four lessons a week, typically (though Science lessons are often doubles). Inevitably in any subjects there might be a task, or a comment, or a topic that is vaguely triggering. It’s called ‘being alive’. Let the moment pass instead of seizing on it and making it into a huge issue.

Quite flabbergasted that this is even a thing. And if they’re not writing real weights down then what’s the point of going through it anyway? Seems ludicrous

Umm, the syllabus is expecting us to teach how daily energy requirements and BMI are calculated in biology, and how pressure and weight are calculated in physics. They're essential knowledge and skills, like being able to manipulate equations with different numbers. It's called application.

And yes, you can use fake numbers, but apparently it's our job to inspire kids or at least get them to pay attention for 5min, which works a lot better when it's about them and not some random 35 year old steel worker with no relevance to them.

I think it’s ridiculous to make a big fuss of this to be honest. It doesn’t sound like the children were made to “compare” anything at all, just that they weighed themselves. Besides, do you not think that children have eyes to be able to see that one child is larger than another, or one is smaller than another?

The teacher probably used the word “normal” because it is! 50kg for a 12 year old is certainly not “average” at all, it’s within the “normal” range but it’s around 20% higher than average. What word would you preferred them to have used?

Or you could bring your child up to be resilient and strong and capable of making their way in life . . .

Wtaf are you on about? Bring your child up so they don’t succumb to a mental illness? We have done this. Dd2 still got an ED out of nowhere. Hope your child never does.

The daily energy requirements bit of the syllabus is very generic, talks about the highest energy requirements being teenage boys etc. Not sure why you would weigh kids for this. The weight on different planets I’d always use some astronauts data. Pressure I would usually do an elephant with different size feet. In GCSE Biology they don’t specifically have to calculate BMI, it’s not in the spec. I appreciate that it’s helpful to still do the calculation but I don’t think it’s helpful to weigh a group of teenagers.

Perhaps what you teach from is different. Ours is very specific.
Our GCSE Biology curriculum asks for BMI calculations, but we also have to do this at KS3. OCR 21st Century is an example of an exam that requires this. Again, kids don't respond well to that being some random number.

The weight on planets is the most interesting one! Who doesn't want to know what they weigh on different planets.

Pressure, you typically put a kid onto a board balancing on balloons or eggs or something else that breaks easily. Then get them to calculate pressure with and without the board. Or get them to calculate their pressure in different shoes, which also involves measuring their foot area and their weight. Honestly, have you got no creativity in how to bring these to life! Elephants indeed!

Wow, I don’t know any schools that stuck with OCR when the specifications changed, how are you finding it?

There’s no national requirement for BMI at KS3.

Oh, and kids love my lessons thanks, no need to be rude!

Bring in monthly weighing at schools I say, letters home for any fatties.

It was tongue in cheek, but tone never comes across right in the written word.

OCR is fine, especially when you continue at A-level where it's often taught in preference to AQA.

Ha. The area that I teach in was mainly OCR until the new spec came in, I was glad to see the last of 21st Century Science. Can’t wait for the new, new reform! I think I’m currently on the 3rd ‘new’ science curriculum 😬

Forced? You are just making stuff up to be offended by. The kids could weigh themselves if they wanted. If they didn't want to, they could write down a weight of 50kg.

It’s shocking they still do this, it helped trigger an ED in my dd. It’s completely wrong, unhelpful and unnecessary.
Do not let your dd go on a diet op.

This

Half of MN is bragging about how much they’ve lost on skinny jab and how miserable they’ve been half their life the other half saying whatever you do don’t dare mention scales to your kids - they’ll all wind up anorexic -Jesus