My Child is Not Fat!

Read the following scenario

The faculty and administration at Belvedere Elementary set up a pilot program to develop a curriculum for helping overweight children learn good nutrition skills and lose weight. Amanda Jones was asked to select three children from her kindergarten class to participate. She selected three children based on a comparison of the height and weight of her students with a height and weight chart of the National Academy of Pediatrics. One of the children’s parents contacted Amanda and is angry that she selected her child. The parent believes that her child is not obese and should not be in a program for “ fat kids.” She believes Amanda is discriminating against her child and is threatening to contact the school board and the media.

For this lesson’s discussion, answer the following questions and post your response to the discussion board

• What should Amanda do?
• Should she give in to the parent and remove her child from the program and risk that the child, who Amanda believes is very overweight, will suffer health-wise and from bullying and taunting? Or, should she risk alienating the parent and insist that her child would benefit from the program?