THE FAT POLICE ARE HERE

The fat police are here

September 3, 2003

Arkansas recently passed legislation addressing childhood obesity. The legislation, House Bill 1583, is:

"an act to create a child health advisory committee; to coordinate statewide efforts to combat childhood obesity and related illnesses; to improve the health of the next generation of Arkansans; and for other purposes."

Via House Bill 1583, Title 20, Chapter 7, Subchapter 1 of the Arkansas code was amended to:

"Require schools to include as part of the student report card to parents an annual body mass index percentile by age for each student ..."

Ridiculous, you say! Absolutely. Welcome to systems education where the purpose of the school is no longer to educate the child for intelligence (a classical education) but rather, to produce a world class worker (the product) for the business (the customer) in a total quality (outcome based) system; said workers to be trained to fill jobs according to regional economic development strategies and regional labor market needs as determined by the federally controlled Workforce Development Board.

In this endeavor, the child must arrive at school on the first day and every day thereafter "ready to learn" (Goal 1 of the eight national goals outlined in Goals 2000, Public Law 103-227.) Any child who does not arrive at school on the first day and every day thereafter ready to learn is said to be "at risk" for failure. What constitutes "at risk?" Anything, anything at all, that might adversely affect the child, whether it be mentally, physically, or emotionally.

Obesity can adversely affect the child mentally, physically and emotionally. As such, the child is at risk for failure and, therefore, deemed not ready to learn. And besides, face it, in this day and age of streamlined "human resources," what customer (business) wants an obese employee?

Under Goal 1 of Goals 2000, a child who is not ready to learn, is at risk for failure, is subject to the intervention of social services inclusive of mental health and health-care providers, a partnership of social services and schools under state and federally funded readiness-to-learn grants, such that every child shall receive the help he/she needs to reach his/her "full potential" as a human resource.

Sounds too "far fetched" to be plausible? Think again. Genital exams have been performed on children on school premises without the informed consent of parents because the children might have been sexually molested and would, therefore, be deemed at risk for failure — mentally, physically and emotionally.

Remember the words of Dr Shirley McCune, then senior director of Mid-continental Regional Education Laboratory (McREL), quoted in the Bremerton Sun (Bremerton, Washington) on October 14, 1989:

"When you walk in the building, there's a row of offices. In one are drug counselors. One is for social security. Another, family and child psychologists. Yet another has a doctor and nurse who do well-child exams. ... Schools are no longer in the 'schooling business,' but rather, in 'human resource development' ..."

What happens if the parent does not agree with the individual education plan (IEP) drawn up by the school in partnership with social services incorporating measures deemed necessary to address the child's weight? If the parent resists, refuses to agree, refuses to become a partner in the IEP, the parent is interfering in the ability of the child to reach his/her full potential. As such, the day will come when parents will be forced to comply or face having their children removed from their home by child protective services and placed with foster parents who will comply.

In the words of Joseph C Fields (1993):

"Parents learn that they must provide the best ready-to-learn student possible. ... Citizens would no more be allowed to put obstacles in the way of public educators than to interfere with public medical, police, or fire protection personnel who are doing their duty."

Idaho is, at this time, piloting a program in which parents who are found to be abusing drugs are given the choice of giving up the drugs or giving up their children — having their parental rights terminated by the courts and their children subject to adoption. But that isn't the same; that's a parent abusing drugs; they deserve to lose their children. Right? What's the difference between a parent abusing drugs which is said to place their child at risk for failure and a parent refusing to go along with an IEP which is also said to place their child at risk for failure? What parents need to understand is that under systems education, anything that is deemed to place the child at risk for failure, comes under the purview and control of the school.

If this doesn't send chills up and down the spines of parents, it should. Those who believe it won't happen to them, or it will only happen to "that family" over there, are deluding themselves. Readiness to learn is part of systems education. Readiness to learn is deemed necessary in achieving and maintaining the sustainable global environment in which every human resource has demonstrated mastery of "teamwork, critical thinking, making decisions, communication, adapting to change and understanding whole systems" (WTECB, 1995) as determined by the federally mandated state assessment.

The first principle concerning government (or public) schools is that they violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. See Are Public Schools Constitutional?.

The second principle concerning government (or public) schools is that their purpose is to benefit the government in achieving and increasing its power and position.

In the words of Edmund Fairfield, President of Hillsdale College, on July 4, 1853, "The more the ignorance, the better the slave ... "

In the words of William Pearson Tolley, Chancelor of Syracuse University; in 1943, "In a slave state, vocational training may be education enough. For the education of free men, much more is required."

Resources:—

Fields, Joseph C; Total Quality for Schools; A Suggestion for American Education; Milwaukee: ASQC; 1993.

Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board; High Skills, High Wages; Olympia: WTECB; 1995.