Breaking the "Fat Stigma" in America

By: Amy Hutton

          There are two ways people choose to view health. One being the weight centered approach – which is defined as, the idea being that we can judge ones health based upon weight and that health problems can be solved with weight loss.  The other is the health-centered approach – this is where health becomes separate from weight. Which means weight is not a diagnosis.  Our society has become obsessed with weight, whether it be weight loss, weight gain or weight maintenance. It appears that a persons overall health has fallen wayside during this obsession. The way people view fat and its correlation to poor health has been completely exaggerated. There are living, breathing, healthy fat people, and in the same respect, unhealthy thin people. This alone proves that weight does not equal health. Health is defined by Wikipedia as the general condition of a persons mind, body and spirit also, to be free from illness, injury and pain. So why do we as a society correlate ones weight to ones overall health?

         

          Society is quick to write off a person of size’s health problems. As an example, a woman of size can appear to her doctor with complaints of knee joint pain and the doctor writes her off with a prescription for weight loss. When a thin woman appears to the same doctor with the same complaint, is the doctor going to write her a script for weight loss? Chances are, no. She will most likely get thoroughly examined, be given a medication prescription and possibly have x-rays done. Overweight and thin people get all the same diseases’, being thin is not a cure nor should it be a preventative. The most common health indicators are blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. All of these can be improved simply by lifestyle changes and that does not mean weight loss.

          Women, more so than men, are taught at a very young age to hate their bodies. Studies show girls as young as 8 years old dieting. They are taught to restrict their calorie intake or keep a food journal because they are not “good enough” or they are not “normal.” Whose standards are we basing this “normal” concept from? Is it your standards, mine, teachers, doctors, parents, health insurance companies? Shouldn’t it be your own personal standards? As stated before, dieting often includes a food journal, restricting calories and having food restrictions, ruining your relationship with food and discrediting your own body. This is an eating disorder. Society pushes down our throats that we need to conform to a certain size in order to be healthy, happy and beautiful. There are people who think of food negatively and view their own bodies in disgust; I don’t know about you, but that does not sound healthy to me. Humans are diverse in nature, there are different colors, shapes, heights, hair colors, nose sizes that are all considered normal. Why then do we scream ‘abnormal’ or ‘unhealthy’ if one does not conform to a narrow height-weight ratio?

Who is Healthier???

(surprisingly the female to the right)

          In our society, everyone is judged by their outward appearance. Opinions and judgments are made simply by viewing a person’s height, weight, size, shape, clothing, haircut, etc. A common misconception is that you can tell how healthy a person is by the way they look on the outside. This may be the furthest thing from truth. There is a fat stigma in our society, labeling them to be bad. As surprising as it may be, there are some fat people among us who are healthier than you. There are three definite things that you can not tell about a fat person simply by viewing them; How much and what they eat, how many times a week they exercise, and how healthy they are. The only thing you can tell about a fat person is that they are fat. 

          The obsession with weight in our society has become out of control. Focusing on someone’s health has been misconstrued and turned into controlling someone’s weight. People have been brainwashed to believe that weight and health are the same thing, when in fact, they are not. Thin and fat people alike have the same ailments in life and weight loss is not the cure. Our children are being taught to hate their bodies because they do not look like everyone else. Society writes off anyone who does not conform to what they were taught ‘healthy’ is. None of these things sound good for a person’s mind, body or spirit. It sounds as though society needs a health checkup and a reevaluation of what healthy really is.

          

Equal opportunity? What about the education system is Equal?

            By Joe Rodgers

          Education is so important in today’s world. it is taught to us at a young age to go to high school, graduate and then move on to the higher learning  whether it be trade school or a college education. Noticeably today not all children have the same opportunities as other have due to the lack of funds being received by lower income school district. Mainly the people who are suffering are African Americans and Hispanics who were born into these low-income areas. The video that we watched in class shows that we are so different when it comes down to the learning environments according to location to where people live.

          

           As you may have noticed in the video the curriculum in the higher income school consists of advanced classes that would better suit the college atmosphere such as advanced math, sciences and writing. Children with higher income backgrounds were more likely to be proficient on tasks of addition, subtraction, ordinal sequencing, and math word problems than children Where as in the lower income schools are being provided the bare minimum of these subjects. . Schools in low-income communities suffer from high levels of unemployment, migration of the best-qualified teachers, and low educational achievement. Only the select few ( if the classes are even provided at all) get to take advance placement classes that will better prepare them for higher learning. Yet, children in low-income schools are less likely to have well-qualified teachers. In fact, of high school math teachers in low-income school districts 27% majored in mathematics in college as compared to 43% of teachers who did so in more affluent school districts. So this leads us to ask what happens to the other students?

          These children that come from low-income areas acquire language are more at risk for reading disabilities and other learning disorders. Also these children entered high school 3.3 grade levels behind students from higher income schools. In addition, these students show that they have actually learned less over 4 years than children from higher income areas,. This means that children from lower-income groups finish high school 4.3 grade levels behind children who attend higher income schools. In 2007, the high school dropout rate among persons 16- 24 years old was highest in low-income families (16.7%) as compared to high-income families (3.2%) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008).

            This leaves us with the question why if education is so important why cant we present equal opportunity to everyone? well many people today may see this as a factor of racism just do to the fact that many of the lower income school districts  have higher populations of African Americans and Hispanic then the higher income school districts. Yet again it is not the fault of the children, it is because of the places they were born into. In my opinion the next Einstein could come from a lower income school district but would go unnoticed because of the fact that he is not getting the proper education that the higher income areas are getting.  Making equality amongst school districts would create further opportunity for children and could also further benefit this country.

Racism Goes Both Ways

By Ivonne Mosquera

For someone from my background, the first thing that comes to mind when considering the origin of racism, is a picture of a ruthless landowner brutally punishing his slaves two centuries ago. It may be a comfort for modern people to ascribe race problems to another, earlier time, but perhaps we are really brushing off the real problem behind racism: does each of us have a bit of racism within?

Perhaps if we thought about humanity like an endangered species, and then considered ways of protecting that species, the abolishment of "difference", "threat", we have a chance to get in front of racism.

Racism is not a color illness, a political one, nor a religious one; it is sadly a mental sickness. The Ku Klux Klan was (or is?) more than a right-wing extreme movement. They were convinced about "white supremacy", because in their minds, they were unprepared to accept the results of the Civil War, which decided the question of "man by man exploitation." The KKK spilt much blood, but for what purpose and to what end? The Black Panther Party, born as a "self-defense" movement, developed the same racist feeling in the opposite way.

Europe suffered the ravages of the Nazi absolutist regime, spurring a reluctant United Kingdom and America to oppose it because its outrageous racist ideology and deeds. All that effort, however, resulted in an equally horrible communist regime at the end of WWII throughout Eastern Europe. One by one, these oppressive states began to fall, ending in the dissolution of the USSR in 1990. What was the communist regime of the USSR about? Intolerance of difference, not focused on the issue of skin color, but about ideas. Nazis propounded the myth of the Aryan "superman," while the Communists showed a sort of evolved racism of propaganda. Both houses of cards ended up crashing in on themselves.

The United States knows racism well, having cast its net over a succession of "others," apart from the horrible treatment of the stolen and enslaved Africans: the myths about Chinese survival, the disdain of Irishmen, the distrust about the "Italian mafia", and most recently the generalized hate of Muslim people in the wake of the WTC disaster.

This is our reality, and is not going to change until we understand the problem is in our minds, racism is a deep fear of the other, a fear which make us weak.

Can't I be accepted too?

By: Shayna Butler 

                    In a recent TED talk by Sugata Mitra, his research in poor countries shows that children, from all backgrounds can learn. He focused his research in poorer countries, gave them a computer with a topic and walked away. Came back two months later, and the children had learned something. 

Anyone can learn! Given the right resources we all can learn and we all can succeed. A friend of mine grew up very rich, went to a private school, parents paid over 50k just for high school alone. She went on to college and dropped out, and ended up at the local diner as a server. She had every advantage to get her college degree at a great school and make good money. Just because you have the right resources doesn't mean you're going to do well. Now I have another friend who grew up in center city, went through the public school system and ended up going to med school. Why such a difference? My friend went to the public library every day and studied, read, and used the free computer to do her homework. 

However, at the end of the day there is still a huge line between the two. One is rich and one is poor. The rich girl graduated high school with a nice g.p.a and went to an Ivy League University for a couple of years. The poor girl graduated high school with a 4.0 and a ton of extracurricular activities. She ended up at a state college and graduating there at the top of her class! But why didn't she ended up at a nice ivy league school? There is was no funding for her to go. (She worked while going to school, saved up money and just made it to med school!)

Here is a list of Economic Diversity in colleges on who receives Pell Grants:

Source:http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/poor-students-at-rich-colleges/

There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Just because you're white and I'm not or you're rich and I"m not. Does NOT mean you should be able to be chosen over me or it doesn't mean I can't learn as well as you. I can't help but feel, that if the Ivy League schools allow poor people into them, then they won't be "Ivy League" anymore. Who the hell cares? Harvard has 20,000 students and only 14% of them need financial assistants paying for a $38,400 tuition payment and that's not including extra costs, or living expenses. 

Allowing someone ANYONE to attend ANY school and get a degree will allow people of all sorts to succeed in this country and make an impact! How can we change this? 

Education Reform, is it even possible??

BY: Cesar Mendez

In Philadelphia there is a notable difference between the Philadelphia school system and the suburban school system. Even though the two districts are only a few miles apart students that have attend one of these schools district can immediately tell that they are in no way equal. The education that a student will receive is vastly different. The evidence was made clear during class when it was brought to our attention that a student attending Lower Merion High School was receiving an education that was almost $7000 dollars more than one would receive at a High School in the Philadelphia school system. Another difference that I know of is that fact that the Suburban school system uses the block system which is a class scheduling system that is very similar to how college students schedule their classes. This class scheduling allows students to be better prepared to handle college and allows students to make the most of their years at high school.

 This makes me question why the Philadelphia school system hasn’t gone through an educational reform to better use the resources that are currently available to the students and make the most out of the system to give them a better chance of getting a quality education. The block system has proven to be the superior system and because of this it should be used more often. So why hasn’t the Philadelphia school system gone through reform to improve and give its students a better quality education. It is my belief that the reason educational reform hasn’t occurred is because the general public doesn’t know that there is a better way to educate students and they don’t know of the success that the block schedule has over the schedule the public school system currently employs.

Even though I speak from my own experiences and speak specially about Philadelphia.  I know that this is an issue that might be occurring everywhere in the United States as no educational system is perfect but some can be much better then they currently are. To get educational reform the parents of students everywhere must fight and protest for the advancement of their children. Education is now one of the most important things a child could obtain because those who receive a good education.

Education/Incarceration what is more important?

Isaiah Gay-Beal                                                                                  December 2, 2011

Education/Incarceration what is more important? 

What is more important than a child taking their first steps into a world full of knowledge? A world, in which, a child is able to explore the wonders of their young imaginary minds. With that said, what can be more important than a child’s education? Well, someone may say nothing is more important than a child’s education; however, another person may say education is only as good as the funding behind it. Furthermore, shouldn’t education in schools be where most of government funding should go? Yet, when we take a look at the criminal justice system, we see exactly how much money is placed into it and not in our schools.

The criminal justice system today has too much money placed into it. For example, according to The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, “Hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in incarcerating people”, this is money that could easily be spent on purchasing up to date text books, up to date technology (lap tops, computers), and extracurricular programs. More importantly, it seems as though America’s young youth are being left out. Why would or should these kids be left out of the equation? There’s no reason or explanation at all to explain this. Take my high school experience for example; when I was in high school, I often noticed teachers leaving left and right. I now know the cause of teachers leaving had to do with lack of funding. The ironic thing about that is the teachers that were being cut weren’t the history teachers or theology teachers; it was the art teachers, and language teachers. So, not only are children being hurt by lack of government funding, but so are teachers. Without teachers, how are children suppose to get a proper education? In addition to that, in Houston, according to The New Jim Crow, “ In the 2009-2010 academic year, State budget cuts forced the Houston Independent School District to manage a projected 10 million shortfall.”, ten million dollars is a lot of money to fall of short. So, where could all of this money have gone to? It is obviously not going to this school in Houston. Yet, in the same time frame 175 million was the amount of money that the state of Texas paid to lock up people in their community, according to Michelle Alexander. The fact that were even considering putting out that much money into a system that has been flawed for many of years is bewildering to me. It just doesn’t make sense.

           Education is important for our young youth. This is what prepares them to go out in the real world to

lead a way for the future. Also, teachers are necessary for a child’s learning. If there is lack of teachers how

is this youth movement suppose to ever amount to anything. In my personal opinion, I feel as though too

much money is spent into incarceration. Yes, it is great to keep criminals of the streets; however, it is also

great to help these schools out as much as possible. We shouldn’t be too concerned with filling up our jail

cells to maximum capacity, when most are already over crowed as we speak. So, why not take the initiative

to use the money that was spending for these people to stay in jail, and actually use it on our schools? In

conclusion, education is important and in order for our youth to have a great one, we must consider less

spending on incarceration. 



This is the headline that should be mailed to Washington today.

Why can't Robin Hood help every State???

Submitted by Allen Bradford

     In the state of Texas, there has been a long standing law dealing with the financial distribution of the money given to the public school system.  This law is known as Robin hood, which is the practice of collecting portions of property tax from wealthier areas and redistributing the money to poorer areas.  This has become settled law since it was introduced in 1993 and survived a repeal in court, which has also dealt with any chance that the law could be overturned.
     Living in Philadelphia for most of my life and going to boarding school I was able to see a stark contrast in how property tax affects schools in the surrounding area.  For 8 years of my life I went to Milton Hershey School in Hershey, PA which is nothing but rolling green hills and fresh air.  My school was privately funded by Hershey Corporation so we had the best of the best, but Hershey High School, which is a public school, was not far behind my school as far as features are concerned.  Our gyms were sepearte buildings from the actual high school, which rivaled some university facilities.  There were very few teachers in the are who had less than a masters degree.  Aside from the normal teenage scuffles, violence in the area was non-existant, even with the city of Harrisburg so close by.
Milton Hershey School:

  












Hershey High School:

 When I graduated from Milton Hershey to live in Philadelphia again, the reality smacks you in the face.
Martin Luther King High School:

Simon Gratz High School:

     Where would you like to go to school?  Where would you like to send your children?  These pictures give completely different images of what schools in the same state, not 2 hours apart, look like.  The majority of the children in these Philadelphia schools are black, I know because my younger sister was one of them.  Where I went to school I was surrounded by whites in the school and the surrounding areas.  The racial inequality due to where you live is prevalant in society today as it was when affirmitive action first came about.  I know my school personally has over 4 billion dollars itself due to the sale of Hershey's Chocolate, but Hershey high school also reaps the benefits of this being in the town where Herhey's Chocolate was invented.  The Philadelphia schools do not have a fraction of this money coming to them, rendering them stuck, looking as oppressive as the neighborhoods surrounding them.  I have lived close to Gratz and King high schools, have been in the buildings, and it was enough for me to know I would never send my children there under any circumstances.
     Back to the Robin Hood law in Texas, we have seen the funding per student of Philadelphia and its surrounding areas.  So why can't more states take the approach Texas has taken?  Taking extra money from these insanely rich areas will only help the struggling school system in Philadelphia or any other inner-city for that matter.  Better education leads to better learning experiences, which in turn will improve the wealth gap situation for the next generation.