Are Schools Helping Kids Down the Path of Eating Disorders?
Schools’ jobs are to educate, not to promote eating disorders -Rebecca Tishman
High school students have a fascinating perspective- being on the front lines of school culture, they can certainly help us to understand the pressures of being a teenager today. Rebecca Tishman, a high school senior in New Jersey, knows what she thinks. As someone recovering from an eating disorder, she points out some of the major pitfalls that schools may be falling into inadvertently- even when they are trying to help their students live a healthy life.
Well just about everyone who meets me eventually finds out I’m recovering from an eating disorder. It’s been a constant struggle for many years now, and, while I don’t blame my disorder on the school system, I have found many of the subjects discussed in health classes, and other similar classes, to be triggering. Many of the topics covered over the years have fueled my ED and many others’.
Since the fourth grade, teachers have been drilling the food pyramid into my mind and the minds of my peers. I can’t remember going even a day in school without receiving a faulty message like:
“Only eat healthy foods. Fat is bad.”
“‘Junk food’ is the root of all evil.”
“Diet and Exercise are the keys to success.”
“Eat foods in moderation.”
Believe me, I am constantly catching myself thinking in these black and white statements and have to “reframe my thinking,” as we like to call it in therapy. After three years of tense therapy sessions, weekly nutrition appointments, semi-weekly check-ups, and even more I’m finally starting to realize it may be beneficial to resist the messages and even fight back against them. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure my peers, who haven’t had the “benefit” of all of these resources, can decode the messages.
What I wish the schools would tell me and my peers is that:
All food, whether deemed “healthy,” by societal standards are necessary when trying to have a healthy diet. A diet deficient in fat is also unhealthy for you. The key is balance!
It’s important to learn how to eat “junk food” appropriately from a young age so as not to grow up with distorted views of what food does to you.
Diet and exercise are important, but overdoing it is just as bad, if not worse, than not doing enough exercise-just this month I fractured my ankle by over-exercising. People’s bodies can only take so much and I encourage each individual devise a healthy diet and exercise plan with his/her doctors. There is no reason to go it alone.
And one of my biggest annoyances with the food clichés taught in school is that moderation implies eating less than what your body wants/needs. Instead, balance is the way to do it.
And seriously if I see one more eight year-old looking at nutrition facts to see how much fat she is consuming, I really might just scream! Schools’ jobs are to educate, not to promote disorders- except that is exactly what happens when they show films like “Supersize Me” in conjunction with nutrition units in health classes, and encourage books like Wintergirls for some “fun, summer reading.” Um, did I miss the memo that it’s better to be lying in a hospital bed with a feeding tube uncomfortably shoved up your nose and down into your stomach than to allow your body to be its natural shape?
At the end of the school day, I am left wondering are schools doing all they can to empower students, teach them how to fuel their bodies, and to love themselves, or, are they giving students the tools they need to have an eating disorder? I think it’s time the schools start teaching us to love ourselves as we are and reverse the inappropriate thoughts we kids are having. I encourage parents to get involved:
Don’t let the schools take over your responsibilities as parents-teach your kids how to eat and exercise appropriately
Look into your family history of psychological problems-often, but not always, there is a familial component to eating disorders. Previous family members with depression, drug abuse, etc. can often be linked to potential eating disorders in future generations. Find out what’s been happening over the past few generations and educate your children so they are prepared to fight back against their genetic predispositions.
And take your kids out of the classes that you find inappropriate-I rarely sit through every class of the day due to how readily the inappropriate messages are being thrown around.
Schools and families need to work together to put a stop to the devastating universe of eating disorders.
by: Rebecca Tishman
Hello everyone, my name is Rebecca Tishman and I’m an aspiring artist who writes poetry in my free time. I often upload my recent work to http://www.enigmaticartwork.blogspot.com so please take a look and let me know what you think. In addition, I am in recovery from an eating disorder and write about my experiences as a guest blogger for http://www.DrRobynSilverman.com I hope you enjoy reading my articles and viewing my work.