A Letter to Daughter’s Middle School…
Yesterday, my 12-year old daughter texted me from school (yes, they text in school) to tell me that her health teacher was discussing calories and weight in class, and as homework they had to track their calories, fats, and sugars for the week.
Let me say that again: middle school students were assigned calorie counting as homework for a health class.
I am including a full transcript of the letter I wrote to the school below:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in regard to recent assignments and discussions in my 7th grade daughter's health class re: nutrition education.
My daughter came home today with an assignment asking her to count calories, fat, and sugar over the course of this week. She also reported that the teacher made comments that some of the children in the class "looked" healthy, and it is "good" to have a metabolism that burns calories faster.
I am asking that this unit be reconsidered per the following:
You cannot tell how healthy a person is by looking at them, and faster metabolisms are not "better" unless the implication is that thinner is better, which is a highly problematic value system to suggest to our kids.
Calorie-counting and other forms of counting are not helpful ways to conceptualize health and can create fear, guilt, and stress for kids whose growing bodies require plenty of foods. Generalized awareness of nutrition is one thing, but micromanaging it in this way is not a healthy habit to introduce.
The vulnerability of adolescent teenagers to body image issues and eating disorders is not debatable. One in seven men and one in five women experience an eating disorder by age 40, and in 95% of those cases the disorder begins by age 25. Rates among teens have doubled over the past two decades, and even more significantly since 2020.
I am a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health Coach with a background in Human Development Psychology and I work with adults who have eating disorders. Incidentally, a lot of my work is spent trying to UN-do the implications of diet-culture-driven assignments like this one for people who were influenced by them in the early 2000s, 90s, 80s, and beyond.
As a matter of fact, I was given this same assignment in 1995 when I was a student at MHS. It was the beginning of my eating disorder that lasted for nearly 25 years. I have spoken with other moms within our school district who are struggling with teenage daughters who are obsessively tracking calories and sugars in an effort to keep their body weight down.
In 2023, we should know better. This kind of assignment is doing more harm than good.
I am concerned about the impact of this unit not only for my daughter but for all students. It is outdated and irresponsible given the well-documented susceptibility to eating disorders and body image issues running rampant in our country right now.
I am happy to discuss other ways of talking to kids about how to think about health in more supportive ways.
Sincerely,
Stefanie Michele
I am including this letter here in this blog because if you ever have the unfortunate need to use it, I am offering it as a template. (A reminder that you would remove my personal details and insert your own.)
I am happy to report that the letter was well-received by my school district and within 48 hours, the assignment was rescinded. I was assured that calories and food logging of any kind would not be part of curriculum moving forward, and would more closely reflect the interpretation of health as a nuanced, individual, complex topic.
I would also like to offer the following resources for anyone looking for more information and/or alternative education models:
