The Fat School
Any dieter can sympathize with the young people in this week’s series in the Bee about the California weight loss boarding school. Check out the photos–they’re quite dramatic. Still, $5500 a month to teach your fat child not to sit in front of the TV or the PC (oops!) seems a little steep to me.
Tomorrow is the finale to the stories. I really hope the young lady from Orosi, CA is able to keep going and to get to a healthy size. I always wonder, though. As parents, we often end up telling our kids to be healthy when we ourselves are buying pastries and the super-duper Starbucks frosty frappe with extra whip. They learn by example. Remember the old saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”? It really is obvious when it comes to our kids.
Now, if only they’d open up a “Fat School” for us grownups–I’m sure there’d be a waiting list a mile long–and folks would be willing to pay even more than they’re paying for their kids.
Fascinating series of articles. I would have loved, however, a discussion of the mental change these kids must go through to adjust to their new bodies and how they were learning to see themselves as changed. I would assume - and hope - that the school covered such matters, but the series of articles focuses primarily on the drastic physical changes.
Significant weight loss takes a significant mental toll. It’s not an easy thing to deal with, even as most people who’ve never gone through it would think it’s simply a great thing that creates no new headaches.
The article brushed by one such concern when describing a 14 (14!) year old girl talking about ex-boyfriends’ new reactions and that some students had to be quietly informed not to make the jump to tight clothing too soon.