Political correctness is literally going to end up killing some people. It probably already has.
Some "health experts" are claiming that letters sent to parents addressing their kids' weight problems could damage the kids' self-esteem. Yeah, like being a fat ass does not do that already. Do these oversensitive wimps not know that being fat leads to health problems, both immediate and long term and obesity leads to death?
This is a classic example of not being able to address a problem individually because people want to shut down real concern that can identify a problem. The word "fat" has a meaning.
Fat: adjective
having too much flabby tissue; corpulent; obese: a fat person.
We should use it.
"You are fat." And then explain to the kid why he or she is classifed as fat.
But the complaint is specifically about the schools sending home "fat letters" to parents that states their body mass index (BMI). It is calculated by dividing their weight by the square of their height. That is a scientific measurement. It can be debated how much it actually factors into an individual's health because it is not the only measurement that can be used. But it is at the very least a tool, a little bit of information to give to parents to say, "Hey, you might want to look into this," and give them some information about what it means and what health effects being overweight and obese can have on their children now and later in life.
Self esteem? Really? We are going to not make an effort to inform parents about something that can kill their kids because we are afraid to hurt their feelings? If they die, and kids do die from it every year, we will not even have to worry about their self esteem anymore. We can worry then about treating he depression suffered by their parents because we did not want possibly hurt their feelings when they still had a kid.
On the ABC Good Morning America website the headline reads: 'Fat Letters' have young kids worried about their Weight.
GOOD. It should be a concern.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/fat-letters-young-kids-worried-weight-20141843