Fat Children Get The TakeAnywhere School Desk

HOW fat are we? The Mail says schools are buying reinforced chairs and tables to cope with oversize pupils.

The Mail focuses on the fatness, almost overlooking the height.

Levent Caglar, of the Furniture Industry Research Association, says: “My study showed that children have been growing since 1971. In that time, they have grown another three centimetres, just over an inch, or one centimetre every decade.”

But the Mail’s story is all about weight. And though the extra leg may account for the extra pounds, the Mail looks at children’s “inactive lifestyles and hours spent slumped in front of the computer and TV”.

Of course, if the children were not given bigger furniture but instead issued with lighter chairs and desks, they could be shamed into stopping growing by sensing the chair and table splinter and crack under their massive bulk.

But, perversely, just the opposite is ordered. There are to be bigger chairs for one and all. Says Mr Caglar: “It means children can concentrate better, are less likely to fidget, are not distracted and behave much better.”
Aren’t children less likely to fidget if they are wedged in a tiny chair and behind a tiny table? Indeed, given this Government’s lust for education, the wedged desk should be the way ahead, it being the school a fat student can take with them everywhere they go…

Anorak

Posted: 2nd, April 2008 | In: Food & Fat, Tabloids Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink