At the elementary level I would disagree with using any type of body assessment. Most students are already aware of their body image so an assessment wouldn’t help. Teaching lessons on healthy eating and ways to be active after school hours would be more beneficial.

I completely agree with you that students are well aware of the shape that their body is in and drawing any more attention to it is unnecessary. I am a middle school physical education/health teacher and due to our grant that we have received we are forced to assess students physical abilities. This time of year is difficult because we want to promote physical activity and students are easily compared to one another and this can hinder our goal. I would agree that just educating students in the beneficial aspects of leading a healthy lifestyle and providing varying activities that suit their needs would be more beneficial in the long term.

I feel using the BMI chart is a great guide to where one should be. I could see how using any type of fat analysis in school could seriously start an issue. I work on a military base and any negative comments or seemingly negative comments will end up in an ICE complaint. This is a complaint that goes to the commander of the base. The BMI chart is good for us because it is a guide not written in stone. Its nice to see what others are using thoug.