REPORT CARDS GIVE FITNESS INFORMATION (8-2003)

With the start of a fresh school year, it will be only a 
few weeks until the kids bring home that first important 
report card. Report cards are much different from what they 
used to be, since most of them nowadays are computer 
printouts instead of hand-written cards. 

But, coming soon, their content may be quite a bit 
different, containing a lot of information about students’ 
weight and fitness in addition to the traditional grades.

Imagine opening Junior’s report card and seeing the 
comment, “Dear Parent – Your kid is fat.” Well, the reports 
probably won’t be that blunt, but they are designed to 
offer that same bit of information to the parents of out-
of-shape youngsters.

A Boston area experiment, covering 10 elementary schools, 
has been under way for some time, with preliminary results 
having recently been published. The experiment involved the 
sending of health report cards home to parents. The health 
reports provided parents with the weight of their child 
along with an overall fitness evaluation.

The purpose of the cards was to make parents aware that 
their children may be at risk for future health problems, 
such as diabetes. It is unlikely, however, that the report 
cards are telling parents something they don’t already 
know. If one is fat, it is pretty obvious.

But, although the researchers admitted that sending the 
report cards home did not seem to change unhealthy 
behaviors in students, they confirmed that the added 
information provided to parents prompted a significant 
number of them to plan weight-control activities or to seek 
fitness advice from their physicians. 

The researchers said that feedback from parents has been 
basically positive. Reaction from students, however, was 
mixed at best. Nobody likes to be told they’re overweight, 
especially when it’s obvious.

An increasing number of youngsters and teen-agers are 
becoming obese. Almost a third of teens are now overweight. 
The fitness report cards are one attempt to staunch the 
trend toward obesity in school-aged children.

The program has been successful enough that administrators 
expect to continue it, and even expand it to more schools. 
And if the researchers can eventually show that kids are 
beginning to slim down as a result of the fitness report 
cards, the program will probably catch on all over the 
country.

Although the report cards may increase the flow of 
information to parents about their kids, which is a good 
thing, it seems unlikely that any significant weight 
control among children and teens will be achieved. It takes 
a lot more than information to educe a successful weight 
loss program.

Still, with the exception of producing a few embarrassed 
kids, the program probably is worth doing. The more parents 
know about their kids, the better they can direct their 
lives as they mature into young adulthood.