Current+Health+and+Wellbeing+issues+in+the+media

After looking at newspaper articles, news reports on the television and websites from Tasmania, I found two recurring themes that affect school-aged children in the areas of health and well-being. The first deals with nutrition and physical health; which discuss the rise in childhood obesity, body image, the issues related to dieting and a lack of physical activity in children. This issue is not only localised to Tasmania, as many of the articles referred to this as being a recurring issue within Australia. The other issue which attracted a lot of media attention was bullying. Again the articles referred to this as being a problem throughout Australia, with cyber bullying becoming a new issue that students now have to face. This issue was highlighted in the media with the National Day of action against bullying and violence on 16th March and the six-figure payout a family received from the New South Wales government after their son committed suicide after being bullied at school. This highlights the fact that both the public sector and the courts believe that schools have a legal obligation to prevent bullying and are liable for the consequences. By analysing these articles my hope is to inform educators of the current issues our students are facing.

I was shocked when reading the article ‘Good parenting or figure fascism? ’ (Appendix 1) to see that according to” the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a quarter of children aged 5 to 17 years are overweight or obese” (Black, 2012). As someone who has spent many years living in different countries, I have found that the rest of the world still perceives Australia as being a great sporting nation full of fit and healthy people. These kind of figures are what I would expect to find in America, not Australia. What is more concerning is the radio report by Spargo (2012) entitled ‘Tasmanias’ health lagging behind’ (appendix 4). He states that “ Tasmania falls behind the rest of Australia with almost every key health indicator”. He believes that there are many contributing factors such as high unemployment, a lack of resources, infrastructure and assets and young children being exposed to millions of dollars’ worth of advertising and promotions to encourage them to eat junk food. Dr Stanton (Martin, 2012, appendix 5) speaking at the University of Tasmania Launceston, discusses how important it is for children’s development to eat fish regularly, yet Australian children are eating far less then Asian and European countries . Another issue that has arisen from Australia's weight problem is what Dr Stanton refers to as "fad diets". She states that one of the problems is “that you gain weight over 10, 20 and 30 years, yet people want to lose it in 20 to 30 days'' (Martin, 2012). I feel that this is true for many people who are looking for a quick fix rather than changing to a more balanced lifestyle. Blacks (2012) article (appendix 1) discusses a mother who put her overweight daughter on a diet and what the experts have to say about this. Lydia Jade Turner who is the Psychotherapist and Managing Director of BodyMatters Australasia, believes that setting a weight loss goal is the worst thing a parent can do for their child. She states that "dieting appears to be causally linked to both obesity and eating disorders and dieting also increases risk of binge eating, cycles of weight regain and loss, reduced self-esteem, food and body preoccupation, weight stigma, and future weight gain. It teaches a child that their body cannot be trusted and increases shame, which is harmful to their physical and emotional development." (Black, 2012)

This issue is echoed in Topsfield (2012, appendix 2) article ‘Petition against Jenny Craig’, where 1000 signatures of petition were gathered within 48 hours to stop Amy Smith chief executive of Jenny Craig from speaking at an educational conference. Petitioners state that eating disorder experts report dieting to be the biggest predictor of eating disorders, with unhealthy weight loss practices becoming the norm in schools, ( Topsfield, 2012). If we are to believe that this is true, then it would seem that we have a real problem and more will need to be done to ensure students are educated, so they know the risks of dieting and how best to stay healthy. Danielle Miller the author of ‘The Girl with the Butterfly Tattoo’ believes that we should be focusing on healthy aspects such as nutritious choices and an active lifestyle rather than a child's weight and most importantly we must lead by example (Black, 2012). In Tasmania the chief executive officer of the heart foundation Graham Lynch has called for the government to spend five per cent of the road funding on upgrading and making safer cycling and walking paths. With a high percentage of overweight people in Tasmania, he urges them to embrace active transport. The sustainable transport Minister Nick Mckim states “promoting healthy transport options for children was a great cause and that's why the State government support campaigns such as ‘Why Ride’ (Paine, 2012, appendix 3). For schools this means we need to be educating students about nutrition and the benefits of being more active.

The other issue that has been in the media both locally and nationally is the issue of bullying. The article entitled Bullying and Violence in Schools (2012, appendix 7) discusses that 27% of students between the year levels four to nine are bullied at least every few weeks and in 87% of these instances there are onlookers present. I was very surprised to read these figures, not only because a quarter of our students are being bullied but that nine out of ten times there are other students present. It makes me think, do our students think this is acceptable? Or do they just think it is part of the school culture, something that happens at school? The editor of this article believes that “bullying has been prevalent in schools for decades” (schooljobs.com, 2012). Yet, Nick McKim the Tasmanian Minister for education and skills commends “the excellent work Tasmanian schools are doing to provide a safe and supportive environment for students” (Tasmanian Department of education, 2012, appendix 8). In contrast, leading child psychologist Michael Carr-Greg believes that the extent of cyber bullying in Tasmanian schools is largely unknown despite many school-age students doing 60 to 90 per cent of their socialising digitally. He believes this is due to the fact that many students are accessing social networks under age and many students will not or are hesitant to report bullying to their parents or authorities (Hoggertt, 2012, appendix 9). So what does this mean for schools and teachers? The editor of schooljobs.com (2012, appendix 7) believes that teachers need to talk more openly about bullying, display posters, incorporate activities (see appendix 6, Our Promise-Fahan School Tasmania 2012), source resources and knowing if any of their students are feeling poorly. Not only is it their moral obligation to ensure the safety of their students both physically and mentally but their legal obligation. The New South Wales Department of Education recently had to pay a six-figure payout to a family whose son committed suicide after being bullied at school. The court ruled that the school had not provided adequate counselling or support to the students’ involved (Late line, 2012, appendix 11). Only days after this court ruling the Federal Education Minister Peter Garret released a new national anti-bullying website, which has sections for parents, students and teachers. He believes that Australia now has the policies and resources available to combat bullying, as long as people are willing to take a stand and use them (Seven News, 2012, appendix 10).

With both of these issues, there is a strong sense in the media that schools should be playing a bigger role in educating and monitoring their students.

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