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after class today i was thinking more and more about this whole gender thing, and more specifically the impact on young girls and the quest to be thin. how do we as teachers go about handling this whole thing? i mean, we can tell our students that they are beautiful and unique and individual and that those are great things, but at the end of the day is that enough? i know first-hand what eating disorders can do to girls' bodies and maybe more importantly, their hearts and minds and spirits. watching friends battle really serious and scary disorders, it didn't matter how many people stressed to them the importance of how beautiful they were on the inside. not that we shouldn't stress that, because we should, but from my own experience it doesn't seem to be enough. i don't know that there is an answer to this startling question, just something i thought i would post some thoughts on.

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Elyse


Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:53 pm
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I agree with Elyse that this is a really hard subject to talk to young girls about. I think something that would help would be if we started talking to them at a younger age when they are more easily influenced. When those little girls are in elementary school, they look up to their teacher sometimes more than they look up to their parents. It's up to us to set a standard of how we want them to feel about their bodies. We have to take the time to talk to them about how being different is ok, and teach them that women in magazines and on tv don't really look like that. I think if you wait to long to talk to them about it, it makes it impossible to get through.

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Jessica Beckworth


Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:54 am
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This is a pretty touchy subject. I, like Elyse, have had some of my close friends battle eating disorders and some that still do. I feel so helpless because I don't really know what to do or say to help them. It has been something that has gone on since high school and one of them lives in Wilmington now so I never really get to see her so I honestly don't know if it's getting worse or better. It's also not really something I want to bring up in conversation when I talk to her either. But it's almost like no matter what you tell people like this how beautiful they are and how great they are, they don't seem to remember the compliments they get. People will always remember negative things people say to them even if it's something very little. I believe that a lot of times those comments that may seem minor make a huge impact on someone's life, especially a young girl. This could possibly turn into an eating disorder. I agree with what Jessica said, how as teachers especially for elementary age students, they may look up to us. We should be positive influences in their lives on a daily basis and constantly encourage them and remind them that they are beautiful no matter what the magazines and other medium displays. They should be taught that it's not what is on the outside that matters but what is on the inside that does.

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Katy Dellinger


Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:37 pm
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Well, I can honestly talk about this subject because I have been here. I battled with an eating disorder my junior year of highschool into my junior year of college. At my lowest point, I weighed 96 pounds. I would go weeks without eating, living off smoothies and making excuses not to eat dinner with my family, and EVERY CALORIE that went into my body was worked off at the gym. Everyone kept telling me how skinny I looked, but to a person that is wanting that, it is just an ego boost to them, encouraging them to keep loosing weight. Although I am eating now, I still have difficulty with my eating. Im super picky about the foods that I eat.

As a teacher and having to see students like this, I guess that I would be able to relate to them more than someone who hasnt been there. I guess as a teacher what I would do is to encourage them and be there for them. I would explain to them that eating healthy and working out is the best way to live, not starving yourself or making yourself throw up. We have to show them that the people in the magazines pay huge amounts of money to look the way they do, that most human beings do not look perfect.

Honestly, I hope that as an elementary school teacher, I dont have to go see and watch children killing themselves the way that I used to do!

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Ashley Dawn Gentry


Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:02 pm
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I've been thinking about this issue myself, because so many young girls are affected by eating disorders. I was bullimic a few years ago, and it's something that still affects me today because I have a hard time controlling what I eat. I could eat as much as I wanted and then purge it without worrying about putting on pounds. I eventually stopped because bullimia is damaging to your vocal chords, and I cared more about being able to sing than about trying to be skinny, but even today I tend to binge eat.

I think this goes to show that any girl you see could have an eating disorder. Even when I was making myself throw up after every meal I could, I wasn't skinny. I just don't have a skinny body type, no matter what I do. No one ever would have guessed that I had a problem.

This is an issue that's of special concern to me because I'm going to be teaching theatre. People mostly think of dancers as being the ones with eating disorders, but actresses are just as susceptible. Appearance is everything onstage, and while there are certainly roles for girls who aren't stick-thin, you'll be hard pressed to find a leading role that calls for anyone other than a thin, beautiful woman.

There simply has to be an effective way to educate girls about accepting their own body types so they stop trying to achieve the impossible! I just wish I knew what it was.

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Mandy Phillips


Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:25 pm
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I feel like a teacher would need to be very close to a student to impact them, perhaps too close.

One of my ex's battles clinical anorexia, which is to say she's been hospitalized a few times and the problem has not gone away. It was a divisize thing to chat about, probably because it was so personal ... or maybe I was just stubborn and too practical. I had read up on anorexia, how to be there for someone, talked to mutual friends about it ... and the grim prospect for anorexics who don't overcome their battle. The only thing I found that helped was to let her order small things or nothing yet to feel comfortable picking off my plate -- let her eat half of it sometimes and pretending not to notice. And adjusting to eating more veggies because she was vegan. All I could figure was that she believed she was eating healthier (=less) when she was actually eating a decent helping. Saying idealistic stuff like "you are skinny" and "that's not fat" never worked and made things worse.

What helped there may not work for everyone though, you know? So it seems such personal a thing, like Katy and Jessica said, that I feel it may be crossing the line to get very involved in a student's eating disorders.

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Justin Pittman


Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:46 am
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This is a subject that is so near and dear to my heart. Witnessing friends, youth, children damage not only their physical self, but their mental and spiritual self as well is not pleasant. Through various acts of destruction upon myself i know that life shouldn't be this way. The scary prospect is the rapid decline of age of when the mind sets in that you are not good enough the way you are. It's scary. I see preschoolers comparing themselves reflecting on who is prettier. Little girls in first grade who don't want to eat dinner because their friends are skinnier. Young girls in high school who want to be desired by someone and throw their food up and then spend two hours on a treadmill after doing so. College girls who try to balance everything, be the strong woman, be desirable, be wanted, be independent, be soft yet tough and control their food and eating patterns as a way to feel good about themselves. Women who binge on cookies, cakes, chocolate, anything in the freezer or trash when they feel they have failed at an outing, friendship, or relationship. As someone who passionately desires my relationship with Jesus Christ I look to God. My heart reminds me that I was made and created in His splendor, that I reflect His tender beautiful heart. But I still have my moments when i choose the path of destruction. Because it gives me the control. what do I tell my 6 year old student that looks in the mirror and frowns? What do I say to my 16 year old youth who after lacrosse practice eats a pizza slice to make everyone think she is okay and then I find her in the bathroom gagging herself? I agree that people can tell you whatever you want. It doesn't mean you will believe it. I have hope that one day they will. That they (I) will look in the mirror and see a creation like no other. A body that was designed especially for them to delight in. But I don't know how to get to that day. But I have hope that sustains me until I see it.

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Jennifer Doll Gray


Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:23 pm
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From the posts previous to mine it just goes to show how common these diseases are. Like others I have had those close to me suffer. I think that as future teachers and possible parents that we start educating our students starting from a very young age about healthy living styles, by not only having a lesson or two on it in health class, but by making the point to address it on a regular basis. I think by creating this open environment it will create a level of comfortability. Because it is so personal it is hard to approach situations in which you know student are having problems. The main thing to remember is that they are harming their bodies and even if you are stepping on thier toes it is important that someone knows. I think that by helping students understand healthy ways and really take a look at magazines and other forms of media that support the idea of a stick thin figure and talk about the pressures and problems associated with these things will open the eyes of the students not only for the girls but for the boys as well.

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Traci Miodusewski :)


Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:11 am
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