Today’s children do not get the exercise many prior generations got. They have so much entertainment at their fingertips at home that they do not spend their days playing outside until the street lights come on. Their parents’ work schedules often prevent children from playing in the yard all day. Many of them live in places that don’t have yards. Sometimes the only exercise they get is through their involvement with the local YMCA, boys or girls club, or scouting–which brings me to the following story.
CNS News is reporting today that this year’s Boy Scouts of America’s national Jamboree has put into place new physical fitness requirements that have eliminated morbidly obese Scouts from participating.
The article reports:
This year, 30,000 Scouts ages 12 to 20 and their leaders were required to meet a threshold for body mass index and other health factors before being allowed to participate. Jamboree applicants with a BMI — a measure of body fat determined through height and weight — of 40 or higher were deemed ineligible. Those who fell between 32 and 39.9 faced providing additional health information to Jamboree medical staff.
This infuriates me. According to a website called sportsinghart.com, the average BMI of the National Football League is 31-35. Would you consider them overweight? My personal experience includes an eight-year-old grandson who is a serious hockey player. He is on the ice at least five times a week, even during the school year. Because he is all muscle, I suspect that his BMI is relatively high.
But there is another aspect to this story. What about the child who tends to be more round than tall? Bullying is a problem in our schools, and overweight children are often a target of that bullying. An overweight child may already be dealing with self esteem issues, how does being excluded from the Boy Scout Jamboree make him feel? How is that helping to build his character?
The article reports:
Soon, the Scouts will know why. Besides offering a whole lot of fun, dozens of venues will test their physical skills and fitness. At some point during the Jamboree, every participating Scout will be asked to take a 3-mile trek up a mountain.
Their reward: A barbecue waiting at the top.
“We certainly want to get the Scouts outdoors, challenge them and have a healthy lifestyle,” said Gary Hartley, the Summit’s director of community and governmental relations. “We talk about the three C’s as kind of the pillars, and that is cardio, character and citizenship. We have all of those embodied here.”
Why not have less strenuous activities for Boy Scouts that might not be as physically fit as the ideal? Wouldn’t that be teaching compassion and caring as well as character?