One Is Never A Statistic
$696,000,000. Yes that’s SIX HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX MILLION DOLLARS that the Feds (this doesn’t count state and private sector expenditures) have spent on childhood obesity prevention so far this year, and the year’s only half over. At the current rate the Feds alone will spend well over a billion dollars on preventing childhood obesity, and according to the most recent Associated Press report, we’re losing the childhood obesity war on all fronts. And all this is happening right here on American soil, not in Iraq!!
The statistics, the odds, the medians, the percentages, and the averages related to this problem are growing more discouraging by the hour. The problem is so rampant that even the U.S. Surgeon General nominee, Dr. James Holsinger Jr. has recently stated that Childhood Obesity Prevention his top priority. Let me repeat, $696,000,000 so far this year and we still have no clue how to resolve the childhood obesity problem. Leave it to “the experts.”
Bad New VS Good News
But that’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. If you’re reading this sentence you’re not a pile of statistics, a median, a set of odds or averages, and neither are your kids. In fact personally I’ve never met or shaken hands with a statistic, an odd, or an average, which causes me question their validity, their legitimacy, their existence, and certainly their power over individual humans like you and I.
Strong, Resilient, Self Reliant
This essay then is intended to address real live parents, and real live educators, who have, work with, and care about real live kids, with real live challenges, and real live potential in dire need of cultivating, lest they live lives less than fully human. And if you reach them at a young enough age, there are very few of these real live kids who lack the innate talent to become strong, resilient, and self reliant human beings. In fact truth be told, there are very few who lack the tools to become geniuses of one variety or another, if those talents are properly cultivated, and developed to their full potential.
Chuck The Experts
That being the case I say TO HELL WITH THE EXPERTS, their studies, their insidious webs of statistics, odds, and averages. Since their very existence is itself questionable, I suggest that they don’t apply to you or your kids, or their friends.
They cannot prevent even one individual parent or educator from showing even one individual child how to get stronger, more resilient, and more self reliant (the only legitimate goal of education) on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Nor can they prevent even one individual child from saying YES to, or from actively embracing those experiences that make them strong, resilient, and self reliant, happy, and fulfilled individuals.
From a philosophical standpoint, or even a religious perspective, there’s a reason why kids are born to parents instead of to school systems. Parents and kids can become a family unit and can treat one another as unique, one-of-a-kind individuals, instead of mass produced products, a pile of statistics, a set of odds or averages. So I say cough up the conventional kool-aid, eliminate the indoctrinations, forget the experts, and when it comes to obesity prevention, take responsibility for yourself and your kids. Teach them how to Pull Their Own Weight literally. After all, ONE IS NEVER A STATISTIC.
Rick Osbourne is a Chicago based writer who currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, an informational web site that’s dedicated to naturally immunizing kids against obesity for a lifetime without pills, shots, or special diets. If you’re interested in childhood and obesity, then check out http://www.pullyourownweight.net any time. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and he’s recently published an e-book entitled “Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity” (http://booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=139219) that provides practical minded parents and educators with a simple, functional, affordable, and infinitely measurable antidote to childhood obesity.
Tags: kids fitness, parenting
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