Compulsory Cha-Cha for Chinese Chubbies
Katherine Mangu-Ward | June 5, 2007, 2:20pm
"Student waistlines have expanded almost as fast as the Chinese economy," reports the Guardian. The solution? Mandatory dance lessons:
The Ministry of Education said the dances were designed to "suit the physical and psychological characteristics of students at different ages". New steps and melodies will be introduced every two years. (Ed--For now, there's actually no cha-cha, only waltz. But can it be far behind?)
The routines--which will supplement rather than replace regular physical education classes - are reportedly aimed at turning a generation of chubby cheeks into twinkle toes....Studies suggest one in five children are obese. Rising affluence, reduced exercise and the growing popularity of fast food such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds have hit school fitness levels badly. The average pupil today is slower and weaker than 10 years ago.
Alas, this seemingly flawless plan has its detractors:
"The dance plan makes no sense. Running and callisthenics are a more effective way to lose weight. Our school needs to hire a special teacher to teach dancing and it will take up a lot of time," said Ma Yanling a teacher in Beijing, whose class of 37 includes only five overweight students. "Most importantly, letting students waltz will create hotbeds of adolescent love. That is not good. Schools work very hard to prevent students from falling in love too early."
To dig into the full reason obesity archive, go here.
kevrob | June 5, 2007, 4:13pm | #
At my elementary school, they used to regularly bring in a square dance caller and have us do-si-do during gym class.
Of course, the people in charge were nuns, so no evil statism was involved. Most of the kids said that they hated it, since what smacked more of fogeydom than square dancing? The argument that doing the Frug, Pony or Monkey would yield a better workout wouldn't cut any ice with the penguins.
I used to get matched up, by height, with the prettiest girl in my class, which made me sweat more than the exercise! My nerves were partly from holding hands with a cute girl, and partly from fearing that she'd say something critical of me to her boyfriend, an eight-foot tall thug who had been left back at least twice, had to shave twice a day, smoked three packs a day and tended bar at his dad's bowling alley. :) Once they introduced picking our partners, I left her alone.
One advantage of holding square dance during gym were that we didn't have to change from our school uniforms into workout clothes. Our school had a nice gym, but we didn't get much use out of it, as the floor was set up for Bingo Night or Sunday Mass* more than half the time. Our custodian took personal affront every time our CYO basketball teams wanted to use it for practice or games, since that meant he had to schedule his setting up chairs and tables or kneelers around us.
It won't surprise anyone that our teams sucked.
Kevin
*At the height of the baby boom, during the phase-in of the Vatican II reforms, suburban Catholic Churches in my area were packing them in like the Tokyo subway. Our parish had a pastor and 3 or 4 curates. It held about a dozen masses each Sunday, half in the church building and the other half in our gym/auditorium. There was also an Italian chapel down the road that held daily and weekly masses.
