I guess some people would say “Oh get over it”, but that kind of thing from authority figures, and in front of one’s peers, is pretty damn awful to a kid who’s already being told how lazy and hopeless she is for merely growing naturally. This same gym teacher also made us weigh ourselves at the beginning of the year and I had a panic attack on each day that that was supposed to happen, I was sick enough for my mother to let me stay home from school. She took me to the doctor because I was throwing up, and he decided there wasn’t anything wrong and said “Well it’s not going to hurt her to miss a few meals”, and laughed.

These things make me feel so bad for the “fat” kids who are undoubtedly getting singled out these days in the name of “fighting the obesity epidemic”. Sure, show *all* kids that physical activity can be fun and how to enjoy nutritious foods and all, but not with the admonishment that if they don’t do this they’ll get fat. I could support a school where there was a health at every size approach.

I’d also like a school to have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying and teasing that was actually enforced. A few schools in my area have done something like that including ‘peer moderators’, and it’s taken a bit to make sure that everyone is supporting the effort, but it seems to be making progress.

My teacher for two years (ages 9-11) decided that losing weight would solve ALL my problems. I was bullied a lot, and miserable. The bullying more often focused on my Englishness, or American-ness (Pommy dad, Yankie Mum, grew up in Scotland), or on my bookwormyness, but this teacher was convinced that losing weight would make me happier. She was overweight herself, and beginning a weight loss plan, I’m certain she was projecting. Unfortunately, my mother agreed with this plan, and all three of us had a “dieting pact”. I think my mother thought I’d like to have this shared project with two grownups.

It started years of being convinced that I was fat.

I generally refer to my primary school as ‘my hippy school’. It was run as a parent co-operative; we all worked at our own pace; the entire school was thirty children; and every family had to do one half-day parent help each week. It was a gillion times better for me than my other primary school…

Totally random, but I found this description very funny–because in my experience, setups like this are very common…IF you are in the conservative Christian world (where they are called “homeschool co-ops”).

It took me more than a decade to put that anecdote into any kind of political and feminist context.