Does Obesity Affect School Performance?

For this week's homework, I found an article on the CNN website that talked about the concerns of growing obesity in America's children and how this health issue affects their performance in school.  What the article sheds light on is that obesity has the potential to affect young children, especially girls, and can often lead to poor academic performance.  Often, students who perform well in their early years of schooling will most likely be held back a grade.

The article discusses current research that has focused on studying primary school students.  The article mentions that some of these studies have some major inconsistencies in their data and would need to continue studies to show how obesity affects older students.  In addition to these findings, there are many indicators that suggest lower self-esteem and other emotional issues in students who are obese.  Researchers in London mentioned that there was strong connection with high performing students and their greater athletic abilities.

Overall, the article was definitely and eye-opener to some of the other fields of study that are currently going on in education.  Although there is not in concrete evidence that suggest all obese students have poor academic achievement, there are other indicators that suggest that this is true.  This was a great article to read and I hope that you will enjoy reading it too!

Full Article Here