Here's a question for anyone who cares about this sort of thing:
Is it cultural imperialism to teach your students about anorexia and bulimia?
Many of my students skip dinner because many of them think that they are overweight. From my perspective, most of these students who are skipping their meals are as skinny as I am. As a teacher, I am worried about their health. They have food available to them, yes - they just want to diet.
I made the decision this past weekend to make my students aware of anorexia and bulimia. Today (Monday), I gave a small lecture on eating disorders in the last twenty minutes of class. I am not used to this kind of lecture... mainly because, well - the class is usually a discussion-based course focused on getting all students speaking English.
So I lectured. And it felt weird.
Any thoughts?
Is it cultural imperialism? Yes, I am just giving knowledge in this case - I'm not directly asking my students to eat all their meals. Still, in a lesson like this one, it's unavoidable that I am at least suggesting that my students eat more food.
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On a side note, a student today told me that I looked, I quote - "stupid" - riding around on a bicycle with a helmet on. "Stupid" and "funny." I am glad my activities outside of class is... something that they can wonder at. I'm learning how to ride a bike better - and I think I'm getting the hang of it - but I'm still going to keep the helmet on.
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That's it. Just some side notes for now. I'll jump back into the correct timeline in my next post.
Dude, Felice... I totally just gave a lecture on anorexia and eating disorders too! I incorporated it into our discussion on health because I've noticed the same image issues with my female students. I tried to do it in as sensitive a way as possible by focusing on the issue as it related to American girls, but they seemed to take it well and even had a brief discussion about how they thought it was a problem in China too. Would love to hear more about how yours was received! Definitely a hard topic to approach.
ReplyDeleteHey Lindsey! I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. I had different classes throughout the week, and I modified the lesson a little bit each time. When I presented the issue as a major problem in America, they did take it very well. It was received pretty well, I think - though a lot of their interest came from their.. disgust.. I think at some of the pictures that I was showing them.
ReplyDeleteI mixed it in with a lesson on food. It was a really light-hearted class up until that point, but I think it worked out well.
I would like to hear more about the food! I could really go for a plate of flate noodles right now.
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