Uncommonsense.com
The very thing that makes humans what they are, is being threatened by the over use of one of our own inventions. Technology as a whole is slowly chipping away at our ability to solve problems using common sense. People are beginning to use averages and other statistics to handle complex issues in their lives rather than their own thought process. Common sense would tell most people that taking a child away from a loving, caring family would be emotionally scaring for said child. According to our government, children in the ninety-ninth percentile of obesity should be taken away from their families regardless of their domestic situation. Statistics cannot be used as a substitution for common sense because they fail to take into consideration variables other than that which they are designed to measure.
First of all, common sense tells us that some people who are overweight are not that way because of their diet alone. Some people who eat a lot of unhealthy food are still skinny, whilst others who eat very healthy are not. Still, as Susan Brandy, author of “Childhood Obesity Warrants Removal of Child to Foster Care”, says, “Losing your child to the system due to an inability or unwillingness to control their obesity is a real threat” (469). Sometimes the inability to control the child’s obesity is not the parents fault. If this is the case, the results will be the same for the child regardless of where they live. The statistics the government uses to determine whether or not to take the child from their family do not take into consideration the child’s genes.
Second, financial difficulties of a family could also have an effect on the kid’s weight problem. When you only have five dollars in your pocket and a family that needs to be fed the two options are go to McDonalds and buy five cheeseburgers off the dollar menu or buy a head of lettuce. Anyone knows the obvious answer to the question is to go to McDonalds, eat the burgers, and then...