Kentucky mom slams first-grade daughter's homework assignment to identify a 'fat' person, claims it promotes 'body-shaming'
A Kentucky mother has expressed outrage after her first-grade daughter's homework assignment allegedly promoted "body-shaming".
A worksheet given to the young girl from London Elementary School reportedly had adjectives and two pictures each to illustrate their meaning, Laura Lee Lewis, the mother, said.
While there were examples of picking the best representation of what a hill is, a cow is, a dish is among others, the last question was to identify an example of the word fat. Lewis was disturbed when she saw the options included a larger girl and a smaller girl to pick from.
Speaking to WKYT, Lewis said she was shocked by the assignment. According to her, they could have taken a different approach.
"The way they illustrated it, it bothered me more than anything," Lewis told WKYT. "They could have used an animal. I gave an example of a cupcake. They could have even used that, a bigger cupcake or a little cupcake, and say: 'Which one is fat?'"
Lewis claimed her daughter's assignment was harshly critical and humiliating about body weight. "I had to explain to her that it was body-shaming," Lewis said.
"Even if it was a skinny girl or the example for skinny, I feel like it would still be body-shaming that person because some don't want to be called that." According to her, she was bullied for her weight as a child and feared the assignment would hurt her daughter's feelings as well.
"I thought to myself: They're gonna look at it and then look over at my daughter and say: 'Haha, you're this little girl. You're fat'," Lewis explained. "I don't want that. I don't want her to deal with what I had to deal with it 'cause it hurts'."
Lewis shared her concerns in a lengthy post on Facebook, where it has gone viral. Meanwhile, the Laurel County Board of Education released a statement to WKYT.
"We were notified yesterday via news media of this concern," they said. "We have not had any parent report this concern to us. However, we are reviewing the curriculum to identify the concern."