Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Learning Journal 8
I have been thinking a lot about Dallin's idea for my project. It does seem like an interesting idea that I haven't thought about. I never thought of studying how people get physically active and what things may prevent them from being physically active. This idea does come somewhat as a relief because I was questioning my project and how I would go about asking people why they are fat and not doing anything about it. Observing and interviewing people about how they are physically active is a much better alternative. This also means I have a lot of thinking to do. I read an article about one of the reasons adults become obese. It said its because once they are older they stop doing hard labor or things around the house. They stop and their kids take over. After that they don't get much physical exercise and sit a lot. This caused me to question whether giving all the responsibility to the kids is the best option. It is good because it teaches them about responsibility and about hard work but does it come with a cost to the parents? Is turning the work over to the children really one of the reasons the parents become obese or is it because of the parents own choices? These were just some questions and thoughts I had when I read the article.
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This sounds like a neat shift of ideas, I'm eager to see how your project develops from here.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you posted about the article you read. I hadn't thought much about inactivity being instigated by a transfer of work from adult to child. It strikes me that I have occasionally felt that older people who had to work were somehow less cared for. I wonder if this concept might play out differently under a different value system. Any thoughts on this?
In your post you were commenting about an article you read. I was wondering when the article was written and in what cultural context? I am sure you are still in the planning phases but I am interested to learn what age group you were defining as 'older,' and which age group you were focusing on for physical activity? Are you looking at how physically active a 25 year old is or an 80 year old? I ask because I am studying aging and am generally intrigued with issues dealing with aging I was also wondering how you were going to define concepts such as physical activity and exercise? Any Ideas? I know that a lot of times in the United States exercise is seen as being anything from walking a lap around the mall to working out at a gym for 2 hours everyday. My mom is a PE teacher and is constantly trying to communicate to her 7th and 8th grade students that being athletic and exercising is not the same thing as being healthy. I think that a lot of times Americans tend confuse being healthy with being physically fit/Athletic or exercising (at least I do). Have you thought of any ways that you might be able to address this issue cross-culturally? What is healthy in Tonga? As a culture do they relate health with physical activity or even weight?
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting reason for why people might become obese as age increases. But I wonder how much that applies to Tongan culture. It would be interesting to see if parents without children also tend to become obese, and that could indicate if there is a correlation. Seems like you have done some good research though and a good starting point.
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