script practice

ap sem

COVER SLIDE

Good morning, afternoon, or night! My name is ____. My presentation today is titled “Should the youth be introduced to the dangers—inside and out—of disordered eating?” My topic will be health, while my lense is social!

AGENDA

On the agenda for today, I will be covering Why This Question is Important, Arguments and Opinions, my Final Answer, and ending off with my citations used. Throughout this presentation I’ll be utilizing quotes taken from articles regarding these topics.

WHY THIS QUESTION IS IMPORTANT

A significant amount of teens and youth view disordered eating practices as something “normal.” This is often facilitated by factors such as social media—where they’ll find women twice their age or girls who could be in the same class as them who depict starvation and the like as a new “beauty trend.” This is ultimately extremely harmful to these young people as disordered eating and things of that nature destroy one’s emotional, mental, and physical health.

QUOTE

To support this argument, Zali Yager discusses these ideas extensively within her article—”What Not to Do When Teaching about Eating Disorders.” Directly stated in said article is the following: “Concern about the possibility of the presentation of popular media articles about eating disorders influencing disordered eating behavior has been present since the articles themselves began to appear." (Yager, 2007, p.29)

ARGUMENTS AND OPINIONS

A good intended presentation with the hopes of teaching kids what exactly they should be wary of indulging in may be viewed by some as an assist to their own intentions of self-harm. Meaning, despite trying to show youths the behaviors of some eating disorders and why they’re harmful, many of them may be inspired in a way. 

Additionally, these presentations could turn into inadvertent “how-to-guides” for teens who may have never had these sorts of harmful thoughts cross their minds before. 

QUOTE 2

The short and sweet article—"School can trigger eating disorders”—written by Hailey Kloss brings up a great point. “Much of the conversation around nutrition in schools and health and wellness classes centers on ‘good foods vs. bad foods,’ teaching kids how to read food labels and count calories, and the ‘destructive nature’ of unhealthy foods.”

Some schools even use scare tactics like depictions of fat in a gross way to insinuate healthy eating. What seem like well-intentioned informative classes end up harming those they’re trying to teach even further.

FINAL ANSWER

Most teens, if not taught thoroughly in school, will learn about disordered eating via social media sites such as Tiktok or Instagram instead. Which are infamously unreliable when it comes to medical practices and the like. 

However, when discussed in schools, teachers should treat the topic gently and with care—emphasizing the risks and little reward that comes from disordered eating. The intention is not to write an accidental how-to guide, nor is it to make these children uncomfortable. It’s to ultimately inform them and stress the dangers that come with indulging in such disorders.

Care and caution should be taken when addressing these topics.

QUOTE 3

Taken again from Haily Kloss’s article excerpt on Rogers Behavioral Health website, “The problem lies not in the need to educate children about nutrition, but that this education is not simultaneously delivered alongside body-image awareness. It’s possible to teach nutrition in a body-positive way."

If tweens, teens, and even children are shown the beauty of themselves and healthy eating—this body-positive way of thinking of nutrition may actually lead youth down a healthier path. People should be aware of the dangers of eating disorders and should know that seemingly healthy eating shouldn't come at the cost of your physical, emotional, and mental health.

CITES

Finally, here I have my citations that I utilized to make this presentation. Thank you so much for listening, and have a great day, thank you again!