Sound Of Silence: Deaf Education Today

“Hello, welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like to try our new Supersized menu?”

Everyday, across the United States and around the world, people hear this phrase as well as many different variations of it from countless fast food chains. But what does this really mean? Our society has become more and more obsessed with the idea that ‘bigger is better and better can’t be beat’. So, why not apply this concept to our daily eating habits, right? Uh…no. In reality, our obsession with getting the biggest and the best has caused our country to become the fattest nation in the world. And because we are gaining weight so fast, it seems like we are dependent on larger portions to satisfy our hunger, which leads to the more rapid weight gain, thus, an endless cycle. Brian Wansink, a director of Cornell University was quoted in USAToday by saying;

“Overweight people are more likely to choose bigger meals than those at a normal weight. This may explain, in part, how large portions are contributing to Americans’ expanding waistlines. One of the big dangers of fast-food lunches is that we not only mindlessly overeat, but we mindlessly underestimate how much we’ve eaten”.

“Supersize Me” was a movie made by Morgan Spurlock, a man who decided to try the “McDonald’s Diet”, this consisted of eating only McDonald’s food for 3 meals a day for 30 days and monitored his body’s reaction to the sudden change in dietary intake. What he found was that the body didn’t take too fondly to the sudden change in nutrition. With so many different health risks out there that can effect people’s health, such as smoking, drinking and eating disorders, eating fast food seemed like something that wasn’t as high on the priority list. However, with our ever growing number of obese cases raging through the country, it’s important that we take another look at this epidemic.

“Fast food is commonly recognized to have very poor nutritional quality,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston and the senior author of the study. “But there have been very few studies, essentially no long-term studies that have documented the effects of this dietary pattern on the key chronic diseases of Western civilization — obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease.”

USAToday 

Morgan Spurlock wanted to prove his point and make it loud and clear. Fast Food Is Bad! But what else can we say about this ‘documentary’? Putting a critical eye to it, we also find that he did not only eat McDonald’s food, but he also cut back and limited his exercise, including walking. This is another factor that people may not always consider. The movie itself seems to focus more on bashing McDonald’s for it’s available choices, we also have to take into account that people are free to make choices in this country. No one is forcing them to eat fast food all the time. Personal responsibility has to be taken into account almost more then the places that are supplying the ‘death meals’.

“Warning: The witty filmmakers rated the movie “F” for “fat audiences,” which includes most of America. Audiences should know that “some food may not be suitable for young children” (despite what all the cute, indoctrinating commercials from the food industry may claim). Spurlock hopes the film and his eating experiment will serve as a wake-up call for Americans who — as he, nutritionists, doctors, even a former Surgeon General he consulted with believe — are eating themselves to death.”

Review

In our classrooms where, we as future English teachers, will have to find ways to get our students to look at the world through new, critical eyes, especially when it comes to writing. Letting them examine something, such as this video, and allowing them to come to their own conclusions will do exactly that. “Supersize Me” is a great example of how, even though we have things presented to us in a formal way, in this case, in the form of a documentary, many times we don’t take the time to really examine the different points bought up or find the deeper meaning in a work. Though it can be debated, this film can be helpful to students in thier understanding of what it means to be a critical thinker, which, in turn, helps them become critical writers.