doesn’t matter, I was asked for examples and I gave them, they exist.
But surely you know how don’t you? If it is permitted for lunches to be brought in you run the risk of unhealthy lunches being brought in. The system suggested seems to tackle that particular problem.
You probably weren’t. I know I could send my children to school with healthy meals and they would not be harmed but…allowing me to do it right allows other parents to do it wrong.
or that the school should teach English yet not force them to speak it, or teach them about reading but not make them read out load, or teach them about subtraction but not ask them to do it, or teach them about PE but not ask them to take part, or tell them about the required behaviours in school but not expect them to abide by them…etc…etc…etc…I don’t see why food should be ring-fenced from this.
The school is only having a say it what the pupils eat for around 15% of their yearly meals. Not really a hardship in my mind.
As is educating your children but if many pupils were coming to school having had their heads stuffed full of nonsense by their parents then I’d expect the schools version of the facts to take precedent.
WhyNot covered it perfectly (and used far less words than me), there is really nothing else to be said.
Not really. The school chooses the textbooks and curriculum and can bring in any rubbish they like, the school chooses that my child will learn to drive on an automatic transmission (no joke, I’d really rather prefer that he learn on a manual so he knows how to drive ANY car in an emergency, but I don’t get to dictate that to the school). The school (system) dictates which and when vaccines go into his body, when he sees the dentist and eye doctor and pediatrician. Why shouldn’t they mandate, for one meal a day, what food goes into his belly? Seems far less invasive than mandating what goes into his brain or his bloodstream, and I have no problems with that.
Besides, they ARE teaching nutrition. Gods, if we have to have one more conversation because my six year old is terrified of dietary fat (her with her <10% body fat and the pediatrician begging me to fatten her up!), I’m going to scream. They *are *teaching nutrition, trust me, and to death. It hasn’t solved the problem.
Like I said to **LOHD **a few days ago, I like *his *proposal a lot, that they send home a detailed note letting parents know exactly what’s acceptable and what’s not, and if parents can’t follow it, then disallow home lunches for a while. I like that better than what this school is doing. But I do think that, on a practical level, it’s simply adding another three steps, requires more personnel to police the lunch boxes, and most of the kids would end up on mandatory school lunches anyhow. Maybe I’m just a pessimist, but I’ve dealt with trying to get people to change their behavior by asking before, and it rarely goes well.
And I explained why they not very relevant. One could cite Venus claiming the sun sometimes rises in the west, but that isn’t very helpful in reference to the Earth.
Isn’t it between the parent and child if the lunch is healthy enough? If you think someone is a bad parent maybe jack booting the lunch line is like trying to cure a brain tumor with aspirin.
What if the parent isn’t satisfied with the healthiness of school lunches? Magiver, doesn’t seem to be.
What if the parent wants the kid to have a special birthday lunch, or some other sentimental reason? Are kids to march lockstep, with no individuality? I’m glad I didn’t go to your school. I would have hated it. I would have resented it, and fought it in every way I could. There are many like me, but I still need to be myself.
What if the family has religious dietary reasons?
I phrased mine to avoid creating extra work. I assume some teacher or assistant is with kids during lunchtime, and that person may or may not notice a lunch of Oreos and Hawaiian Punch. If they don’t notice, the kid’s safe with their nasty unhealthy lunch for another day. If the teacher does notice, I’d think there’d be some form letter they can send home with the kid–just pull it from the office’s collection of forms–reminding parents about the policy, with an optional checkbox beside a line that says something like, “Your child may not bring a lunch from home for the next ___ days.”
IOW, enforcement would be at teacher discretion and would take minimal effort.
Something wrong with using dinner for that?
Who said my school had this policy? In no way does a lunch policy like this equate to a squashing of individuality.
I already covered that and allowed for it. though I would suggest that, depending on the prevalence of certain religions, the school could allow for that as well.
And really, why the Nazi imagery and language? you seem to think that food is different from the other tasks that a school carries out. I don’t think it is.
In Elementary School (Virginia, 1980’s) we were graded on lunch, though the grade was on lunch behavior (e.g. staying in seat, talking quietly, not throwing food) rather than following acceptable dietary guidelines. I think the grade may have gone to the entire class.
Schools tend to bend when it comes to religion. I attended schools that banned hats, but had a religious exemption to the policy, so all the girls who wore headcoverings as part of their religion could do so, and I can recall one boy who wore a turban or similar.
Same thing at my school. There was also one girl in middle school who was exempted from gym class for religious reasons.
apologies if mentioned already.
when instituting any kind of prepaid system, quality will always be sacrificed in the name of cost.
mandated purchases are almost the result of some nepotism or lobbying to award an above market value contract, with little to no standards or accountability.
my college campus required all first year students dorming to purchase a meal plan. the food was terrible, and the costs were higher than eating out at a decent place daily, not to mention the administrative cost tacked on.
After first year, only a handful of students remained on the meal plan. Now I understand that making it mandatory allows the food service to exist, but if it was competitive to the rest of the market in cost and quality, it would not need this for its survival.
Plus, and this is probably the most important thing, is we should be helping teach parents and children to make informed responsible choices, and allow people to have their occasional cheeseburger and french fries. Enforcing a mandatory menu only reinforces the mentality of just do what you are told,do not think for yourself, the government will take care of you. And this lack of independent thinking is a large factor in the decline of the United States
I’ll bet you’re not a big fan of school uniforms either.
I am in the inner city and I did have a choice. Do you think we poor people are too stupid to find a school we trust? Last year my family made less than 12k. We live in the second most dangerous part of Memphis. And yes, I had choices.
I chose to send my daughter across town to the charter school because I believe in their education ideas. I take her every day despite regular problems with transportation. It’s a good school; much better than the public neighborhood school. I trust their breakfast and lunch program and I’m involved in serving several days a week. I trust their uniform policy despite my disagreement on proper footwear. I trust that they have my daughter’s best interest at heart, and if a parent can’t find that it’s not because they’re inner city, it’s because it’s just not important enough to them.
Sixteen years ago I couldn’t find a school I trusted for my oldest, so as poor and inner city as I was, I homeschooled. She’s 21 now and doing just fine.
So yes, even inner city parents have choices.
I may be wrong, but I thought that Chicago families don’t have the option to send their kids across town. You either go to your neighborhood school or try for one of the few lottery spaces at a magnet school, and hope that politico cronies haven’t taken all the slots for their own kids. You don’t just get to pick a charter school and then send your kid there. Also, for most people, quitting their jobs to homeschool their kids isn’t a feasible choice. Some parents don’t speak enough English to homeschool in the first place. I think it’s an accurate assessment that in Chicago, “inner city families are not overwhelmed with multiple options of places where they can send their kids for education”, your experiences in Memphis notwithstanding.
Your understanding is essentially correct. Because most of the schools in the district are “failing” NCLB, you have the theoretical option of sending them to a school that’s not in your neighborhood, but in reality, that means trying for one of the selective enrollment or lottery positions in a charter or magnet school (thousands more applicants than seats), or sending them to a different neighborhood’s crappy school (what’s the point of that?), or moving into a neighborhood with a decent school (probably a more expensive place to live).