# Eating in school **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261 "2005-11-03T06:42:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/21 "2005-11-03T18:54:47Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Illinois public high school, 1998-2002. > > Six periods, fourth period was divided into A, B and C. The class you happened to be in during fourth period was assigned to A, B or C lunch. No skipping lunch, although there were a few clubs then and some teachers ran optional study groups. We had a regular cafeteria, in which everyone ate. Campus was closed, meaning we couldn’t leave to eat somewhere else. > > A lunch was cool because you got first pick of the food (sometimes they would run short on things by C lunch). > > B lunch was cool because the class seemed so short, breaking in the middle. > > C lunch was cool because sometimes they would make too much and so give stuff out cheap or free, and also because you ate and then had just two more classes before going home. This system seems very similar to my experience in Ohio, 1983-1987. I am all for requiring students to stay on campus, allowing them to use the lawn weather-permitting. (What did you do for lunch, **Csharpmajor** , when the weather was bad?) Since I graduated, I have heard that my school has allowed vending machines and fast-food vendors onto campus. I think this is a very bad idea. However, I don’t think the nutritional qualities of the lunches “made” by the cafeteria staff were much, if at all, better than fast food. It seemed like it was mostly processed institutional food that came in huge cans that was dumped out and warmed up. Just as bad on the fat, salt, and preservatives content as McDonald’s or Taco Bell, isn’t it? I think public schools should have real nutritionists and a trained staff making and serving healthful, tasty, and fresh food. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/22 "2005-11-03T19:04:15Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I got into college just fine, and it didn’t involve having to miss lunch every day. In fact, during MY senior year, I had a free period at the end of the day, and pretty much got to go home an hour early. Same here, senior year. By Friday I had quite a few study halls so I sat in the cafeteria a lot. We weren’t allowed to leave the grounds, and I took the bus, so I had to just stay; luckily my best friend had a very similar schedule. In high school we had two lunch periods, early and late. Upperclassmen tended to have the later lunch, but you did have to report to lunch and stay in the cafeteria until the next period. The school served lunch for a price (private school) but my mom sent a lunch until she realized we were tossing them and eating a candy bar instead. It was a social opportunity but was also fraught with peril because any faux pas was observed by a crowd! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/23 "2005-11-03T19:11:42Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > It was a social opportunity but was also fraught with peril because any faux pas was observed by a crowd! Eating a packed lunch in lieu of a candy bar was viewed as a faux pas? ---
**Author:** ![iluvurmom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iluvurmom/32/7276_2.png) [@iluvurmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iluvurmom)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/24 "2005-11-03T19:32:40Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I actually grew up in a suburb of Philly on the Jersey side of the river - I just tend to say I’m from Philly. > > Out of honest curiosity, how are my eating habits not healthy? I don’t exist solely on fast food, I eat when I’m hungry, and I stop when I’m no longer hungry. I’ve never had any sort of weight problem, unlike a substantial number of my peers in high school, whould could have stood to lost a few pounds. > > I think I probably would have gotten accepted into the college where I’m now a student had I had an easier schedule. I don’t think I’d have gotten into all the schools I applied to, though, if I hadn’t had those couple extra grades on my transcript. My case was mostly that a lot of my grades sucked but I did really well in the electives I took, plus one year it let me add more community service to my resume, as I was an office aid in that extra period. Quite honestly, I think that a lot of adults, even parents of students, grossly underestimate how hard it is to get into name-brand schools, get scholarships, get internships, and so on. I have to disagree with you. I had a designated time for lunch everyday in high school Not, tooting my own here–but for the sake of the argument, I was in every extra-curricular activity possible and I got into every school I applied to included GW and NYU. (top-name schools if you ask me) I did find once leaving college, it was less about what college you went to and more about what you did when you there. (i.e. internships, networking, organizations) I think at the end of the day it is about time-management. Having time to socialize and eat a healthy lunch for a half hour of the day was something I always looked forward to. It kept me focused the rest of the day. I think to each their own, but your argument for college acceptance in relation to having having to each lunch or not seems a bit skewed. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/25 "2005-11-03T21:16:57Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Eating a packed lunch in lieu of a candy bar was viewed as a faux pas? My bad segue…looking lost while trying to find your friends was a faux pas, spilling anything on yourself, dropping something, having a bad hair day, having a zit, wearing the wrong clothes or shoes, looking at someone funny, looking too friendly…all were magnified in front of the lunch crowd. Man I hated high school :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/26 "2005-11-03T21:28:57Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > **NinjaChick** ’s from Philly. So now I’m confused, unless you moved to Pittsburgh as an adult and went to school in another state. Nope, I’ve been here all my life. And as she says, she was on the Jersey side. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/27 "2005-11-03T21:39:08Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Illinois public high school, 1998-2002. > > Six periods, fourth period was divided into A, B and C. The class you happened to be in during fourth period was assigned to A, B or C lunch. No skipping lunch, although there were a few clubs then and some teachers ran optional study groups. We had a regular cafeteria, in which everyone ate. Campus was closed, meaning we couldn’t leave to eat somewhere else. > > A lunch was cool because you got first pick of the food (sometimes they would run short on things by C lunch). > > B lunch was cool because the class seemed so short, breaking in the middle. > > C lunch was cool because sometimes they would make too much and so give stuff out cheap or free, and also because you ate and then had just two more classes before going home. That’s almost what I had at a PA public school. We had 8 periods, 7 of them about, oh, 35-40 minutes. Fifth period was an hour and a half, broken up into three half-hour lunches. First lunch-you ate first, then went to class, Second lunch you got a break in the middle (my favorite) and third you went to class then ate lunch last. And we never had to worry about pick of the food, or whatever. Of course, we had in addition to meals, an ala carte lunch, where you could buy snacks-chips, cookies, fruit, etc. I rarely if ever did this-I either bought a regular lunch, or brown-bagged it. **NinjaChick** , first off, skipping breakfast is a HUGE mistake. Anyone will tell you that. Eating snacks like a small sandwhich and a juicebox, some chips-that’s all just junk. It has nothing to do with weight. You should eat at least three full meals a day, or six smaller ones. Your mom was right about your eating habits that year. If I had eaten like that in high school, I wouldn’t have made it. Of course, I’m on Ritalin and you have to take it with food. And usually by lunch time, my stomach was wrapping itself around my backbone. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/28 "2005-11-04T00:07:09Z")
> [@csharpmajor](#): > > Oh and in case it matters, our school doesn’t have a cafeteria, we have lawns. There are different lawns for different years. We sit on the grass and eat. This is pretty typical of Australian public high schools (but apparently the private schools mostly have more formal arrangements). I went to a private school and we did the “lawns” thing too. It was pretty common among most private schools when I was at school. The main reason in those days that private schools sometimes had more “formal” arrangements was for the boarders, who used to go into the dining room for their lunch. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/29 "2005-11-04T00:29:10Z")
> [@Harmonix](#): > > I think a big portion of high school are the social aspects of it. Ditto college. Exactly. My view is that most of the “college prep” stuff in high school is a waste of time, including the entire attitude that how you do in high school is going to shape your entire life. I honestly don’t think it matters that much, and the most important aspect of the whole experience is socialization. Taking an extra class at lunch isn’t going to make-or-break your career. I think the kids would be better off having unstructured free time for an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/30 "2005-11-04T00:33:26Z")
At my high school there is one lunch period for everyone, but we’re allowed to eat wherever we want. Some of my teachers allows us to eat in class, but most don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/31 "2005-11-04T00:47:20Z")
When I was in high school (1998-2002), we had something similar to what everyone else is describing - seven periods in the day, and the fifth one was just over twice as long as all the others. If your fifth period class met on the first floor, you had “first lunch”, and went to lunch and then class; second floor, vice-versa (we were a fairly small private high school with two floors of classrooms, so this worked out pretty well). There was also a 20 minute break in the mid-morning, during which there was a little student-run store where you could buy all sorts of unhealthy, or just snack on something you brought and stuck in your locker. If you chose not to eat during one of those two times… well, you sure wouldn’t even _think_ about eating in most of the classes, as it was strictly against school policy to have food or non-water drinks in the classrooms, and most of the teachers actually pretended to care. During your break or lunch period, you could eat pretty much anywhere you wanted as long as it was on campus and not in a classroom. I tend to think that having a free period in the middle of the day should be required for reasons of sanity, if nothing else… but I can’t really speak to eating habits, since my normal high school eating schedule during the week was a couple pieces of toast at 7:30 in the morning, maybe a candy bar at break, a glass of water at lunch, and a full dinner at 5 or 6pm after I got home from whatever the sport of the season was. I have no clue as to how my body didn’t just break down, especially now that I know so much more about the way nutrition and athletic activity interact. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/32 "2005-11-04T03:55:26Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > This system seems very similar to my experience in Ohio, 1983-1987. I am all for requiring students to stay on campus, allowing them to use the lawn weather-permitting. (What did you do for lunch, **Csharpmajor** , when the weather was bad?) We ate standing in the undercover areas, or in the hallways. Our school is a generic WA 70’s school (I know of at least one other school in the state with the exact same floor plan) with a rather open design. There is an “inside” and an “outside” but the difference between the two is not always clear because there are no doors. A lot of places inside the building were still “outside” enough that we could eat there without being chased out by teachers. ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/33 "2005-11-04T03:57:47Z")
That HS schedule is… odd. **Ninja Chick** , I believe that I graduated the same year that you did (2004, yes?), and I had a half hour lunch period every day, with a one-hour discretionary period four days a week (although two of those periods per week went to community service, on average). What this meant was that, for the last two years of my time in high school, I had a total of five one-hour classes, one hour of either community service or sitting around chatting/napping/doing homework, and a half hour for lunch four days a week. Wednesdays I didn’t have any real classes - just an hour to listen to a guest speaker, an hour of study time, an hour of a non-academic elective, a half-hour of lunch, and an hour and half with my advisory (kind of like a small, closely knit homeroom/support group thingie). If I didn’t eat anything during this half-hour lunch period, I was usually a total wreck by the end of day. I went through two years of high school during which I took a total of 16 classes (two of which I failed to pass), had a half hour of lunch every day, and an hour to blow pretty much however I wanted twice a week, and I managed to do okay in college admissions. Eh. Let 'em have their mandated lunch period. It won’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/34 "2005-11-04T09:31:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That’s almost what I had at a PA public school. We had 8 periods, 7 of them about, oh, 35-40 minutes. Fifth period was an hour and a half, broken up into three half-hour lunches. First lunch-you ate first, then went to class, Second lunch you got a break in the middle (my favorite) and third you went to class then ate lunch last. And we never had to worry about pick of the food, or whatever. We had the same thing (Hou, TX, 1994-1998) at my high school, only we had seven class periods during the day (including the one which lunch interrupted.) Hell, most of the time I didn’t even wake up until after lunch. Even back then I could barely tell you what went on during morning classes. I’ve been a night owl my whole life and slept through 1st - 3rd period most of the time. Learning to let your body shut down and rest while your eyes are open is a useful skill, let me tell you. Most of us did our homework or studied during lunch as well, for some of us if we didn’t have lunch to work on that stuff, it probably wouldn’t have been done at all. FWIW, despite my general lack of giving a crap, I still managed to graduate in the top 20% of my class and get well above average marks on all my testing including SAT, had quite a few Honours/AP classes… so just meh. I never knew anyone that seemed to be hurt by being forced to have a lunch class. We weren’t allowed to leave or go outside either, but somehow we managed to survive. I agree with the OP’s mom, working that long without some kind of downtime to eat and break properly is probably unhealthy, especially for someone still growing. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/35 "2005-11-04T12:13:30Z")
I’ve often considered ritualizing meals rather weird. It’s a biological function, and considering that most schools offer breaks, or the option to eat in class, I don’t get your mother’s problem. I never understood why it was important to eat “breakfast” with orange juice and all, or why the noon meal should be a sandwich, or why everyone should chomp down whatever mom made at 7 p.m. Unless you’re going to die because you are not chomping something down at a specified hour, just humor or lie to her. Your mother is old-school, like mine, and makes no sense. Eat when you’re hungry. Hopefully we won’t reach the point where we ritualize taking a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/36 "2005-11-04T14:54:46Z")
> [@zuma](#): > > I’ve often considered ritualizing meals rather weird. It’s a biological function, and considering that most schools offer breaks, or the option to eat in class, I don’t get your mother’s problem. So far as I can tell, in most schools you \*are not \* allowed to eat in class. And considering the nature of teen-agers, I think it’s a good idea. I have no problem with college students eating in class, but high school is much more susceptible to disruption. Water is a difficult issue. On the one hand, American kids are not habituated to drinking enough water. On the other hand, I can imagine the disruption in classrooms caused by spilled water and constant bathroom breaks. I drink a lot of water during the day, but at the office, it doesn’t matter to anyone if I have to get up and pee every few hours. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but American society is experiencing an epidemic of disorders related to improper eating habits and the loss of “ritualizing meals” is a major factor. Children’s bodies and habits must be trained to eat regularly _before feeling too hungry_. Hunger leads to ill-considered food choices. I’m all for school programs, all the way up to 12th grade, that give you breakfast and lunch plus two snacks at regularly scheduled times and which give strong guidelines as to what should be eaten at those times. I have spent my life suffering from bad eating habits. I know the consequences. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/37 "2005-11-04T15:21:21Z")
Missouri public school, 1993-1997. When my brother was at this school, (graduated, 1993) there were open lunch periods where kids were allowed to leave campus for lunch and eat anywhere on the grounds (five seperate buildings rather than one big one). In 1992, three girls decided that rather than eat lunch, they’d go ‘hill jumping’, which is driving down a very hilly, twisty road at excessive speeds and trying to get the car to jump all four wheels off the ground. Brilliance at it’s finest. Car, meet tree. They all died horribly. The school’s response was to lock down the campus completely, making everyone eat in the cafeteria (seats about 250 for a school of 2500 students) and splitting up the lunch hour into many 20 minute shifts. Five minutes to walk to the cafeteria, 10 to get through the line, not so much time to actually eat. Lunch then started at 10 or so and went to nearly 1 (school started at 7:20, ended at 2:10). Along with this, each table of kids was dismissed individually, and we had to line up at the doors to be dismissed. I’m not six years old, guys. Really. I agree though, that high school is far less about academics than it is about socialization. Lunch with a group is a skill that not everyone learns, as my early years in school can attest. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/38 "2005-11-04T16:05:20Z")
My high school got an hour for lunch that I used to spend playing cards and smoking cigarettes. I may not have gotten a healthy meal, but I usually enjoyed myself. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261/39 "2005-11-04T18:42:39Z")
We had a lunch period at my school, but I rarely took it. I usually spent it reading in the library. I eat one big evening meal a day and always have; sometimes this is supplemented by a light lunch but usually not. Although I think little children need ritualized meals I do think it’s silly for adults and teenagers. The whole idea of “breakfast foods” and “dinner foods” is especially silly. Like it’s dangerous to eat pancakes at eight p.m. or something. I know nobody’s said that, but I do know people who think they’ll, like, die if they eat temporally odd meals. Again, ritualization. It’s not like HS food is healthy anyway. We had breaded chicken sandwiches for two weeks straight one time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-in-school/329261.md?page=1)