From FoxNews: As most of you realize, political correctness has gone off the chart here in America, and here’s another example. The Krispy Kreme doughnut company in Palm Beach, Florida offered to give students who earn good grades doughnuts as a reward. For each “A,” they get a doughnut. But no, school board member Deborah Robinson doesn’t like that, because doughnuts may lead to obesity.
Sorry, but i can’t get too worked up about this. No-one’s telling the students they can’t eat donuts, or banning the eating of donuts on school property. They’re simply saying that the school district is not interested in being part of a campign that rewards good grades with fatty food that has virtually no nutritional value.
Also, whenever anyone starts a rant with the words “political correctness has gone off the chart here in America,” it tends to suggest a rather unreflective attitude. Sure, if you don’t agree with something, then criticize it. But the constant use of the catch-all phrase “political correctness” to describe any public policy that people don’t agree with is getting rather old.
What does this have to do with political correctness? If they stopped giving out donuts for fear that they might offend students whose cultures don’t allow the eating of round foods, that would be a political correctness issue. Ditto if they were calling donuts “European American wheels”.
Sounds to me like they’re trying to get away from the ever increasing amount of shit food shoveled into kids’ mouths by or through the schools. Call me politically correct, but I think that’s a good thing, considering the increase in diabetes and obesity in kids over the last few decades.
At the risk of being politically correct*, I guess the difference is in you day kid’s obesity wasn’t a common problem. Maybe because you had to look foward to hamburgers and sundaes as opposed to getting them every day.
Does seem kind of silly though…doughnuts you get from A’s are hardly likely to make you fat (ie, couldn’t be that many doughnits). And what else is Krespy Kreme going to do to support good students…give out cups of coffee?
*Just this week I’ve heard a ban on playground tag, purple ink on test papers and no douhgnuts all called politically correct. Can we decide exactly what we mean be that…and why any of those things actually qualify?
Yeah, well, in MY day we didn’t even HAVE Krispie Kreme! We had to make do with the glazed donuts from the Chevron on the corner and we LIKED it.
:rolleyes:
This is the stupidest thing I’ve seen all day. The OP, not the article. If parents want to stuff their kids with donuts, great. But schools have no obligation to do any such thing or reward anybody for grades. In fact, it upsets me more when schools insist on rewarding students for good grades. Not because it makes the stupid kids feel bad, but because it sends a message to the smart and hard working students that they are so far outside the norm that they need to be rewarded for their entirely foreign and unexpected behaivor.
I say good for the school. Maybe if they really feel the students need to be rewarded they can think of something that’s a bit better for them than gobs of fat covered in sugar.
I’m not sure that PC or obesity is the point of why the Palm Beach school board is turning Krispy Kreme down.
The article mentioned a $1.4 million grant for promoting good nutrition. I’m guessing the school board doesn’t want to risk losing that grant if it agrees to participate in the KK program.
Or maybe your over sensitized, which is also scary. Show me where the school is in any way interfering with the kids out of school diets. They’re not even keeping them from participating in the promotion. They’re simply declining to promote it. The Horror!
I think this is the point that some people are missing. Absolutely nothing has changed. The kids can still go in and get their donuts for their As if that’s what they want to do. The school has simply declined to hang posters in the halls that say (hypothetically) “Get an A, Get a Donut!”
Philster, I’ve read your link from the Palm Beach newspaper completely. Please show me where it says where this arm of the government has any authority to prevent a student from walking into a Krispy Kreme store, showing a report card and getting a free donut.
On the other hand, the story referred to the proposal as a “school-based” promotion, and mentioned ideas like taking students on a field trip to watch donuts being made.
Are public schools automatically required to help a business promote itself to a captive audience of students during school hours?
Switch to decaf, Philster, and try to enjoy the donuts. You’re taking it a bit too hard.
(a) The word “political” in “Political Correctness” means the motivation behind the action is essentially ideological.
(b) A healthy diet is sparing in its share of donuts, that is fact, not ideology. Promoting a healthy diet is NOT social engineering, it’s preventive health.
(d) Not only that, the school is ALREADY heavily sponsored by a private foundation to support healthy eating habits. If my choice is between posters of donuts with “achievement sprinkles” and 1.4 mil in cash, I think both cons and libs will agree on which is the way to go.
(e) From the content of the article, they are in no way interfering with the business nor with what the children eat outside school.
(f) As long as the state agencies don’t actually DO something to coerce my behavior, I am not bothered by their saying that they don’t agree with some businesses’ publicity stunts. I reserve my right to tell them to go get crammed.
I’ve a beer here that says Debra Robinson requires a block and tackle to get off the couch.
“I am a victim of food as reward”, or, in layman’s terms, “I’m a lazy slob that will eat anything brightly coloured and full of lard that I see on a poster.”
Hey, give the human ostritch some credit. Very few people have the courage to admit “I’m a fat, easily-manipulated moron who is attracted to shiny objects.”
All I ever got in grade school was a teeny weeny gold tinfoil star sticker in my workbook…