I just read this post from Crystal Cattle’s blog, and it lead me to read this article from the Chicago Tribune. And it lead me to form this opinion:
When has it become okay for the public school to make every decision for a child, and take out all responsibility for a parent?
As a former teacher, I feel like I’m pretty in-tune with what’s going on at my daughter’s school. I know what questions to ask, what to look for if she starts to slip, what “social” really means when it’s addressed at parent/teacher conferences. However, that is by my own doing…and my daughter’s teacher’s lovely, detailed, weekly newsletter. It is MY (and Joe’s) to read nightly with her. It is MY job to check her papers, ask her questions about her day, and drag out any (seemingly) minute detail of the day. However, according to my teacher friends still in the biz, there are a lot of state and district and even federal programs that have been implemented that are taking away a teacher’s ability to just teach (in some cases), and, in my opinion, let the parent do a parent’s job. It is important to me to trust my daughter’s teacher, as I tend to hope that you would trust my farmer husband, but shouldn’t parents be able to decide with their kids things like what they eat for lunch?
This is getting ridiculous.
My blogging friend, Crystal, makes a really good point about how this may affect the agriculture industry in the long run. She writes, “When will the school district decide that they should adopt Meatless Mondays, because someone fancies it will be a good idea?”
Good point.
What about the kids with special food allergies? I read that some of the concern was that the kids were wasting food, but isn’t offering one choice that the kids already don’t like defeat this purpose? How are test scores supposed to meet state and federal guidelines and standards when kids are hungry, left with no choice but one during lunch time.
My father-in-law would call this “ignorance gone to seed.” My husband says its just another example of how our society believes that we are sheep without a shepherd, unable to make our own decisions about basic needs.
We have a pretty good relationship with Anna’s lunch choices. She makes them based on what’s offered, and while Joe some times disagrees with this, I believe that we are allowing her to make a big girl choice, but I still ultimately get the say in what’s put in her tummy that day. Joe’s experience with school lunch was essentially catering. His cooks lovingly prepared a family dinner for its roughly 35 students. I went to a bigger school, and had a little worse food, so I had the option to bring my lunch when I didn’t want to eat chipped beef on toast. I had a choice, and although kids in my school didn’t always make the best choice, I don’t attribute their weight gain on the fact that they were able to bring Doritos in their lunch.
Honestly.
Doesn’t this almost sound funny? I am trying to be educated on this, and know as much as I can, but it’s almost ridiculous how one little thing can lead to more and more mandates that will take the parents’ responsibility out of schooling their kids and will cause a big, big problem in the long run.
Read this article in the Tribune. Read Crystal’s post, and let me know what you think. Maybe I’m just too sensitive about food, kids, and school!