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Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

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Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#81

Post by malnourish »

droithomme wrote: post #79
superuser2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, the justification wouldn't have been "her actions," but the reasoning would go something like this: 1. She is a student using personal electronics on school property during school hours without permission. This is explicitly disallowed in the handbook she and her parents would have been compelled to sign. This is not about food - she broke the rules. 2. That's great that she wants to be a journalist, but y…

Totally accurate; nice summary; have seen this myself; was thinking the exact same things while reading the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_on_Kids recommended to those who are skeptical. Nothing is your post is overly dramatic or exaggerated in the least.

As a person a few years out of high school myself, I was more shocked by your disclaimer for exaggeration than by the post above.

Everything said seems normal and logical for the schools I've encountered (and the local/regional/national media) to report, given their dispositions and previous conduct.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#82

Post by twelvechairs »

malnourish wrote: post #80
Splines wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing up in central Canada I never had a school that provided meals. Now that I'm in the US I find it odd that schools (of all ages) can provide lunch for students. My son now gets his food at school - while it's nice that we don't need to prepare his lunch beforehand, I'd much much rather have my school district's food-related costs be used towards teachers and learning. I have prepared lunch for my son when he wa…

The biggest thing with this is that there are some parents who are unable to prepare food for their child due to financial costs. For some kids, a school meal might be the only thing they eat, or the largest meal of the day.

Its a complex issue. I've been to schools in England where they would have liked to ban students bringing their own food in to school at all (mostly because of an excess of soft drinks and packaged crisps). To me, however (as someone who always had a packed lunch in Australia) there was something very 'police state' about this. It seems to really be saying that the state doesnt believe that parents are capable of bringing up their own children (not just that a few might need financial help to do so)...

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#83

Post by markkanof »

dusing wrote: post #51
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

You should watch Jamie Oliver's show he spends a great deal of time talking about budgets. Healthier food doesn't need to be more expensive, he has proved it a bunch of times.

He talks about budgets only after publicly embarrassing school district representatives and performing some outrageous stunts (ie. filling a school bus with sugar). I just don't think his approach was the best way to get people on his side. But of course a different more subtle approach wouldn't make for entertaining television.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#84

Post by mahmud »

gavinlynch wrote: post #29

I just want to point out a MUCH more serious attrocity being committed here: This poor, sweet child is so under-educated in the UK that she doesn't even understand the difference between "dinner" and "lunch".. We must rectify this injustice! Will someone think of the children!!! ;)

I can understand her confussion, it gets dark by 11AM in the U.K. By noon, one tries to stay indoors, safe from rain and soccer-hooligans.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#85

Post by unimpressive »

superuser2 wrote: post #67
slantyyz wrote: post #2

I get the impression that had she been American, the school would have suspended her for her actions.

Of course, the justification wouldn't have been "her actions," but the reasoning would go something like this: 1. She is a student using personal electronics on school property during school hours without permission. This is explicitly disallowed in the handbook she and her parents would have been compelled to sign. This is not about food - she broke the rules. 2. That's great that she wants to be a journalist, but y…

The more conspiratorial side of me likes to think that school is a prison camp used by vested interests to teach American citizens from a young age that they have no rights and to stymie any sort of real intellectual development by providing large globs of homework and projects.

But some people require more than the standard to weigh them down. Like in Harrison Bergerson.[0] And the only reason that they don't force extra work to match is that citizens would recognize the inherent unfairness and be offended that their children weren't thought worthy of extra work. So instead they paint it as a way to make your application look better to colleges. (Think hi-cap.)

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

Disclosure: I am in high school.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#86

Post by robryan »

Splines wrote: post #70
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

Growing up in central Canada I never had a school that provided meals. Now that I'm in the US I find it odd that schools (of all ages) can provide lunch for students. My son now gets his food at school - while it's nice that we don't need to prepare his lunch beforehand, I'd much much rather have my school district's food-related costs be used towards teachers and learning. I have prepared lunch for my son when he wa…

Had the same experience in Australia, you could buy your lunch but it was more a once in a while or emergency thing. Quality was fine as the low amount of orders were all done by hand.

Once thing looking back I think we should have had, access to a fridge and microwave, would have allowed for more options and given kids a bit more responsibility.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#87

Post by olliesaunders »

dusing wrote: post #51
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

You should watch Jamie Oliver's show he spends a great deal of time talking about budgets. Healthier food doesn't need to be more expensive, he has proved it a bunch of times.

Yeah I’ve seen him devise recipes to fit within budgetary constraints. He found it very challenging because the budget is like 40p per meal or something ridiculous like that. So he’s well aware of the problem. I think one of the things he campaigns for is more funding.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#88

Post by ekianjo »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

Just a question but is School Lunch free in Scotland ? If everything is subsidized you can't seriously complain about the quality of food, imo. If you were paying for it (and I don't mean through other taxes, but paying directly for it) and still got something as poor as this, certainly you could complain.

It's the eternal debate between leaving your responsibility as a parent to feed your child and taking the matters in your hands. In Japan there are still a fairly high percentage of mothers (even working ones) who prepare meals for their kids going to school. That's caring.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#89

Post by rurounijones »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #59
sukuriant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did /your/ parents know what you ate at school?

I don't know about his school, but every month my kid's school sends a lunch menu home with the "what's happening at school this month" letter. So we do know what he's eating, and by looking at his purchases online it's pretty obvious what he likes.

But to answer the original question you do not know what he is _actually_ eating.

Whatever the lunch menu says he is eating and the actual quality of the food served could differ in the extreme.

Practically the only way you could know this is if the school posted pictures of the actual lunches being served. (Like this kid did)

I commend your school for sending menus however, better than others I have heard of.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#90

Post by tnash »

davidhollander wrote: post #63
tnash wrote: post #6

If you watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show to this point, it was quite depressing how little was done about it on the American show. We unfortunately live in a world where we value money over people's health.

> where we value money over people's health. This is sort of a nonsensical statement, as money is simply an external means by which to make such relative comparisons of value between things which are good. Perhaps you meant to assert the accumulation of savings is valued over health related expenditures? Debt levels would suggest otherwise.

Where we value the ability to obtain goods and services over people's health.

Not savings, but purchasing power. Better?

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