The first half of Bear’s 2nd grade his school lunch tab was a couple hundred dollars higher than it should be.
The culprit? The school lunch lady was selling him 3-4 bottles of dansani water/day instead of having him use the drinking fountain, she never told him they were a buck a piece, he thought they were free.
Today I went in to have lunch with Bear and see the same lunch lady. Bear had selected 5 of 5 allowable items, they can choose any 5 servings as they like. Among which he selected two fruits and no sugary dessert, and passed up the self-serve gravy for his taters. The lunch lady (easily in excess of 250 pounds) then stopped him. Swapped his grapes for ice cream, them poured about 1/4 cup of instant gravy on his taters. Thereby adding a couple hundred calories to his previously healthy meal.
No wonder kids in the US are having trouble staying fit if they can’t even watch their nutrition at school without intervention from the lunch staff.
When Ruth’s girls were at school, Charlotte (then about 15?) went on a school trip to Canada. She is a life-long vegetarian. At 15, she had never eaten meat in her life, and had no wish to do so. (Now 24, she is still vegetarian.) The trip stopped at a McDonalds. Charlotte expressed dismay that there was nothing on the menu that was vegetarian. The teacher told her to stop being silly and “faddy” and make do with fries.
African kids are starving while we feed our kids crap.
This year I have definitely become the parent the school has to “deal” with. I have so far:
Switched him to another class, having to go to the superintendant to do that. He had his teacher thinking he had a physical disability and she was taking dictation for him for everything because he needed physical therapy in his hand. (There is nothing wrong with this boy, he does, however have the ability to dupe teachers). The school physical therapists is wondering why the child has to visit her , tellling his teacher that it is a waste of her time and the child has no problems.
Made the librarian develop a specific check-out procedure for Bear because he was wrongly accused of checking a library book out. They made me pay $14 for a book I can get at Amazon for $3.99. They refused to accept a replacement even if it was the same edition. The extral $10 is to put an new label on the binding with cellophane tape. I at first refused to pay, but offered an exact replacement so the principal REVOKED his library rights. Over a $3.99 book!!! Now at my insistance, he give his signature on a special sheet when he check out a book indicating the day, time, and book. It used to be the librarian types in a key code for each student, never seeing the student’t name on the omputer. Bear has two double digits in his code, so when a typo happens, he’s a likely victim.
And now I am into it with the lunch lady. I am beginning to think it’s me and not the school.
Mike’s friend’s daughter seems like a strong person. Not that she’s a vegetabalian, but that she’s stuck to her guns since she was little. I bet she lives an interesting life.
I am predisposed to thinking the worst of schools due to my older daughters’ experience in them. My work in psychology has only enhanced that predisposition. I try not to think of the fact that eventually Sam will have to go to High School, because High Schools are really horrible places.
Hi Dan de Man,
Everyone has issues, we each need to tend to our own, so don’t be too hard on yourself. He is good about anger. He is showing good signs of self control. He will be good at unicycling, though!
Document your complaint with an email or letter to the Superintendent and the Board. Videotape this several times, copy it onto a DVD, and store it away with proof of your complaint. When he comes down with any diet-related disorder (diabetes, obesity, cardiac, cholesterol, arthritis, back pain. emotional issues, acne, etc), sue the school for treatment, pain and suffering, and punitive damages.
I’m kind of over it… Bear has a few weeks left in the school year. Next year I’ll make time to pack his lunches. the quote from first grade when he was a “Packer:”
just trying to get jealous remarks: when my children were at school, I liked very much to go early in the morning pay for the month’s lunches.
why?
because the smell was wonderful! early morning they started cooking such things as “garbure” (duck soup -a recipe with pork here : http://www.soupsong.com/rgarbure.html -) to start the meal with and other delicacies from the South-west of France where the school was situated!
The French exchange student at my school right now did a presentation to my French class about her life in France, and the part about school and specifically school lunch we were AMAZED at how much food they get compared to our crappy little “meals”…I wanna live in Europe, you guys take food so much more seriously (:
If these issues bothered you enough to mention them to us, I hope you will mention them to the appropriate people at your school (or district) as well. If not for Bear, for the many others that will follow.
