To the people saying this is on parents:

I pack my kid's lunch, serve healthy food at home, and limit screen time.

At her public school, my child is regularly given junk food (like almost every day), spends a significant portion of her day on tablets or looking at a screen (they have even been known to show the kids videos during lunch), and also regularly gets screen-based homework (in lower elementary).

When I have vocalized concerns about these things, it's been made clear to me that (1) it is unfair for me to expect teachers to be able to teach without using junk food as an incentive or reward, (2) it's elitist for me to want my child to spend less time on screens at school, and (3) it's selfish for me to expect my values, of healthy eating and limited screen time, to hold the day in a public school where many other parents don't hold those values.

So, as a parent, I'm moving my kid to a school that shares my values. It's a public charter and next I'll be told that I'm betraying public schools and teachers unions by doing so.

You can't tell parents everything is their fault and also they aren't allowed to provide input, and then also get mad when they decide to remove their child from your crappy school that feeds them junk food and screen time all day long.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Individual schools can’t do anything about the food issue. It’s due to low school lunch reimbursement rates & Tyson lobbying to have their crap served to kids.

That's true about school lunch but not true about all the garbage handed out by teachers as rewards or given out/sold at school events. My kid knows all about Doritos, every possible kind of candy, etc., because this stuff gets served during class parties, given out at the end of the week as a reward for doing well, and is present at every school event.

If you suggest creating school policies that encourage healthier eating by ensuring the kids are provided with healthy snacks and there is less overall junk, you will be accused of being classist or racist or both.

This!!!! And I do not think teachers should be allowed to hand out food.

+1. So many teachers give out candy as a reward. I’m surprised they don’t have to get parent permission for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we live in the USA where everyone is on their own. No one cares for anyone. Just indivisible families.

What are you talking about? Millions of US school children receive free lunch (and breakfast...and sometimes even dinner!) Definitely not "on their own."

That free breakfast & lunch is garbage food.

If you want quality food like the French, be prepared to pay for it (like the French.)

I would happily pay to have better food. That’s not an option in the public schools, and never will be because it’s not equitable.

To be blunt, I do not want my kid to be able to access any food at school that I didn’t send in lunch money for, unless school lunches start looking like Finland’s.

That means I don’t want my kid to be able to go up to the school lunch line and say “I forgot my lunch money,” and then be handed some junk without my knowledge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Individual schools can’t do anything about the food issue. It’s due to low school lunch reimbursement rates & Tyson lobbying to have their crap served to kids.

That's true about school lunch but not true about all the garbage handed out by teachers as rewards or given out/sold at school events. My kid knows all about Doritos, every possible kind of candy, etc., because this stuff gets served during class parties, given out at the end of the week as a reward for doing well, and is present at every school event.

If you suggest creating school policies that encourage healthier eating by ensuring the kids are provided with healthy snacks and there is less overall junk, you will be accused of being classist or racist or both.

This!!!! And I do not think teachers should be allowed to hand out food.

Anonymous wrote:Pack your kid’s lunch, limit screen time and don’t allow a phone at a young age. Why should this be the school’s problem?

It's easier for parents that way.

Anonymous wrote:Individual schools can’t do anything about the food issue. It’s due to low school lunch reimbursement rates & Tyson lobbying to have their crap served to kids.

Sounds like you'd like a public charter school that at the individual school level can do something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Individual schools can’t do anything about the food issue. It’s due to low school lunch reimbursement rates & Tyson lobbying to have their crap served to kids.

That's true about school lunch but not true about all the garbage handed out by teachers as rewards or given out/sold at school events. My kid knows all about Doritos, every possible kind of candy, etc., because this stuff gets served during class parties, given out at the end of the week as a reward for doing well, and is present at every school event.

If you suggest creating school policies that encourage healthier eating by ensuring the kids are provided with healthy snacks and there is less overall junk, you will be accused of being classist or racist or both.

Yes, I think we're in this terrible vortex where everyone agrees we're in a bad situation. But I think teachers are so reluctant to criticize parents, what with all the "you can't tell me how to raise my kid" rhetoric.

Anonymous wrote:Individual schools can’t do anything about the food issue. It’s due to low school lunch reimbursement rates & Tyson lobbying to have their crap served to kids.

That's true about school lunch but not true about all the garbage handed out by teachers as rewards or given out/sold at school events. My kid knows all about Doritos, every possible kind of candy, etc., because this stuff gets served during class parties, given out at the end of the week as a reward for doing well, and is present at every school event.

If you suggest creating school policies that encourage healthier eating by ensuring the kids are provided with healthy snacks and there is less overall junk, you will be accused of being classist or racist or both.

This is why my kids go to a public Montessori school that doesn't utilize screens other than when it is absolutely necessary in the upper grades and for required testing. I taught at a school that was 1:1 tech and emphasized computers, and it was a challenge to get admin to realize that learning math on a computer is not the best method. The students would never work out problems on paper even if it was supplied and taught to them. I've also seen teachers utilize screens to pacify students and to lift the burden of creating differentiated work. I understand it's easier, but that doesn't make it better. And if I wouldn't want something for my kids, I certainly don't want it for my students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we live in the USA where everyone is on their own. No one cares for anyone. Just indivisible families.

What are you talking about? Millions of US school children receive free lunch (and breakfast...and sometimes even dinner!) Definitely not "on their own."

That free breakfast & lunch is garbage food.

If you want quality food like the French, be prepared to pay for it (like the French.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we live in the USA where everyone is on their own. No one cares for anyone. Just indivisible families.

What are you talking about? Millions of US school children receive free lunch (and breakfast...and sometimes even dinner!) Definitely not "on their own."

That free breakfast & lunch is garbage food.

Anonymous wrote:Because we live in the USA where everyone is on their own. No one cares for anyone. Just indivisible families.

What are you talking about? Millions of US school children receive free lunch (and breakfast...and sometimes even dinner!) Definitely not "on their own."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to Wikipedia, in France families pay for half of a school meal. In the US, a lot of the meals are more heavily subsidized or even free. You can't expect the US government, or individual school districts, to provide the kind of meals France serves for free.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal#:~:text=Students%20can%20get%20lunch%20at,the%20meal%20varies%20by%20region.

Uh, France doesn't provide those meals for free

That's an odd comment in response to quoting my post. I KNOW France doesn't provide the meals for free. That's why I said (and you quoted) "In France, families pay for half of the school meal."

There are so many structural problems with the food issue. Most schools were not built to have kitchen or storage space for fresh food. Plus the school lunch reimbursement program is so onerous it’s almost impossible to meet requirements without going through a big supplier that does it for you. The Obama reforms which were supposed to make it healthier actually made it worse as there are more rules so harder to find actually healthy food that kids will actually eat. The kids would probably all do better with turkey and cheese on whole wheat with a fruit — but that doesn’t meet the federal lunch rules which require certain colors of vegetables etc., so you end up with those weird mish mash dishes.