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There's little that can be done. Bad parents abound. You can attempt to educate them, but it's far easier said than done. A note asking the parent to send the child to school with a proper lunch is really as far as the school has any right to go. A terrible diet negatively affecting the child's learning abilities and teaching them habits that will lead to joining the majority in overweight and obesity with likely health problems such as diabetes and heart disease down the road doesn't really amount to child abuse necessary to intervene for the child's welfare.
So technically no crime or abuse has occurred...only something could potentially make the kid fat one day? Seems like a case of "mind ya bizness"/"I'll raise mines, you raise yours".
Some people would want to have you put in an orphanage because of that.
Probably but my sisters and I escaped that fate as did our friends. Besides, I went to school in the days when kids did live in orphanages and the food in those places wasn't much better.
I am not saying this was a good thing but I am saying we did manage to survive. And keep in mind that this was lunch. We had good healthy breakfasts and suppers. Lunch was just one meal of the day. I think it's just possible that for lunch this little girl might have been given some leeway with the junk food but her other meals may be supervised more closely.
The point is, we don't know and neither did the busybody teacher who assumed the little girl was being fed horrible food all day long. If the teacher was so concerned, she could have phrased her note differently by simply asking what her other meals were like. I mean as long as the woman was being so nosy, why not go the whole hog? No pun intended.
The PP who posted about bad parenting vs. child abuse hit the nail on the head. People should try to look out for true cases of abuse. This isn't even a borderline case.
I think if the teachers were concerned, maybe they could put something in the handbook or send a note home to all the parents reminding them what a nutritious lunch is. Maybe even make an assignment for the kids to track their lunches for a week (or have the parents fill it out) as part of a health unit. I can see that backfiring into parents feeling judged, but maybe just have the sheets sent home and not "graded" by a teacher. Just kind of an awareness campaign. And if the parents still don't send a better lunch, well, they tried. Unless a child is suffering from malnutrition (at which point the nurse can maybe send a referral to a pediatrician) or something, I really fail to see why the teachers should be held responsible.
As far as the government holding schools responsible for what's in children's lunch bags - that's beyond overreach, imo.
So technically no crime or abuse has occurred...only something could potentially make the kid fat one day? Seems like a case of "mind ya bizness"/"I'll raise mines, you raise yours".
Technically not doing you homework isn't a crime either. Definitely not a case of mind ya bizness either. Today we know the importance of proper nutrition for both physical and mental development, something the schools necessarily should be involved in just as they would for not doing homework or acting out in class.
In a perfect world, they rarely would have to. You'd have involved parents who would not send their children to school with four candy bars, a bag of marshmallows, and Ritz crackers making up the bulk of their lunch. In the slightly less perfect world, parents who did would realize that isn't a healthful diet without having to be educated of it. In the even less perfect world, parents would be open to learning about nutrition and attempting to be better parents. In the real world, poorly-adjusted individuals often react defensively to any criticism that four chocolate bars, marshmallows, and Ritz crackers making up the bulk of lunch for the child isn't a proper diet.
The PP who posted about bad parenting vs. child abuse hit the nail on the head. People should try to look out for true cases of abuse. This isn't even a borderline case.
I think if the teachers were concerned, maybe they could put something in the handbook or send a note home to all the parents reminding them what a nutritious lunch is. Maybe even make an assignment for the kids to track their lunches for a week (or have the parents fill it out) as part of a health unit. I can see that backfiring into parents feeling judged, but maybe just have the sheets sent home and not "graded" by a teacher. Just kind of an awareness campaign. And if the parents still don't send a better lunch, well, they tried. Unless a child is suffering from malnutrition (at which point the nurse can maybe send a referral to a pediatrician) or something, I really fail to see why the teachers should be held responsible.
As far as the government holding schools responsible for what's in children's lunch bags - that's beyond overreach, imo.
Jesus so everyone has to be spammed because one parent refuses to parent and sending a note might upset his sensitive ego? Kid came to lunch with crap for lunch, got a note to take home saying you sent your kid to school with crap for lunch, please do better. End of story. If the dad wants to send his kid to school with nothing but candy bars because he got defensive about being informed of his poor parenting, that wouldn't be abuse either. It'd just be poor parenting.
That's just politically correct nonsense. Billy is being a bully so everyone in the class has to go through sensitivity training because you might offend Billy's parents if you sent a note home concerning his bullying.
I doubt that every other parent in the class packed a perfect lunch for their child. So maybe one or two notices a year are worth the spam. Not EVERY time a child MAY have a questionable lunch.
If it became a huge pattern, THEN a note home for individual parents would be a good idea.
Technically not doing you homework isn't a crime either.
I say it is unless the child's not doing homework is causing them to fail. I know plenty of people that never did homework and passed. In the case of food...unless the child is showing physical symptoms of starvation mind that business.
Quote:
Definitely not a case of mind ya bizness either. Today we know the importance of proper nutrition for both physical and mental development, something the schools necessarily should be involved in just as they would for not doing homework or acting out in class.
Different things are more or less important to different people.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Malloric
Jesus so everyone has to be spammed because one parent refuses to parent and sending a note might upset his sensitive ego? Kid came to lunch with crap for lunch, got a note to take home saying you sent your kid to school with crap for lunch, please do better. End of story. If the dad wants to send his kid to school with nothing but candy bars because he got defensive about being informed of his poor parenting, that wouldn't be abuse either. It'd just be poor parenting.
That's just politically correct nonsense. Billy is being a bully so everyone in the class has to go through sensitivity training because you might offend Billy's parents if you sent a note home concerning his bullying.
That pretty much sums it up. All dad had to do was speak with the school directly about the issue he had with the note and that would have been it....
I doubt that every other parent in the class packed a perfect lunch for their child. So maybe one or two notices a year are worth the spam. Not EVERY time a child MAY have a questionable lunch.
If it became a huge pattern, THEN a note home for individual parents would be a good idea.
I'm pretty sure today that's standard in the new information packet that nobody actually reads. Repeating the same information because Billy the Bully's parents might get offended if they get a note is, imo, ridiculous. I agree, if it's an isolated incident sending a note home is really not worth the effort. Maybe I'm reading into it with the straw that broke the camel's back thing. Perhaps this was the first and only straw and it's an eggshell camel.
I'll say this much, no way would my mother have packed a lunch like that for me when I was in SECOND GRADE. My mom, who was a homemaker, had a better sense of nutrition than this doctor. And no way would she have let me make the decision on my lunch. That's what a parent does, they make correct decisions for their kids, especially kids who are only in second grade. So she doesn't like certain foods? Too bad. I never dictated to my parents what I would or would not eat. My mom made the meals, I had to eat them.
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Besides, I went to school in the days when kids did live in orphanages and the food in those places wasn't much better.
