Here we go again... school woes
We got a letter from DD's first grade teacher:
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"We will be celebrating 100's day on... As part of our celebration we will be making "100 Day Stew" This stew will replace our regular midmorning snack. We need each child to bring in the food item that is highlighted below. During class your child will be counting their food item into groups of 100. The weight of these food items will be estimated, weighed, and compared before they are mixed into a tasty concoction for snack
The list of items follows:
- bag of chocolate chips (that's our selected item)
- bag of butterscotch chips
- 16 oz bag of Skittles
- 24 oz canister of box of raisins
- one large bag of mini marshmallows
Quart size baggie of the following:
- pretzels
- cheerios
- goldfish crackers
- chex cereal
- fruit loops
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Ok, so I have many issues with this request. The main being... what on Earth happened to promoting healthy eating habits? One sugar-filled snack is not going to kill my 6yo (that is only getting one candy a week if she bothers to ask for it). But this is school! None of the items on the list, apart from raisins, are even remotely healthy.
And... my response:
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Dear First Grade Teachers:
We would like to express our greatest disappointment regarding the upcoming “100’s Day Snack”. Encouraging kids to enjoy counting and develop positive attitude towards learning activities is admirable. However, one shouldn’t have to bribe children with chemical-loaded candy to get them excited about a lesson. Plenty excitement can be instilled if healthier items are selected for the stew, or if non-food items are chosen for counting.
Schools in general, and school teachers in particular, have enormous influence in the decisions that our children learn to make, going well beyond the scope of academic knowledge. There is nothing wrong with a bit of candy now and then. However, this is a school activity, not a home event. Whenever people in position of control and power sanction something like Skittles, it sends a message. Teachers can be a whole lot more creative without making serving and eating junk food a part of the lesson.
In preparation for this celebration the school is not only endorsing, but encouraging purchase and consumption of candy. As public school teachers, we expect you to choose activities with the mind of benefiting the public today, and in the future: the public that our children will become when they grow up. This would have been a great opportunity to teach much more than counting.
We realize that the message can also be that candy is only consumed at special times or in rare cases and in moderation. After all, the school did send out suggestions for healthy mid-morning snacks at the beginning of the year. And this celebration is certainly a special occasion that perhaps warrants special treatment. However, the special exceptions add up: birthdays, 100’s days, holidays… Pretty soon nearly every day will be exception day.
During our trip to the store to pick up a bag of chocolate chips we gathered nutritional value information for all items on the list of stew ingredients. The data has been summarized in a spreadsheet and presented as total value per each child at the end of the snack (see assumptions). N____ participated in all aspects of this project. Please see enclosed. We feel that additional discussion of results is in order:
• Each child will receive a total of 476 calories from the mid-morning snack alone; just shy of quarter of the total (adult) recommended 2,000 calories per day.
• Recommended maximum value of total carbohydrates for 2,000 calorie diet is only 300g. The planned 100’s day stew will contribute 91g of total carbohydrates (30% of daily value from mid-morning snack alone).
• Each child will receive 64g of sugars, which is equivalent to sixteen (16!) teaspoons of sugar. Sugar contains no real nutrition.
We feel that this letter is not complete without suggestions for healthier food items that could be used for counting in the future: dried cut-up apricots, banana chips, dried cranberries, grape tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, shredded carrots, etc.
N_____ will attend the 100’s day celebration with our sincere hope that the teachers are able to deliver the “this is once a year, very special event” attitude to all their students, and make healthier choices in the future.
Sincerely,
_____ family
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"We will be celebrating 100's day on... As part of our celebration we will be making "100 Day Stew" This stew will replace our regular midmorning snack. We need each child to bring in the food item that is highlighted below. During class your child will be counting their food item into groups of 100. The weight of these food items will be estimated, weighed, and compared before they are mixed into a tasty concoction for snack
The list of items follows:
- bag of chocolate chips (that's our selected item)
- bag of butterscotch chips
- 16 oz bag of Skittles
- 24 oz canister of box of raisins
- one large bag of mini marshmallows
Quart size baggie of the following:
- pretzels
- cheerios
- goldfish crackers
- chex cereal
- fruit loops
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, so I have many issues with this request. The main being... what on Earth happened to promoting healthy eating habits? One sugar-filled snack is not going to kill my 6yo (that is only getting one candy a week if she bothers to ask for it). But this is school! None of the items on the list, apart from raisins, are even remotely healthy.
And... my response:
-------------------------
Dear First Grade Teachers:
We would like to express our greatest disappointment regarding the upcoming “100’s Day Snack”. Encouraging kids to enjoy counting and develop positive attitude towards learning activities is admirable. However, one shouldn’t have to bribe children with chemical-loaded candy to get them excited about a lesson. Plenty excitement can be instilled if healthier items are selected for the stew, or if non-food items are chosen for counting.
Schools in general, and school teachers in particular, have enormous influence in the decisions that our children learn to make, going well beyond the scope of academic knowledge. There is nothing wrong with a bit of candy now and then. However, this is a school activity, not a home event. Whenever people in position of control and power sanction something like Skittles, it sends a message. Teachers can be a whole lot more creative without making serving and eating junk food a part of the lesson.
In preparation for this celebration the school is not only endorsing, but encouraging purchase and consumption of candy. As public school teachers, we expect you to choose activities with the mind of benefiting the public today, and in the future: the public that our children will become when they grow up. This would have been a great opportunity to teach much more than counting.
We realize that the message can also be that candy is only consumed at special times or in rare cases and in moderation. After all, the school did send out suggestions for healthy mid-morning snacks at the beginning of the year. And this celebration is certainly a special occasion that perhaps warrants special treatment. However, the special exceptions add up: birthdays, 100’s days, holidays… Pretty soon nearly every day will be exception day.
During our trip to the store to pick up a bag of chocolate chips we gathered nutritional value information for all items on the list of stew ingredients. The data has been summarized in a spreadsheet and presented as total value per each child at the end of the snack (see assumptions). N____ participated in all aspects of this project. Please see enclosed. We feel that additional discussion of results is in order:
• Each child will receive a total of 476 calories from the mid-morning snack alone; just shy of quarter of the total (adult) recommended 2,000 calories per day.
• Recommended maximum value of total carbohydrates for 2,000 calorie diet is only 300g. The planned 100’s day stew will contribute 91g of total carbohydrates (30% of daily value from mid-morning snack alone).
• Each child will receive 64g of sugars, which is equivalent to sixteen (16!) teaspoons of sugar. Sugar contains no real nutrition.
We feel that this letter is not complete without suggestions for healthier food items that could be used for counting in the future: dried cut-up apricots, banana chips, dried cranberries, grape tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, shredded carrots, etc.
N_____ will attend the 100’s day celebration with our sincere hope that the teachers are able to deliver the “this is once a year, very special event” attitude to all their students, and make healthier choices in the future.
Sincerely,
_____ family