It IS possible to feed our school children actually good cooked food and educate them

[Bonobo]

Having been president of the Elementary School PTA (actually a pretty respected position here) and served for 3 years on the school lunch committee, I want to show you this video.

It shows how school lunch is handled in Japan. Not only do the kids get good, actual balanced nutritional food, they learn how to serve others, take responsibility, have manner, eat in a balanced way without waste, etc.

School lunch here is not just free time where the kids are unsupervised. The teacher eats exactly the same meal and with the kids in the classroom.

Please watch and encourage your own school systems to re-evaluate how lunch and food in general is presented to US kids. I believe the failure to do so is part of the reason the obesity epidemic is increasing (along with a similar hands off approach to sports and physical education).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=hL5mKE4e4uU

[Voice for Peace]

1. Big k&rec to watch later

[Bonobo]

2. Please also watch the school cleaning near the end.

It is something all kids do. They clean the entire school. Hallways, stairs, bathrooms, etc.

In the current US political environment, to suggest that kids clean their own schools would lead to silly charges of children being treated like slavery, but it is clear to me that there is a connection between caring for your school as if it is yours and caring for your environment.

Furthermore, the concept of hiring a poor person to be the janitor to clean up after you reenforces the class divisions in society.

[Voice for Peace]

3. Yes.. That's bothered me in liberal circles, as if it were a bad thing.

Looking forward to the video-- can't watch on fone

[OnyxCollie]

5. Is there a custodian? nt

[Bonobo]

6. There is not.

The kids clean up.

There IS a position whose role it is to manage, maintain, and do things behind the scenes. They may clean, fix things, work on the school grounds, etc.

They are viewed as a member of the school staff as much as a teacher, or asst. principal.

[OnyxCollie]

7. I'm an elementary school custodian.

I empty trash/recycling bins/pencil sharpeners, sweep and mop floors/stairs/hallways, vacuum carpets, remove pencil/crayon marks, disinfect sinks/toilets/urinals/toilet paper dispensers/paper towel dispensers/soap dispensers, in addition to stocking said dispensers with product, clean mirrors/windows, water plants, act as a crossing guard/bus monitor, do minor repairs/general maintenance, and take care of whatever else the faculty/students need.

Basically, I do a lot.

I do these things because my job requires me to do so. Actually, I go far above and beyond what I am required to do, and what collective bargaining has provided. For example, I don't take breaks. (Last time I had lunch was in the middle of December. I've had too much to do to take a time out. Besides, I'd just be reading DU anyway.)

I do these things because I don't want others to be concerned with them. I don't want teachers to have to think about emptying pencil sharpeners or refilling soap dispensers. I don't want kids to have to think about bleaching urinals or mopping floors. That's my job. They have another job to do, to teach and learn. In return, the staff and students show their appreciation for me.

I have the best job in the world.

[Bonobo]

8. Cleaning and taking care of those things ARE important.

And that is exactly why it is important that kids learn to do such things and not to foist them onto others.

That's just my opinion.

[elias49]

14. Why not involve the students? Great idea,

but you'll never see that is this country. We've come to view ourselves as exceptional.
Sadly, America's way of duplicating what Japan is doing, would be to have the AA and Hispanic kids clean the place.
Sad, no?

[Odin2005]

15. I think the not wanting to make kids clean is a subtle form of classism.

Namely, fear of looking "working class" (because everyone thinks they are "middle class&quot . In American society cleaning is a "poor man's job" and making your kids clean the school is seen, (thought not consciously and for most people would not be able to articulate why) as an insult against their kids, implying that they are being trained for menial labor.

EDIT: I think some racism is involved, too, menial labor is seen as a job for POC, especially in the south.

[Bonobo]

17. I think that is a very perceptive observation.

We don't want our kids growing up and acting like the "help", do we?

Japan is a country with culturally Communistic underpinnings.

[Odin2005]

19. Exactly!

[mercuryblues]

21. In the US

they only want the kids who get a free lunch to clean the toilets.

[Tsiyu]

4. But PC Principal sez...!

I watched that video today and got the biggest kick out of it, especially the rock/paper/scissors battle for the last piece of mmmmmm fried fish with pear-sauce.

Very Montessori-ish and the kids all seemed to be enjoying themselves and the food. The masks may have been a bit of overkill, but then kids are germy little creatures.

Edit to add: just wrote an article about social-emotional intelligence in kids, and how it's as important in early education as the ABCs. The Japanese instill such a sense of gratitude. I loved how they thanked the cooks for their delicious food, rather than taking their hard work for granted.

[xmas74]

9. This is done in the U.S.

in Head Start. Head Start students line up for hygiene, help set tables, help with clean up, even brush their teeth after meals. They thank their teachers and their cooks for the meal and all staff, both teachers and cooks, sit down with the students to eat. Some Head Starts even have small gardens, depending on the lot of land their building is on.

Older kids can give the building a once over, as long as it is all students. That's where the complaints have been in the past about students doing lunch service or cleaning-it's always been about the singling out the poor students instead of just making it mandatory for all to take a turn. A custodian or two is still needed on both days and even at night for deep cleaning, for sanitizing, for dealing with bodily fluids, etc. You don't want your first grader cleaning up broken glass or most kids cleaning up vomit or blood. An adult is still needed.

[Bonobo]

10. Of course, adults are necessary for some jobs.

And yes, the work must be done equally by all. Of course.

[xmas74]

16. My complaints about children cleaning were never about the work.

My complaints were always about certain lawmakers wanting to single out poor children and make them work for free lunches, for lab fees, field trips, etc. If work needs to be done by children it should be age appropriate and done by all children, not just the poorest.

[Bonobo]

18. I completely agree! nt

[callous taoboy]

11. I teach 2nd grade. Our cafeteria "food" is the pits.

Lots of deep fried stuff, loads of sugar, I mean loads. You can see the sugar rush hit 20 minutes after they start eating. Then, an hour later I can't get them to focus in class. It is the dumbest thing that we do feeding them this crap which then undermines their health and brain functioning later.

BTW, Aramark is our food contractor, the same contractor which services the prison in Huntsville.

[geomon666]

12. Oh Japan

Doing so many things right and so many things wrong. This is one of the right ones.

[Odin2005]

13. The problem is that idiots will bitch about their taxes going up.

People want better food for their kids, but don't understand that the money for that has to come from some where and when push comes to shove people prefer to have shit as long as their taxes don't go up.

[1939]

20. I always brown-bagged

The cafeteria just slopped the glop and old lady Pecksniff would stand there at the tray return and send you back to the table if you hadn't eaten everything on the tray. Early educational experiences with spinster teachers back in the 1940s laid the groundwork for a lot of misogyny.

[wordpix]

22. every school should have a school garden

and the kids should learn how to grow it.

When I worked in DC's poorest ward, I saw lots of vacant, trash-strewn lots that could have been transformed into community gardens. Once people grow their own food, some may want to go further and start food businesses. But there's "no money" since we have to help the rich get richer with their tax havens, corporate "inversions" and the like