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Too Many Snow Days?

 

By Reigh Parker-Burch
3-28-15

 
 

When my husband Bill and I moved to this area from California, I was surprised by a number of terms I wasn’t used to hearing, like “snow days.” As a retired elementary teacher, I became concerned when I heard that the children were getting days off due to the excess snow. That itself wasn’t bad, but what bothered me at the time was that they didn’t have to make these days up. The cause for my concern manifested as a number of bumbling but well-meaning kids looking to help me with my writing, one that didn’t read and couldn’t write, couldn’t punctuate, couldn’t spell. I jumped to the erroneous conclusion that, due to these snow days, they simply weren’t getting the time they needed in the classrooms. I saw this sort of absenteeism as the excuse for their abysmal grasp of English. I was wrong, of course, but that was how it seemed to me at the time. Now I dare to say I know better.

I can’t stand not knowing things. It’s in my nature to examine until I find the truth. As I dug, I found the snow days held the least cause for concern. As a nutritionist of forty years, my first target is the food these students ingest. I never did care overmuch for cafeteria food, even during my own span in public education, but when I discovered that kids were being woken at the crack of dawn if not sooner, being bused to school, and enjoying a “sturdy” breakfast to prepare themselves for the day. This drew my curiosity, and I asked students about their food choices in the morning. I didn’t believe it when they told me some of the junk food being offered for breakfast. Shocked, I contacted the head of the kitchen to verify all this. The explanation I got was enthusiastic, assuring me that the kids were getting all the vitamins and minerals they needed for a healthy study day.

The first two items alone burned my ears.

In my day I probably would have enjoyed Kellogg’s Pop Tarts, though by now my day has come and gone. Instead, as I examine the list of ingredients, I’m appalled. Acidity, high allergens and sugars, and fermentation abound. When one combines dried strawberries, dried pears, and dried apples, the result is acid fermentation (in the words of Dr. Bieler, “a cheap drunk”). One kind of fruit at a time is all the body can digest. High allergens, including wheat, soybean, and corn, topped with oodles of MSG and that accursed killer aspartame, define a huge part of the ingredient list. Remember, all colorings and flavorings are aspartame. There’s also the double dose of corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, which is all over the food market these days and causes all sorts of health problems.

I do not feel that there’s a whit of nutritional value in this product. It’s a disgrace to the word “nutrition.” In the words of WorkoutMommy, “Kellogg’s claims they are ‘a good source of 7 essential vitamins and minerals’. That just makes me laugh out loud! Where are these hidden? Underneath the high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and vegetable oil? Please do not believe that you are getting anything other than a sugar rush from this product” (http://workoutmommy.com/2008/01/29/pop-tart-for-breakfast-think-again/). Enough said? I think so.

Hot Pockets are next. They are loaded with MSG, which can hit the brain and the heart both, to disastrous effect. It doesn’t sound like something I’d give to a growing child—they need every bit of brainpower they can get! This “food” is also highly acidic, conducive to contracting and intensifying disease. There’s no redeeming feature to be found in this product. I next enquired if there was a healthier alternative, and I heard back about cheese sticks and bizarre fruits in combination, which did not at all jive with my beliefs. I didn’t hear a single nutritional combination. I even dared to ask whether the kids could eat before they came to school. The hesitant answer came, “Not with ease.” The whole deal was sanctioned by the USDA, and the school district didn’t want to cross them. I was assured that the students and their parents seemed pleased by the breakfast plan, and that I was the only one griping about the processed food. I attempted to give them some ideas, but of course they fell on deaf ears.

Either way, I emerged from this conversation with many clues as to what was going on with the students. I didn’t have to look at the lunch menu to know that it was equally deplorable. There was nothing redeemable about this meal plan, and they had no intention of changing.

Next, I asked about the environment the students learned in and the tools they used. How was the classroom run? I admit I was fairly naïve at the time. “Oh,” I was told, “everything’s great!” For fifty bucks they get iPads to take home, to keep for the duration of the semester. The grand majority of the learning and the teaching was done in this new twenty-first century method. No more paper and pencil. While they’re learning, I was assured, they were being exposed to the technology they’d need for their future jobs. Needless to say, more than a few kids were sneaking games onto their tablets and ignoring the things they actually had to learn. Books? Well, no one has time for books these days.

When I said these games might be an issue, I was told I had a good point, and that meetings were planned for next year to discuss locking some of that content. That is a nice sentiment, but jailbreaking tablet computers (that is to say, “freeing” them from the “prisons” their system restraints place them in) is not difficult, and an intelligent kid could very well bypass any locks the administration attempts to put in place.

Having heard from several people regarding potential verbal or physical bullying of their relatives, I asked next if there was any credibility to those threats. The reply was casual and dismissive—they didn’t require armed guards, so there was no cause for concern. The solution didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

Speaking of solutions, there are those offering answers left and right. The most common answer seems to be homeschooling, which is all well and good if the parent also makes a good teacher, which isn’t always the case. Homeschoolers have their own schedules and have difficulty adapting to the rigid scheduling of the real world. It doesn’t work in the long run. Homeschooling educates the child academically, but leaves them greatly lacking socially.

The next most popular suggestion is private school, but the greatest issue with that is tuition. If you can afford to send your children to a private institution, that’s wonderful, but not all of us are so lucky. Nor are all private institutions equal; just because you pay to be there doesn’t mean you’re getting your money’s worth. I would argue that this is probably the best solution, if you can afford it and you can find the right school.

One thing that seemed to work for me years ago is the PACE system. It involved small classrooms and the capability of learning and progressing at a student’s own speed.

The bottom line is that it’s going to take prayer and thought to deal with this issue. If you have kids, don’t be afraid to enquire about this. Learn for yourself.

After this heavy topic, have some uplifting thoughts for the day.

From Albert Einstein, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

From Mark Twain, “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”

And finally from the late Sir Terry Pratchett, “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”

Thanks for your time,

Reigh Parker-Burch
www.internationaldietcare.com



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