James Eik
By JAMES EIK
Staff Reporter
A nasty food fight erupted in North Carolina last week when a 4-year-old girl returned home with her uneaten lunch.
It turns out that someone at her school had determined it wasn't healthy enough and sent it back with her, providing instead a school lunch of chicken nuggets and a bill for the meal.
The contents of the lunch? A turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice.
Heck, if that's “unhealthy,” then I should be dead by now. That was my staple lunch growing up, minus the banana. Of those, I've never been a big fan.
Pre-kindergarten programs in North Carolina are required to evaluate the lunches provided by parents and determine if they meet USDA nutritional requirements. If not, they must provide an alternative, which is apparently chicken nuggets.
At first, this seemed like one angry parent with a vendetta toward the school district. But then another incident sprung up a couple days later, in the same classroom.
That second lunch? A salami and cheese sandwich on a wheat bun, with apple juice. The lunch provided by the school? Chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread and milk.
A memo sent from the school district indicates a serving of milk, grains or bread, meat or meat alternative and two servings of fruits or vegetables must be present in order to meet the USDA standards.
This would be a small incident, but coupled with a Michigan education official testifying before the state's House Education Committee regarding who best educates kids it's rather disturbing.
Debbie Squires, associate director of Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, said in her testimony last week that public educators have the ability to determine what's really best for children, not parents.
“Educators go through education for a reason, they are the people who know best about how to serve children, that's not necessarily true of an individual resident,” she said. “I'm not saying they don't want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint.”
While we all have seen “that couple” who really needs a parenting class, suggesting that an educator knows how to raise a child better is out of line.
Many educators are parents themselves, and they touch valuable life lessons in and out of the classroom. I can attest to that. But no one, not any high school teacher or college instructor, takes the place of my parents' role in life.
There are just some things you don't try to mess with. In a way, it ties back to the girls who tried to run their lemonade stand last summer, only to see it shut down by law enforcement.
What in the world is happening? Apparently, chicken nuggets are replacing the classic Americana image of a student with a brown bag lunch.
I might be alone in this, but something just doesn't feel right about that. Small individual liberties are being taken at a growing rate, right before our eyes. The situation in North Carolina, while completely on the other side of the country, is something that could happen in our own backyard.
In a sense, that's why the recent debate on contraception was so widespread. It was one small compromise asked by President Obama. But compromising on that one issue, in the view of the Catholic church, could lead down a slippery slope, eventually reaching the West Plains.
A presidential election won't change what happens in our communities, but as residents, we can. It's part of our job to keep in tune with the happenings of our city, schools and community. If we lose our local touch, our values, the we will surely face our own slippery slope downward.
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