I received this email today from a Fat Head fan I happen to have met in person recently:
Tom,
I just got some news from my folks that made me think of you. I’ve heard how schools and governments are stepping in to enforce school lunch guidelines on parents (who are presumably too stupid to raise their own children), but this is the first time it’s hit close to home for me.
Short background: My six-year-old niece Megan started school yesterday, her first day of school. She was already scared and upset and crying. After lunch, she went into orbit, threw up everywhere because she was so upset, and ultimately had to leave school. My brother, who has been looking desperately for work, had to cancel a “sure thing” job interview to go get her because the school was sending her home. Here’s the word from my dad on what happened:
What prompted the whole issue yesterday was Meagan’s teacher taking her lunch, which she had brought from home, away from her. David [my brother] had packed yogurt and fresh fruit, which Meagan likes. Her teacher told her mother that the school has to ensure that the children have a nutritious lunch, so they took Meagan’s yogurt and fruit and insisted she eat a corn dog. What a brilliant plan from a so-called “educator”.
I’m sure you see these every day, but it’s the first time it’s hit me. As the father of a two-year-old who just started preschool last week, this KILLS me.
I don’t know for sure this story is true, but like I said, I’ve met the guy who sent me the email, and he seems like an on-the-level type. I certainly have no reason to doubt him. And as we saw recently in Chicago, some schools have already taken it upon themselves to prohibit parents from sending kids to school with lunches the school administrators don’t approve of.
If the yogurt was the sugar-sweetened variety, it’s certainly not something I would pack for my daughters’ lunches — but that’s not the point. The point is that what I choose to feed my kids is none of the school’s @#$%ing business. Their job is educate my children, not to dictate what meals they consume.
As for ensuring the kids are eating a nutritious lunch …a corn dog, really?! That’s the nutritious alternative to yogurt and fruit? A piece of processed meat, battered in wheat and corn starch, and fried in some horrid processed vegetable oil?
Just think, you probably grew up being told you lived in a free country. Perhaps that was true at one time.
Do still believe it’s true today?
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Off topic, but in reference to corn dogs, my mother was recently informed by my brother that his extremely picky children liked them, so bought some to have when they came to visit. She prepared them and placed them in front of them, only to watch them pick every single bit of the cornbread batter off and eat the hot dogs plain. She asked them what was up, and they said they only liked them because they were on sticks.
Ha! Smart kids.