Having banned the traditional school bake sale, the Food Nazi's are livin' large in California (and all across the nation too)! Read here, from
the New York Times (emphasis added):
The old-fashioned school bake sale, once as American as apple pie, is fast becoming obsolete in California, a result of strict new state nutrition standards for public schools that regulate the types of food that can be sold to students.
The Piedmont High water polo team falls woefully short of these standards, selling cupcakes, caramel apples and lemon bars off campus in a flagrant act of nutritional disobedience.
"Before, it was the chips, the Hostess cupcakes, the Little Debbie doughnut sticks," said Ginger Gray, the director of school nutrition for the Kenton County School District in northern Kentucky. Now, only pure fruit juice and low-fat or skim milk are allowed. The district's most popular dish is whole-wheat stromboli made from scratch, Ms. Gray said, adding that she leans toward foods that families can cook at home. "You're teaching them habits for life," she said.
That's right folks! No longer is it up to the parents to teach their kids, nor the teachers, nor even "a village" ... it takes regulation baby ... REGULATION! Laws, enforced by government (aka the barrel of a gun), are the new paradigm in "teaching."
According to the article, 500 to 600 school districts have strict regulations created by the Food Nazis. In Kentucky, the regulations are so severe, most sports drinks (such as Gatorade) have been BANNED! Wait, there's more:
In Oakland, Calif., new traditions are replacing old ones: a "Healthy Halloween" vegetable platter for kindergartners at Montclair Elementary; power bars and apple slices at the after-school homework club at Crocker Highlands Elementary; a Caesar salad-making class, a weekly organic produce stand and "nutrition breaks" replacing snack breaks at Peralta Elementary.
A "Caesar salad-making class?" What? Kids aren't doing so good in those "middle-class subjects" like math and science, but man, can they make a mean Caesar salad! I guess that's "progress." And what for Halloween? A vegetable platter? When I was a kid, that would have considered that corporal punishment!
Oh ... theCL ... you're just flying off the handle. "We" gotta protect the kids from this "obesity epidemic!"
How about a little more exercise? You know, backyard football, basketball, baseball ... riding your bike ... not getting out of gym class for some arbitrary reason.
Nah, the ONLY way to deal with this "epidemic" is by government force! The barrel of a gun will solve the worlds ills.
Well, I got news for ya. Back in the "greedy, selfish" 1980s, when I was a kid, we could buy every kind of junk food imaginable at the school store. And guess what? There wasn't a fatty "epidemic" to be heard of! Ooops ... I meant to say "obesity epidemic."
Yes, some kids struggle with it more than others. I've struggled with it as an adult. But it didn't take government enforcement to curb the fat. All it took was a little determination. So lay off the kids! It's hard enough growing up.
Determination, that thing you really only learn by doing, is certainly a better lesson for children than a regulatory enforcement regime, isn't it? Anna X.L. Wong, a kindergarten teacher at Jefferson Elementary in Berkley California obviously disagrees with this line of thought. What does she believe of the regulatory regime?
"We talk about the word 'courage,' " Ms. Wong said of her young students. "That means being brave enough to try new things."
Yep! Being forced into nutritional submission "means being brave ..."
Fabian socialism folks. It's creeping faster and faster by the minute.
