On several recent posts and comments to people have wondered how our view of public education might differ from that which is presently being proposed. While a variety of our prior posts have given major dos and don'ts of such a viable plan for education reform, today I would like to take a microcosm look at only one aspect of what should go on in an American public school that would have a profound effect on the students being educated, even though it is not normally given the important place it should have in a discussion of school reform.
At nutrition and lunch every day, I would watch my students eat greasy and highly processed chicken nuggets or pizza that occupied the menu several times a week, while the melon, apple, salad, and vegetables wound up getting thrown in the trash. If someone -- whose parents had perhaps gone through the Great Depression -- did not take this food and stop on the way home to give it to the homeless, it was essentially wasted everyday. What drives this school lunch program are the food stuffs e.g. milk, apples, etc., that thefederal government buys from farmers throughout this country to keep them out of the market, thereby keeping prices up. Food is not seen as an integral and necessary part of nurturing the complete student, but rather as a clever way to feed students while artificially maintaining price supports. Therefore, it is no accident that most students who were in my class were moderately obese.