Parents: Rule’s half-baked
Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby cash-strapped classrooms, PTAs and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fundraisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.At a minimum, the nosh clampdown targets so-called “competitive” foods — those sold or served during the school day in hallways, cafeterias, stores and vending machines outside the regular lunch program, including bake sales, holiday parties and treats dished out to reward academic achievement. But state officials are pushing schools to expand the ban 24/7 to include evening, weekend and community events such as banquets, door-to-door candy sales and football games.
Yeah. Good luck with that. You really want to bring down the hammer of G-d? Annoy the PTA parents. Start messing around with one of the big ways in which they bring in much-needed extra cash, and you'll be lucky if all they do is vote you out of office, burn your house to the ground, and take random potshots at you as you leave in utter humiliation in the middle of the night. You mess with the PTA, you take your life into your hands...
This is a monumentously stupid idea, even for Massachusetts. It's both short-sighted *and* patronizing and demeaning. "Oh, you stupid rubes don't even know how to feed your own children" is how this boils down - because not only are they not allowing junk food to be sold on the cafeteria, but they're going to dictate what can be sold at any school event? No more hot dogs at the football games? You want a riot on your hands? Start selling soy pups at the snack shack...
Yet again, we see the overreaching nanny state trying to save us from ourselves. Listen to this load of horse manure from one of the sponsors of the bill:
State Sen. Susan Fargo (D-Lincoln), chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Public Health, said the problem of overweight children has reached “crisis” proportions.“If we didn’t have so many kids that were obese, we could have let things go,” Fargo said. “But,” she added, “this is a major public health problem and these kids deserve a chance at a good, long healthy life.”
Screw you and the sanctimonious horse you rode in on. What she's saying is that these kids have no other options, no other choice, and that the only thing that can save them from a life of obesity is the omnipresent state? You can go straight to hell with that attitude, and take the rest of the damn legislature with you. You're telling the people of Massachusetts that the only thing standing between an early grave from obesity and a happy childhood is the annual PTA bake sale? Honestly?
Look, there are two parties responsible for overweight kids: The kids themselves, and the parents that enable them. The school is such a distant third that it is completely laughable to think that this will have even the slightest effect on childhood obesity. When the kid's scarfing down half a box of donuts for breakfast and a large burger and fries for dinner every night, it's not going to make a lick of difference whether the vending machines at the school sell Twinkies or rice cakes.
The state cannot - should not - try to solve every problem, especially under the guise of public schools. We've got enough on our plate trying to meet the ever-changing demands of the school curriculum itself without appointing ourselves grand high nagus of nutrition - especially when there are so many factors outside of the school's control. It should not be part of school policy to try to control obesity in the students.
Not that it will stop
That is all.
6 comments:
All the newsreaders last night seemed stunned that the "Insta-polls" were running 95% percent against this new rule. The 4th of July Cakewalk ( Cake Bake sale) is a 200 year old tradition in my Town and a major fundraiser. Nearly everyone particpates. Spineless Susan Fargo is from my district, She'll cave by thursday.
I'm make the same comment here- What about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY??? Oh, 'nanny' state... Never mind...
Hey Jay,
How fortunate we are, to live in a state where there's nothing more serious to worry about! We have TIME to legislate cupcakes, because Massachusetts doesn't have to worry about a massive illegal immigration problem, or eroding civil liberties, or a legislature Hell-bent on spending our way into bankruptcy.
Oh, wait...
notDilbert: I'm actually encouraged by how surprised the newspapers and liberal elites are. Not only are they completely out of touch with their constituencies, they have no idea how far out of touch they are. So they keep proposing wacky ideas, and keep showing surprise when those ideas prove unpopular.
Don't forget to vote in November. At this rate, Obama will lose re-election as badly as Carter did. (And then, of course, it'll be Bush's fault.)
This is a problem that the government can't solve. This is a societal problem. We need to find ways to encourage kids to increase their activity levels. What I see most kids eating today (even the overweight ones) is the same stuff I ate when I was growing up. The difference is the activity levels. I was always walking or bicycling to and from school. And, I often did not head straight home and went running around with other kids doing stuff. Yes, I did have a game console at home (Atari 2600). But, I was not glued to it.
As to what the schools/government can do. The only thing they can really do is to keep funding up for PE and look into ways of making it more enjoyable. I hated PE. I was very glad I found activities that got me out of it when I got to high school. When I got to college, I actually found PE courses that I loved (fencing, archery, bowling, and a class on hiking). Perhaps, if they tried to make PE in public schools more about finding things that will be lifelong activities that the kids enjoy and less about passing a physical fitness test, we would have less of an obesity problem in this country.
State nutrition boards tend to be about 20 years behind the science as well.
Here's the basic causes to the obesity epidemic:
Too high part of calorie intake is carbs. (This is the big one).
Too high intake of (mostly rancid) polyunsaturated fat, and not enough saturated fat.
Too much fructose(sugar, corn syrup, etc)
Too much soy products(contains hormones similar to estrogen, that tell the body to store more fat).
Most of this is bad dietary recommendations combined with corporate lobbying, and using cheapest possible ingredients in the ever more prevalent junk food, soda, and of course candy.
The point of my above post is that homemade baked stuff while not ideal, is better for you than most of the stuff you can buy, and school food follows dietary recommendations that in fact cause obesity.
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