Creating a Firestorm

Before the school year even started, the school for which I work (a private school), held two parent orientations; the first was for parents new to the school and to Montessori and the second was for returning families. In both meetings, we emphasized the school dress code, which includes asking parents to please purchase lunch boxes and lunch containers free of popular characters and pop culture icons, and commercial logos.

We also provided all the parents with a School Handbook that clearly states these policies along with our policy about the contents of these plain lunchboxes.

At the end of the first week, expecting some adjustment time, made, a note was sent to parents about how wonderful the school year has started some tips on establishing a school time schedule, and how to enjoy quality family time. It also included this reminder:

We appreciate everyone’s efforts in procuring the appropriate uniform clothing and lunch boxes free of logos and characters. We also appreciate everyone’s efforts to pack nutritious, healthy lunches, leaving the sweets, sugary drinks (including Vitamin Water, Capri Sun, Roarin’ Waters, etc) juices, and chips at home. The school has water and milk available for all of the children. If your child has special dietary restrictions/needs that we are not aware of, please call the office to let us know. If your child requires soy milk or organic milk, please send in at least a half a gallon (no chocolate, please) at the beginning of the week, marked with your child’s name, and we will ensure that your child receives it.

Last week, another note was sent to all parents again asking the parents to respect the school's meal policies. It read, in part:

Again, we appreciate your efforts to adhere to the uniform and dress code policies as well as lunch box, food container, and backpack policies. Our years of experience have shown that when we eliminate media-influenced, commercialized gear (lunch boxes, thermoses, backpacks, shoes, and clothing), we are better able to help the children respect themselves and others, focus on their work, and engage in developmentally and socially appropriate interactions with their peers and adults both in the classroom and on the playground. We also appreciate your efforts in helping your children choose healthy, nutritious foods for their lunches. Lunch time in the Montessori setting is much more than a break in the day in which to gobble down pre-packaged, technicolor foods. Lunch time is about community and peaceful enjoyment of a meal. The children set the tables with table cloths, plates, utensils, and glasses. The children converse and eat together just as they do with their families during the evening meal.

The food before them on their plates should nourish their bodies as well as their minds, both physically and intellectually. We encourage you to help expand your child's palate and appreciation of many different types of foods. Artificially colored foods do not promote a realistic sense of how food appears in nature nor does it aid in nutritionally sound decision-making. The foods your child eats now and is exposed to influences her eating habits as an adult. Please reserve the sugary drinks (including juice), the sweets, and chips for special occasions at home.

Below is an interesting article by noted clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Alan Greene (www.drgreene.com), about the relationship between sugar consumption and children's behavior.

After another week of having to gently but firmly tell a children that the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Capri Suns, cookies, candy, and chips in their lunch boxes are not for school, but for home and witnessing those children cry when asked to replace it in their lunchboxes, seeing children spend hours discussing the finer points of Hannah Montana's clothing and hair style, and children struggle just to open their lunches (tube yogurt, for example), the school issued the following position statement:

Dear Parents:

We take our responsibility as your child's educators very seriously. We see it as our sacred duty. We are honored by the trust you place in us and in this school to help your child on his journey to adulthood. Because of that trust, we strive everyday to provide your child with optimum experiences to grow his sense of independence, confidence, competence, and inclusion. In striving to provide those optimum experiences at school, we endeavor to support the values and standards you embody at home.

We feed the mind and the body.

We challenge your children's minds and bodies with activities that are academic and physical, giving them the opportunity to practice and perfect each movement until it appears graceful, intentional, and effortless. When your child demonstrates, on his own accord, self-control by inhibiting an impulse, he is self-disciplined. When your child offers comfort to another or expresses curiosity about another, he is empathetic and sympathetic. His emotional intelligence has grown. It does not happen over-night, but through much practice, so that when that moment appears, it seems to occur as if by magic. It is not magic; it is practice.

Lunch time in your child's classroom encompasses challenges to his mind and his body. It is an opportunity to learn about nutrition and different cuisines and cultures as well as practice good table manners and patience while bringing about awareness of others. We provide the children with the tools -- the physical materials, the language, and the movements -- to become good dining companions whether with their friends at school, at home with family, in a restaurant, or when visiting others.
The children arrange the tables and chairs, set the table with table cloths, flower arrangements, real utensils, glasses, and plates. Another child fills pitchers with water and milk for the children to serve themselves. Every child places all of his food on his plate. Certain convenience foods, such as yogurt in a tube, inhibit his ability to act independently. He must wait for an adult to open the package before squeezing it on to the plate.

We absolutely see the value of convenience foods when your family is on the go, running errands on the weekends, traveling for pleasure, or simply shuttling between after-school activities.

At school, the children are encouraged to take their time with every activity, enjoy it and fully engage with it, whether it is math or lunch. The lunchtime experience is a sit-down meal. The foods included in that meal contribute to the richness of the experience. Involving your child in preparing his lunch or the dinner that will become his lunch tomorrow, greatly increases his interest and investment in eating that food. Stashing pre-packaged convenience foods into your child's lunchbox tends to convey the message that what he puts into his body is inconsequential. Good nutrition and awareness of that food is important to his physical well-being as well as his intellectual development. A good balance of protein, fruit, vegetables, and grains in his lunchbox is important to your child, to you, and to us.

Children are particularly attuned to sensory input from the environment, including from the foods they ingest. It does not take much of any taste for the child to recognize its quality, whether it is sweet, salty, bitter, or sour. When we provide too much of any single taste, a person's sensitivity to that taste diminishes. If we consistently give a child high-sodium foods, it takes increasing amount of sodium for him to recognize that a food is salty. Many pre-packaged convenience foods score very low in nutritional value because they pack in a lot of saturated fats, sodium, sugars without the balance of lean protein, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals. (See http://caloriecount.about.com/foods for a easy to read nutritional score card. Attached is a wonderful quick guide to reading food labels).

We know that you want your children to be healthy and strong and have a positive relationship with food. We want that too. The lunchbox policies we developed reflect your desires for your child, physically, intellectually, and emotionally.
We recognize that policies need to be re-visited from time to time. In the coming weeks, you will see higher standards applied to your child's snack list. You will see changes that include more whole-wheat grains and breads, a greater variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, and more low-fat, low-cholesterol proteins. We hope that when it is your child's turn to provide snack for the class that you will take the opportunity to talk with your child the importance of strong, healthy bodies and how nutritionally sound foods helps to fuel his body and prepare him for the work he does at school and at home.

We would like to remind everyone to please revisit the School Handbook for the policies regarding lunchbox types and please be aware that this extends to the containers, including thermoses, inside the lunchbox. Low-fat milk and water are provided for your child. It is not necessary to pack a beverage. Also, please note the policy regarding that parents ensure that the meal in your child's lunchbox is well-balanced and healthy (leaving the cakes, cupcakes, candies, chocolate-covered granola bars, cookies, juice packs, and pre-packaged convenience foods at home as a special treat). Also please be aware that the charge for a replacement meal is increasing from $3 to $5.

I await the fall out and firestorm. This is not about the parents or their food choices. We have been entrusted to educate their children; prepare them for life as adults; give them the skills to act in and on their environment; to be free from unnecessary help; and to provide them with decision-making skills. If the school was responsible for providing lunch and that lunch consisted on a hot dog of questionable meat content, a big fat sugary cookie, a soda, and french fries, would those same parents who think that we are dictating choices, sit still for such a poor lunch? No. They would be insisting, demanding that we serve a healthy lunch with vegetables, fruit, and a lean protein.