Once upon a time, students were discouraged—or even punished—for eating in class. Mrs. McKinley, my eighth grade English teacher, could smell an orange from ten desks away, much to the chagrin of many of my classmates. But times have changed since then. As my classmates and I predicted, one day we will live in an age, when eating in class is not a crime deserving of detention or death. It’s already happening in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
The school district has long offered free breakfasts to students before class, but too many kids would come late (we predicted that would be no big deal too one day) or spent their eating time playing outdoors. Well, if you can’t bring Muhammad to the cafeteria, you bring the cafeteria to Muhammad (or Bobby or Allison or Jose). Before lessons begin for the day, students are offered oatmeal bars, apples and cartons of milk, which they can eat at their desks.
It works. At Calabasas Elementary School, 450 students are now being served breakfast, instead of 100 before the program was launched. Teachers can already see the impact. Students are more attentive, and the number of kids showing up at the office for headaches and tummy aches has actually dropped to zero.
So what do you say about that, Mrs. McKinley?
Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
