The KCMO School District

[FangKC]

Watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It is fascinating and enlightening.

Healthy food can be made in a way that kids will eat it.  The problem is that school cooks don't even try anymore.  They don't cook. They reheat.  Some of the cooks seemed to resent having to have to prepare real food. LOL.

On the topic of milk being tossed.  The problem was introducing sugary drinks and chocolate and strawberry-flavored milk in the first place.  Kids will always prefer chocolate milk over regular milk.

However, when I was a kid, we drank regular milk and didn't think twice about it.  In fact, we had a carton with lunch, and another one as a snack later in the afternoon.

Adults have to be adults. We don't give kids what they want, we give them what they need.  Who's running the show here?

It is ultimately up to parents though to demand that schools feed their kids healthy food.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Had a school lunch with a granddaughter today.  A lot of food thrown out.
Half eaten chicken sandwiches
Cheese sticks
PB&J sandwiches
Corn
Fruit cocktail

Portions were not huge - kids just didn't eat all of what was served.

Drinks served were chocolate and white skim milk along with apple and grape juice.  Most seemed to be gone.

[FangKC]

Most apple and juice drinks are mostly sugar.  It's not wonder that kids are so wired in class.

[shinatoo]

When we don't educate high risk kids, we are killing them - just not literally. 

Grammar and spelling do change, but if you don't speak and write 'standard' English, it's going to limit your job opportunities.

I think we are doing these kids a disservice when we let them slide through because they did 'good enough'.

Seriously? You just kicked the hyperbole up a notch.

I am a horrible, horrible, horrible speller, so bad that spell checkers often come back with no idea what I was trying to spell. And not for a lack of education or effort. I have managed to have a highly successful professional career and have never been without a job.

If you can communicate your ideas clearly it shouldn't matter if your spelling is a little off.

If they did 'good enough' then they aren't sliding through.

[shinatoo]

In the age of spellcheck, spelling probably isn't the issue it once was.  Regardless, one of my colleagues had a business card and email title line that stated his job was "Principle Scientist".  His career has done well but it just looks sooo bad. 

to me, because of whatever disability I have, I cannot tell you what was spelled wrong in your quotes. But i totally get what you were saying. (Apparently nothing is spelled incorrectly, it's just a contextual error. Or maybe he was the scientist in charge of fundamentals).

If I had a teacher(s) that absolute hammered on me about spelling (and I had a few), or didn't let me pass because of my spelling, I might have been so discouraged I wouldn't have even tried to be anything. Being a teacher is a fine balance between correction, judgement and encouragement. There are black and white things like algebra and they are gray things like English.

Of course I had no spell check in high school and graduated with a 2.1 GPA. I got spell check in college and graduated with a 3.78. Don't know if those were related.

[Highlander]

to me, because of whatever disability I have, I cannot tell you what was spelled wrong in your quotes. But i totally get what you were saying. (Apparently nothing is spelled incorrectly, it's just a contextual error. Or maybe he was the scientist in charge of fundamentals).

Of course I had no spell check in high school and graduated with a 2.1 GPA. I got spell check in college and graduated with a 3.78. Don't know if those were related.

If you had meant to say Principal and spell it principle, I would consider that a misspelling just as it's vs its, their vs there.....that's all part of knowing the spelling and meaning of different words.  While spelling may be a moving target across a time span like a century, it's really not in the duration of our lifetimes although it is true that in Jefferson's day, there were not necassarily conventions on spelling (read Lewis and Clark's narrative and it is pretty obvious). 


I didn't have the benefit of spellcheck until graduate school but my GPA history is pretty much a mimic of yours.

[aknowledgeableperson]

If I had a teacher(s) that absolute hammered on me about spelling (and I had a few), or didn't let me pass because of my spelling, I might have been so discouraged I wouldn't have even tried to be anything. Being a teacher is a fine balance between correction, judgement and encouragement. There are black and white things like algebra and they are gray things like English.

Much be because of different generations.  With my teachers it was a given that spelling was part of the paper or test and it had to be right.  And if you handed in a paper that resulted in a bunch of red marks then sobeit.  Teachers followed a code: we didn't give you a grade, you got a grade that you earned.  Of course my time in grade school and high school came before corporal punishment fell out of favor.  Those nuns and Jesuits had the Board of Education behind them.  Sometimes though it didn't get to the Board.

Portions were not huge - kids just didn't eat all of what was served.

Should have added that the taste of the food probably deserved a D-.

[MidtownGrrl]

With the push toward healthy lunches, it would be interesting to go check out a garbage can to see what is not eaten.  Try it at your child's school and report back.

I haven't been to my kid's current school for lunch, but I did go to her preschool for lunch with the 4 & 5 year olds.  They drank plain milk, which they poured themselves from a pitcher.  They set the table and passed the food around.  The kids were served and ate a variety of foods: chicken nuggets made from real chicken and breadcrumbs; hummus with veggies; lots of fruit; pizza that was made at the school.  There was still plenty that was thrown away, but the kids ate good food and the teachers ensured that the meals were pretty balanced.

Healthy food can be done, but I think it takes an administration that values good nutrition and doesn't cave to ease of preparation and the absolute lowest price (food and staff time included). 

[ChandraNH]

Don't  know if anyone saw this article about a school in Chicago that is banning lunches and snacks brought from home.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 9022.story

[mlind]

If you can communicate your ideas clearly it shouldn't matter if your spelling is a little off.

I know that people's brains are wired in different ways - spelling can be a problem.  When I was in school, we had to memorize addition, subtraction, etc. I can remember mimeographed sheets that were timed tests.  I could never master this.  A few years ago, I read that this is not an uncommon problem.  I now do a lot of accounting work.

Grammar and spelled were drilled into kids when I went to school.  I can remember diagramming sentences.  I guess that's why I'm so fussy.  Language does change, but it still drives me crazy to see 'alright' instead of 'all right' and using 'that' instead of 'who'. 

Spell check is great, but you'd be surprised how many resumes I've seen with misspelled words.

I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.  I just worry about the educational standards for today's kids.  You want fries with that?

[beautyfromashes]

I just worry about the educational standards for today's kids. 

[mlind]

Don't  know if anyone saw this article about a school in Chicago that is banning lunches and snacks brought from home.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 9022.story

I used to pack lunches for my kids so they would get a good meal - sandwich & fruit.  Milk money was included or I gave them juice.  They would look at the monthly school lunch menu and pick the days they wanted to buy lunch - it wasn't very often.

[KC0KEK]

My school used to boil hamburgers. Not sure if that's common practice in schools, but it sure didn't taste very good.

[mlind]

My school used to boil hamburgers. Not sure if that's common practice in schools, but it sure didn't taste very good.

Yuck!

[KC0KEK]

I never served in the military, but from what I've heard from those who have, eating school lunches is a good way to prepare for military grub. Or has military food improved? Don't some of the bigger, overseas bases now have chains such as Wendy's onsite? Of course, it's debatable whether that's an improvement.

[chingon]

Not surprising since school lunches were developed by the U.S. military to combat the wild rates of malnutrition they were seeing in young recruits.

[mlind]

Monitoring school lunches:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 629D04.DTL

[splash]

It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I dared eat country fried steak, and I am in no way a picky eater.  But the crap they passed off at chicken fried steak in school was so nasty that it was inedible.  Soggy, gristly, tasteless, but somehow with an odd aftertaste.  That's how all of the meals were, even what they passed off as pizza.  I used to think it was the cooks, but now I think it was the supplier.  If a school is serving food that makes dog food look like a more appetizing option, then I'm not surprised at how much is throw away.

[KC0KEK]

gristly

In school, that's not an adjective. It's a food group.

[KCMax]

Just thought this was an interesting chart. People think US schools are failing, but are by and large satisfied with their kid's school. Of course, that doesn't mean the school is necessarily good, but it suggests that perhaps most of our education problems lie with just a small minority of schools - those with heavy social problems in urban areas that make educating kids very difficult.