Let 'Em Eat Crap! ( Other Than During Test Week...)

This just caught our eyes, courtesy the Miami Herald, April 21.  Seems a Fort Lauderdale elementary school principal was pleased that her 4th graders made advances in the standardized test for writing, part of Florida's FCAT.  And, that it had been an entire school effort.

Said she: " Everyone became reading and writing specialists," adding that even the school cafeteria workers helped out by planning test week menus low in sugar and free of high fructose corn syrup.

Comments

[Lydia]

Which begs the question: "Why aren't the cafeteria meals low in sugar and free of high fructose corn syrup every day?" If better health isn't the compelling argument, surely improved test scores are!

[Foodie]

Exactly. One can only hope that the principal read her own quote in the paper and saw the light.

[Cynthia]

The problem may lie in the fact that schools are run by the government, and government officials often mandate how much of which products are used or bulk order products for whole districts. Schools don't have that much leeway in diciding what they'll serve.

Same problem in prisons. Some prisons have had great success in reducing violence by reducing sugar and adding brown rice and more veggies. But foods are ordered in bulk. That and, no doubt like the kids, prisoners complained bitterly when fed healthful food.

[GailT]

If I had seen that article in the newspaper (unless it had the headline you used, Foodie) I probably would have not given it more than a passing glance. But your headline and the Karo syrup (which yells "homemade peanut brittle" to me, added to the article made me belly-laugh. However, I totally agree with your commentary on the principal's possible delayed reaction to what she said, and I do think that we make crap way too available for our kids