Did you know that any number of senior high school students
in the Coquitlam School District go without lunch until after 2pm? It’s called “Block 5” lunch, part of the
wonders of the semester system.
Did you know that there’s likely a similar number of
students who are stuck with “Block 1” lunch?
It means that they can sleep in every day, but once they are at school
they are not entitled to a lunch break until school lets out – sometime after
3pm.
Of course students are entitled to snack in class, as long
as they don’t disturb the teacher, but most students find it impossible to
snack around Gym class and unwise to do so in Chemistry class. Maybe these students should all take Foods
class instead so they can eat what is cooked in school.
Breaks between “Blocks” are down to a leisurely 3 minutes –
making it impossible to digest edibles on the run.
My observation has been (I don’t know about you) that young,
growing bodies are always hungry. But now many high school students are made actually
to feel hungrier during school time in their senior years. I guess it’s called planning.
Hunger concentrates the mind. The answer to raging hormones is to not feed
teenagers. The idea is that youth will
be so delirious with famine they won’t be tempted by street drugs: they will
instead be overwhelmed by more basic concerns.
But do you ever stop to wonder why teenagers want to rebel against adult
authority? There is even now a word for
it: “hangry”.
Our School District apparently values efficient kids in expanded
classes with shrinking stomachs. Students
are told Performance and Grades matter, but do they matter as full persons? They seem to be considered “half-citizens” and
half “child labour”, especially in the light of sometimes oppressive homework
loads. Meanwhile school board administrators get lunch at a reasonable time.
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