F ³: Lunch Break Blues

Gosh, I’d like to write about something humorous today.

*****

Wryly humorous: a teacher posted that she would need to take time off to have a filling repaired and that the dental receptionist asked, “can’t you just pop over on your lunch break?”

If you are a teacher you will feel this viscerally.

*****

Speaking of school lunches, what do you pack for someone who doesn’t have anough time to eat one? I am running out of ideas.

There is much bemoaning of the tendency of children to be picky eaters. And it’s not wrong. I have eaten lunch daily with hundreds of children and can attest that they can be…particular. But so can adults, although we don’t talk much about that.

So you don’t have time to eat and you are, as an adult, pretty clear on what you do or don’t want to eat. And is is, frankly, limited. Lunch at work is not when you want to be encouraged to try new foods.

What’s for lunch?

The trend towards grazing has made it easier to pack a variety of small snacks instead of the traditional sandwich. This can be extremely helpful for kids and adults. A little bit of this and that can strike a balance between fun and healthy.

However, let’s not assume that most of the folks who pack the lunches are the Pinterest/Instagram-certified-type. Luckily most adults are not being judged by their coworkers on the cuteness of their lunch box.

For that matter, many adults I know would be horrified to open their lunch at work to reveal smiley face finger sandwiches, artistically carved veggies and a funfetti squeezy yogurt. Don’t even get me started on cute Happy Notes. My teacher spouse would be mortified.

Actually, I’d be thrilled to get a lunch like this - - at least once - - but that may be because I have never truly reached adulthood. Give me a Happy Note, stickers even. No glitter, please.

I eat lunch alone for the most part these days and I’m not sad about that. I gave at the office. After years and years of eating with students I have had every possible lunchroom experience you can name and am still smarting from the rage of the child who did not get a maraschino cherry in her cup of fruit cocktail.

I am happy to a pack a lunch for someone else. If only I could find a variety of appealing, affordable items that can and will be consumed easily and are still somehow a healthy part of a balanced diet.

I read yesterday that good food tastes like love. Everyone needs that, I think. Imagine how much good just that one thing could do for your day. Or someone else’s.

Ideas? Send them my way.

Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog