The great sugar debacle Part I

For a little background, my son’s school is a charter school. It is also Montessori based as much as the state standards allow for freethinking in teaching. It is small; the entire student body for K-7 is usually about 65-70 kids. It is a co-op in which there is a decent amount of parent participation.
On the night of the first parent meeting at my son’s school, it was brought up that there is a hot lunch program. This program brings lunches to the school from McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Chinese fast food and KFC. This program also provides funding for the school in that we are charged a little over cost for the lunches. I stood up and asked if there was a way to offer healthy alternatives such as burritos or just about anything other than McDonalds. A veteran parent told me that the kids “love it� and that I should not bad mouth what has been going on at that school for several years. No one else said anything. So the message I got was that I ma alone in my dislike of this sort of food and it’s encouragement among children. I should be quiet, if I don’t like the program, do participate.
So I was quiet and I sent my son with a toy in his nutritious lunch on the days that they had McDonalds since he really wanted that cheap, plastic toy that comes in the “Happy “ meals. I had no real problem with that since, as much as I would like it to be otherwise, I cannot make pother people see the folly of their nutritional ways.
Now I have had issues with the snack that is served during class-time. In the Montessori method of instruction, snack is important. It allows a time for the kids to help each other and to practice manners. It gives the children a chance to learn about what is good for their bodies. Children set up snack and allow the other kids to serve themselves and others. They learn to prepare the snack and clean up afterwards, teaching coordination, dexterity, cleanliness, thought process and much more. So I thought the snacks should be nutritious as a rule. I went quietly through 2 years of some poor snack choices on the part of other parents, but this year, through Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, I have seen donut holes, cupcakes, caramel popcorn, rice crispy treats, Capri-suns, those nasty little orange crackers with sugar coated peanut butter among other things that should not be snack, but treat. I also saw fresh fruit platters, homemade muffins and whole grain crackers and cream cheese. I have no problem with a cupcake on someone’s birthday. But as a snack?! For other kids? And how am I supposed to tell my kid that he cannot have that when the ENTIRE class is walking around talking about how good it is? It sure wasn’t easy.
I asked about it. I was told that I could bring it up at a parent meeting and see how others felt about the snacks coming in. I brought it up and handed out a paper I had written about nutrition. I am not writing off the cuff on nutrition, I have earned a 4.0 GPA in Organic Chemistry, Nutrition, Child, Infant, adolescent psychology and over 6 more psychology courses. I feel I know a good amount about nutrition and the overall effects it has on development and well-being. There were 2 other parents two agreed with me verbally at the meeting and know others did as well, having spoken with them individually at other times.
When I went to hand out the paper with the snack calendar, I had one parent say that she had no problem with what was coming in as snack. That she had not seen cookies or candy. She was very hostile towards me when she said this and very closed to discussion. She would not listen when I said I had seen caramel popcorn and Capri-suns, rice crispy treats and “fruit snacks� (those little things made by Brach’s that say “all natural� on the box and then have High Fructose Corn Syrup as the lead ingredient). I realise that is her problem that she has not seen these snack…
In my son’s class, there are 4 kids who bring their own snack, one parent who is debating sending snack with her 2 kids in the class and my child who is on the verge of just dropping their snacks altogether. So 7 kids out of 17 that will not be in the program. I also have spoken with 3 other parents who share my views on nutrition and it’s importance in the classroom. That brings it up to a definite majority, 10 out of 17 that I know of who have a problem with the currant rules about snack. And we are the ones dropping out of the program. So. I have been making the snack calendar and thought I would include a paper about why sugar sucks as a snack and ho we can change what our kids eat and why we should. I also made a big mistake. I got frustrated with the willful ignorance of some and put in the paper: “Therefore, we are going to impose a “sugar’ rule: ''no snacks that have sugar in the first three ingredients.’’ Oops. Not only did I use the royal plural, but I just made a rule with NO authority whatsoever. Big lapse of judgment. I truly regret doing that. Really, really regret it, but it is done and I suck.
So of course, there is a complaint, at least 2 complaints to the principle. Now she has to put out formal apology to any one who was offended that I cared enough about their kids and the other kids to try to keep them healthy. People were offended! That is so bizarre to me. Did they look at it and say, “What?! How can we ever be expected to feed our children something without sugar in it? Is she mad?! What a twit to think that she can tell me I am sending bad snacks. This is so wrong.�?
Today a note goes out in the weekly newsletter stating that the paper I wrote had nothing to do with L. Montessori policy and that the principal is sorry for those upset by it. Now I totally admit I screwed up by making it a rule. I should have said, �My family looks for food in which the first three ingredients are not sugar.� And left it at that. Like I said, it was a stupid thing to do. But to get upset by it is really weird. And for me to get pointed out (not by name, but really, who else could she be talking about?) as someone who was trying to impress upon others my “personal philosophy� (as per the newsletter) seems a bit harsh. It made me feel like a zealot trying to convert others to an odd cult of sugar-bashers. And, though I know she couldn’t say it, but it is the truth that those “upset� by this are in the vast minority. Like there are only 3 or 4 of them. They should be the ones dropping out of the snack program.
So I wrote a note tot he principal saying basically everything said here, except much more diplomatically, and we will see where it goes from there…