Fathers, Personal, Public Schools, Sharky/366 
2 Comments Don’t Eat The Moooooo
Something interesting happened today and I’m not really sure how I feel about it.
Our son is “Student of the Week” this week, so my wife got to go and have lunch with him. She called me as soon as she left the school to tell me how it went. We all know school lunches are terrible; they had meatballs, green beans and an apple slush thing for dessert. My wife described 6 little meat balls with a marinara dipping sauce, extremely over cooked green beans, a fruit cup, and frozen apple slush stuff which took them all lunch trying to get chunks of; and that was with his mom helping.
Ok, like I said, we’ve all been there and understand that school lunches are terrible; kids have been complaining for years and probably always will, but here is the part that I find interesting; the two kids in front of our son are Indian and they don’t eat meat. The lunch lady ordered two “no meat” trays for them and they got cheese pizza, which is by far the best thing any school cafeteria offers.
They got a tastier lunch because their religion doesn’t allow for them to eat meat; instead of their parents being asked to send a lunch with them since it’s a special religious request. If you have such a request as this, you should be responsible enough and have enough respect to send your child to school with a lunch prepared at home, in order to satisfy your “religious” beliefs.
So here are some questions I have –
Do all religions get treated equally?
If I create a religion that states my son can only eat McDonald’s, will the school provide that for him?
Can I lie and claim it’s against my son’s religion to eat anything BUT pizza?
How should I explain to my son that certain kids get special treatment because they believe in different fairy tales than the other kids?
Just how far backwards will the school system bend to cater to certain religions?
Are vegan children offered a meal without any meat/milk/egg type products to satisfy their beliefs?
You see, it’s not just Christians who expect the world to change and adapt to their belief; it’s EVERY single religion. Every religion expects everyone else to watch what they say, change how they act and “respect” their religion, yet when you state you don’t agree with them, do they respect you back?
I do believe that it is against my atheist belief that my son should eat anything but Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets; however, I doubt the school system will change for us; we don’t have a god on our side.
Love, Peace and Sharkyness!
~~~~ShArky~~~~
Well – America is the land of the free… but we’ve also become the land of equality and fairness. That’s what I love about the good ol’ U. S. of A. Even though at times, I feel that if you fall in the majority, (which, I do at the moment) you are almost (dare I say…) punished? However, I do think it’s great that the school had an alternative for the Indian children. But, it does raise a few valid points.
School aged children are not fully compable of understanding why certain children receive things that they cannot have – for example, the pizza. I remember being in elementary school and having a pack of gum to share with my friends – and the teacher asking if I had brought enough to share with the rest of the class. This is done out of equality to the other students. I do feel it is the school’s responsibility to provide each student with the same lunch menu (regardless of sex, race, or religion), to prevent any kind of discrimination. I understand that it may be more expensive and costly, but it is fair. These school aged children may begin to resent the other children and slowly grow into becoming racist. (Remember Hitler? In his eyes, Jews had money and wealth while he had nothing?) Then on the flipside, the children who receive the alternative food choices may feel isolated, or different and may develop a low self-esteem or self-worth.
Great post and congratulations to your son for being Student of the Week!
Exactly Samantha….if my son doesn’t like meatballs, why doesn’t he get a chance to choose; that’s all I’m saying. People just aren’t considered anymore, they just expect the world to cater to them; if you have a special request for your child, send them to school with a lunch from home; really pretty simple.