Let's Spend Less Time Teaching Our Children

We are taught from the time we are young that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and this is backed up by science. For example one study found that “the impact of breakfast was evidenced by the increase in positive mood and alertness, and a decrease in negative feelings.”  Certainly the goal of making sure that every student has a nutritious breakfast every morning so that they “start the school day ready to learn” is a good one.

Unfortunately far too many children are growing up in poverty and may not have access to the nutritious breakfast that they require. Even in families when money is not an issue, mounting responsibilities outside the home have created a scarcity of time to prepare a nutritious breakfast. To compensate for both deficits, subsidized breakfast programs have been created to make sure that students have a chance to eat before they go to class. The LAUSD has decided that this is not enough and will now force all schools to serve breakfast in the classrooms.

Our students will grow up to face a shrinking world where they will compete with employees across the globe. If they are to be successful they will need more skills and, therefore, more time in the classroom. Unfortunately, the “Breakfast In The Classroom” program moves us in the other direction. While the district has budgeted ten minutes per day for the program, this hardly seems practical to serve, eat and clean up from a meal. Even if this projection is not overly optimistic, this will take 30 instruction hours out of each student’s school year.

Even worse, this program represents a misallocation of resources. Teachers did not go to school to learn to be cafeteria workers. They have the unique skills needed to teach our children. Also, our classrooms were designed for learning, not as food serving locations. If we require restaurants and supermarkets to be inspected by the health department and post their letter grades, should the same be requirements now be instituted on all rooms that participate in this program? Have rules prohibiting eating in the classroom suddenly become obsolete because the school is providing the food?

After looking at the sample menu provided from the district, I also question the effectiveness of providing meals that seem less than nutritious.  Where does a “Café LA Coffee Cake” weighing in at 440 calories fall on the food pyramid? Can “Whole Wheat Pancakes” be cooked and provided to an entire school while they are still warm and edible or are these simply processed meals that are prepacked to provide subsistence but not nutrition? If meals are going to be served in an education environment, we should at least make sure that students are learning about food choices that will not contribute to the growing obesity epidemic.

The school board should be commended for setting the laudable goal of making sure that all students eat breakfast before school. Unfortunately, by mandating another one-size-fits-all solution they have set themselves up for failure.

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