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Kiwis say no to cake
Categories: Holidays, Health & Safety, Eating & Nutrition, Education
Oteha Valley Primary School in New Zealand is the latest to jump on the banning-birthday-cakes bandwagon. There are a lot of reasons why this makes sense -- it interrupts learning, gets kids wired, and and puts pressure on families to bring treats who may not actually be able to afford it -- but Oteha Valley adds a new twist to the discussion.The school has a large number of students born in early fall, potentially leading to as many as four cakes a week showing up in classrooms. I'm sure even the most liberal, cake-loving parent will agree that that might be a bit much. Although, with that much sugar, the kids might not need any sleep until the end of the school year.
At the school where my wife teaches, the financial burden is a very real problem, so they have completely nixed birthday cakes. At my son Jared's school, however, which has a more affluent student body, cakes and such are still allowed. What do your kids' schools say? What's your take on all this?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jen Henry 4-12-2008 @ 5:46PM
While I do think 4 cakes per classroom per week is excessive I think a ban on birthday cakes is excessive as well and shows a lack of creative thought.
I actually did a blog post about this about a week ago. http://furoreandfrenzy.com/?p=324
I guess I don't understand first why every child in the class is entitled to their own party? Children with summer birthdays or birthdays that fall during a vacation never get that luxury. If I think back to my childhood I don't remember such an overabundance of sweets to celebrate birthdays. Certainly kids these days don't have two birthdays a year, and while class sizes may increased in some geographic areas, I don't think it's happened quite to the degree to cause such an abundance. There are still 365 days in a year for an average class size of 25-30 students. I don't understand why this never used to be a problem.
I am an elementary school teacher so I'm going to say this even if I do end up being flamed for it. I don't understand why a teacher can't instead have one party a month to celebrate all the birthdays that month? First it puts everyone on the same page, all students get a celebration, not just those who bring in a treat, then if the students did indulge in cupcakes for the day it would only be that one day, not 12 days that month. If that month happens to have another major holiday then eliminate the treats from the holiday and instead allow them for the birthday.
I also think it would be a great time to make a treat as a class. If the lunch room had a stove with an oven you could bake a batch of cookies and get a lesson in cooking, measuring, hygiene, and a teacher could be sure to prepare a treat that didn't have any allergens in it for any students. I think that would be much more valuable than party after party after party. You could tie it directly into your curriculum and your kids would be excited about it. Wouldn't it be better to say "Let's all make a treat for Johnny's birthday and show him we care" than to numbly follow the protocol of kid bringing in treat and passing it out in the afternoon, kids gorging on it and going home? I know that all of the teachers in my building never had enough instructional time in their day because there were so many interruptions. I guess then I don't understand why they don't set up a policy to control the interruptions? While you could argue this is just another interruption I disagree. If you only do it once a month and you're tying it into your curriculum it is not an interruption. I'm also willing to be it's one of the things your students will remember fondly about their time spent in your class. In an era where home economics curriculum is cut from many schools there is an entire generation of kids that don't have any more cooking skills than removing the frozen pizza from the carton and placing in oven. These kids are going to be adults some day. As a teacher we have to teach them basic curriculum, reading, mathematics, social studies, science, but we often forget about the life skills that they need. Why not tie those life skills in with that science and math and reading too and give them a birthday celebration as well?!
I'm afraid banning sweets only sends the message to our kids that it's something they need to binge on whenever they aren't around adults.
Jen
http://furoreandfrenzy.com
Reply
Sherry 4-13-2008 @ 2:54AM
I don't understand why there needs to be birthday parties at school at all.
Reply
Jen Henry 4-13-2008 @ 10:24AM
That is a valid question. Perhaps the ban shouldn't be on the food but the constant parties in school in the first place.
My 2nd grade teacher would fold a big piece of construction paper in half to make a card, she would choose one person in the class to decorate the front (by the end of the school year, everyone would have had a turn decorating a card for someone) then the whole class would sign the inside. I looked forward to that card so much and I still have it tucked inside a book somewhere. It was a very simple act that meant as much to me as child as a party. Every kid in class looked forward to receiving their card on their birthday because each was so unique.
Jen
http://furoreandfrenzy.com