You've got to be kidding, Mr. McGuinty.

[velvetpage]

Inanity of bureaucracy, example #56 439: In its infinite wisdom, the government of Ontario set out to put a law in place that would provide students with only healthy food at school, to give them good role models for healthy eating in general.

Sounds okay, right? Here's what's happened:

1) The school and school board aren't allowed to provide any unhealthy foods at in-services for teachers, or staff meetings. On their list of unhealthy foods: anything with caffeine. Someone please explain to me how serving coffee and tea to teachers at an in-service, where the kids aren't present, is setting a bad example for the kids? Because I'm not seeing it.

2) A whole bunch of small pizza places are going to have trouble surviving if they previously relied on the school market. The regulations require them to print every ingredient on the box, and only a couple of chains are big enough to be able to afford to specially-print their boxes with that information. While they're looking for allergens of course, they're focusing more on fat content and empty calories, so regular mozzarella has been replaced with a low-fat version and the crust is now whole wheat, and something was done to the sauce, too. Even if the small places could comply with the ingredients, they can't comply with the labeling so they're out of luck. All this from preventing a slice of pizza with regular mozzarella and white flour from getting into kids' stomachs at school once or twice a month. It seems like overkill to me, too.

3) Parents aren't allowed to bring in snacks for birthday parties anymore, not even if they're labeled, because they break the 80/20 rule of 80% healthy food to 20% treats.

4) Teachers aren't allowed to use candy or other treats as an incentive in class. This is the only one of the whole thing that I can get behind, and even this is taken to an unreasonable extreme: you mean I'm not allowed to hand out freezies to the cross-country team as they finish a race? Really?

5) We get a certain number of "free days" when the rules temporarily disappear, and we have to decide in September which days they will be. There will still be a Halloween party, and a Christmas party, but no, we can't hold anything a day before the rest of the school because it fits our schedule better as a class, because then it wouldn't be on the "free day."

6) Their list of healthy foods is weird. Diet caffeine-free pop seems to be fine. I'm confused; all the research is suggesting diet pop is at least as bad, or worse, than regular pop. (Yes, I drink it anyway.)

I am truly annoyed. I think I'll take a six-pack of Coke Zero (with caffeine!) to the in-service on Tuesday to share with people who don't realize they can't get coffee when they get there.

Comments

[stress-kitten.livejournal.com]

The school and school board are not allowed to provide it... does that mean that teachers aren't allowed to bring their own?

I think that investment at the thrift store in an electric coffee maker and a teapot and a can of Maxwell's House coffee might make someone the bestest friend ever of the entire in-service if it were brought. :-D I know I'd be tempted to.

What officious bullshit. Are there no coffee makers allowed in the bureaucrats' offices then?

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Teachers are allowed to provide their own - in fact anything the kids or employees bring for personal consumption is off-limits of this law. But we're not supposed to serve anybody else, so technically I'd be breaking the law if I brought that six-pack of Coke to the in-service to share. Also, anything is allowed in a staff room, so long as it doesn't go beyond the staff room. So we can still do our Friday treat days but if someone's on duty, we can't take a plate of goodies to them. And we can still have coffee or pop in the staff room. I have no idea if we're allowed to take a cup of coffee with us to our classrooms, but I'm not going to stop doing so until I'm told to and I'm not going to ask. I know we're not supposed to have a can of pop in sight. I have an office where I can put it, but what are other teachers supposed to do?

Queensland Australia

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Here in sunny Queensland they brought in similar regulations about 3 years ago. Complete madness.

Even more mad, a Saturday or Sunday fundraiser outside a local retailer selling BBQ sausages counts as use of a free day. For many small schools this was the major fundraiser.

Re: Queensland Australia

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we can't serve hot dogs for two bucks on Meet the Teacher night without using a free day, and we get a fortune from that.

Re: Queensland Australia

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Do you have documentation on how much you used to make on that?

If you can scrape it up, approach the Opposition about asking the Government to provide you with replacement funding. Should be worth a go.

Re: Queensland Australia

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's not a bad idea.

Re: Queensland Australia

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

I'm full of them, I'm often held to be the most evil thing in 500 miles.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

That is ridiculous. Why not teach about moderation instead D:

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's almost word-for-word what I said.

[wolfden.livejournal.com]

I do like that Tatiana's new school has you donate a book to the media center for their birthday instead of treats.

The rest of it strikes me as ridiculous. Especially the not providing teachers coffee or tea at an in-service.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I like the in-services that have fruit trays and yogurt alongside the muffins - people get a choice of healthy or not, then. But forbidding the board to serve us their definition of unhealthy foods - it's nitpicking and bound to backfire.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Start a newspaper campaign to hold all department events to the same standard, not caffeine no alcohol, no cakes or cookies.

Insist the Minister adhere to the policy to, to set a good example to The Children.