From Harford Students Count on Us:
Many Harford County Public Schools Students have less than 20 minutes to eat their lunch. Students should have no less than 30 minutes to allow them adequate time to eat and socialize. Lunch periods of less than 30 minutes promote poor eating habits and may lead to obesity. For many public school students lunch is the most substantial and nutritious meal they have each day.
“Children who have a 30-minute lunch period consume significantly more food and nutrients than those who have a 20-minute lunch period. Scheduling a longer lunch period may allow children adequate time to consume their entire meal and, thus, provide them with the nutrients needed to effectively learn. Children who have a 30-minute lunch period waste less food than those who have a 20-minute lunch period. By providing a longer lunch period, schools may waste less food.”
There is a strong correlation between nutrition & school success. Tell Harford County Public Schools to provide all students at least 30 minutes for lunch.
http://www.standupforpubliceducation.net/
If students would put the cell phones away then they would have an extra hand for eating and more time to do it.
Considering that the average student waits in line for over 10 minutes to get their lunch, I hardly see how your comment can be taken as anything but trolling.
The food is horrible, pizza every day, chicken nuggets you get maybe 6 of them, chick which, and other junk food
But wait, not according to the White House and Michelle “The Dude” Obammma.
School lunches are super healthy, right?
Cell phones are apart of these kids generations. Yes, it’s overused but lunch is an appropriate time to use it. Get out of your ways
Sounds like a personal problem to me.
If you use your phone and not eat your fuggin’ lunch, how does that correlate to kids not having enough time to eat? Solution: Eat lunch, not play on the phone.
Non Solution: Give more time for lunch.
…when you are so passionately riled up at the thought of school kids having ten more minutes or so for lunch.
“When,” you mean, ‘why’? Looks like that autocorrect/auto word on your smartphone isn’t working for you?
Interesting. Where is it in my reply that I was against it? Oh, right, you ASSumed that.
I was replying by typing about another issue mentioned b another comment.
Please, hit reply, and “tell me how it is.”
“b”, you mean, ‘by’? Looks like that autocorrect / autoword on your smartphone isn’t working for you, either.
It certainly was not.
No doubt!! Don’t hate on the phone – they need it in their life!!
I remember feeling rushed to eat because the lines were so long and slow. They should hook them up with a buffet like Golden Corral!!
Doesn’t sound like anything new to me. High School lunch was short because it wasn’t well implimented. You had kids from every edge of the school given the same amount of time regardless of how far they had to walk to get to the cafateria. After eating they had to get back to class in time as well. A good percentage of people only had enough time to walk to the cafateria and turn around and head back to class. Worse yet if you had your lunch in your locker. Than again it would take most of the lunch period to make it through either of the 2 lunch lines before you had to go back to class.
As I got older, the class that was schedualed to be interupted by lunch got less important and you got more leway. In the first 2 years of highschool some lunches were skipped due to testing.
All that being said, the studies are right. This kind of rushing at school or at work leads to eating from vending machines, fast food burgers, or whatever else was a quick buy or small enough to carry in your pocket without melting (ie. chips, candy, gum, jurky, etc)
More time to eat also means more time to consume more unhealthy food.
Mind blown.
This is a union initiative to get teachers more lunch time. Notice there is no author connected to this information.
And the link goes to a website that looks like it was made by a middle school math teacher with an HTML for Dummies book…
Oops, a writing teacher.
Kharn,
Please post a link to your “professional” website for comparison.
That wouldn’t be fair, mine is contracted out.
If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
Fair enough, at least you were smart about it.
You may be on to something. The domain name is registered to a company in Florida and the IP address is in California.
Follow the link to the research they’re citing and you’ll see that the research is entirely about elementary school students. It even states that there’s almost not a problem at middle and HS levels.
So the research they’ve provided to support their claim that “all” students need more time, actually seems to say the opposite.
Also, the study is at least 10-15 years old.
Fail.
This is a student council, of sorts.
The site managed by a 3rd party, but the content is built by students as an opportunity to learn IT related tasks.
There is no single author because it is meant to portray the “Voice of All Students”.
If this is indeed run by a “Student Council” then why hide the ownership of the domain? It’s registered through Perfect Privacy LLC, a company that keeps hidden the true owner of various websites.
Additionally, a search of the internet archive for this website shows much more content than just the school lunch issue. https://web.archive.org/web/20141009045233/http://www.standupforpubliceducation.net/fund-our-schools.html
Previous versions of this website also show a link to the teacher’s rally for March for Public Education (sponsored by the Teacher’s Union), a separate petition for more school funding, and is also tagged to a local politician’s election campaign.
Conspiracy by the Teacher’s Unions?
Which local politician?
Yep, those union thug bastards. Who do they think they are, wanting more than 20 minutes for lunch? Outrageous! Do they think they deserve 25 minutes? 30? Unbelievable.
If you want the time for yourself, say so.
Don’t hide behind “it’s for the students.”
Nice touch! He is more than a bit obsessed with teachers and not in a good way.
food sucks!
The short lunch period isn’t the reason for obesity. If kids would get up and walk away from their smart phones, tablets, etc., etc., they might actually get some exercise. How about taking a walk with a friend and talking to them rather than texting? The short lunch period has zero to do with it.
You should heed your own advice. Perhaps stand up away from the workstation and reading internet newsgroups, or commenting on articles and take a walk of your own?
Consider this, oh wise resident of Harford…
Students are given, let’s say, 20 minutes for lunch in school. Have you seen the size of some of these schools? If a student is on the far-end of the school from the cafeteria, let’s give them 5 minutes to walk from their class to the cafeteria.
15 minutes left. They get in line and wait – on average – about 8 minutes to get their lunch. Mind you, this is the Michelle Obama “healthy lunch” option that meets all federal regulations for a “healthy” lunch.
7 minutes left. You sit in a mere 30 seconds, but know that you have to get to your next class on-time, which is a 3 minute walk.
4 minutes to shovel down your food.
Alternatively, the student arrives in the cafeteria (back to 15 minutes remaining for lunch) and notices that the A La Cart line is nearly empty. This is the line that sells all those bad snacks and treats, and the stuff that the First Lady deems unhealthy for students is kept.
Student gets into that line to be able to have a few moments to relax between classes, and actually not have to shovel something down. While it is not healthy, the kids are not thinking that…they are thinking that they will get a seat quicker than having to wait in line and risk being late to their next class.
Of course, this plan absolutely sucks for those children on the free / reduced price meal program due to limited family income.
Are YOU not afforded a break during your lunch period? Let me guess, you are so dedicated to your job that you pack your own lunch at home, and eat at your desk while continuing to work, right? Or is it that you peruse the Dagger to give your own uninformed opinion on matters that don’t relate to you during your “lunch break”?
“Straightener”,
Maryland is one of the few states that has made it a law that employers do not have to give employees a lunch break or a fifteen minute break unless the employee is in retail or under 18 years of age. Meaning that many employees are working for 8 hours straight without a single break. http://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wagepay/wplunchbreaks.shtml
So yes, some of us are not afforded a lunch break at all and are not perusing the Dagger as you say. Care to get your “Student Council” to make a petition to change that too?
No breaks? You mean, you can’t even go pee?
Sounds like Maryland is a crappy place to work. I mean, with the horrific traffic, non-stop taxes and all…
You are right. We feel pity that you don’t get a break for 8 hours. My Student Council will jump on this indecent act immediately.
You know who else doesn’t get a “break” for 8 hours? Cops. Soldiers, too.
To the person who suggested that I “Perhaps stand up away from the workstation and reading internet newsgroups, or commenting on articles and take a walk of your own?”
I walk every day, 40 minutes outdoors, or on the treadmill in case of bad weather. I’ll challenge the kids (or other adults) to join me and discuss the events of the day!
“you pack your own lunch at home”
I pack my lunch virtually every day. I save lots of money doing so, and guarantee that I get exactly what I want. Usually a spinach salad with dried cranberries, fruit (banana or apple) and pretzels. If I’m not in the mood for a salad, sometimes a turkey or tuna sandwich on flatbread with fruit and a snack. How about you?
Whatever the chow hall makes, or an MRE. You pick.
From what I remember of high school, between each period (including lunch periods) there were bells with sufficient time to get from any point in the school to any other point, are those times between class changes no longer in practice in HCPS?
They still have 5 minutes to get to the lunchroom and 5 to get back also. That’s in addition to the 25 minutes of lunch time.
For most of the spoiled brats it doesn’t matter but for those less fortunate in the county that depend on lunch for the only meal they may get to eat in a day 20 minutes isn’t much time. Even though Harford county is a land of excess for most kids it is not true for all kids.
Yeah, except those less fortunate kids also get breakfast at school too, so lunch is not their only meal.
I am not sure what point you are trying to make with the breakfast comment?
Many kids on the free / reduced price meal program use their school meals to eat their daily food. Many don’t have that opportunity at home.
My point is exactly what I said. Not sure how I can be more clear.
They said:
” for those less fortunate in the county that depend on lunch for the only meal they may get to eat in a day”
I said:
“Yeah, except those less fortunate kids also get breakfast at school too, so lunch is not their only meal.”
So lunch would not be their only meal in a day, which is what the person said, which is probably wrong.
Maybe because I’m making a factual point, and not a snarky cynical one, you were confused.
It wasn’t directed at you, but thanks for always trying to take the spotlight and offering your own brand of a “cynical” reply.
Perhaps my comment was not clear, but I was “speaking” to Deborah. Yeah, I reread it…it was not clear.
I play the game, “another day, another toilet” in a faculty break room.
What is that? I “drop the kids off at the pool,” not flush, walk out the stall and into another to wipe and flush. That way people think someone isn’t wiping.