Posted on 06/04/2004 11:04:01 AM PDT by saveliberty
Duxbury schools banish birthday cupcakes By Herald staff Friday, June 4, 2004
Birthday kids at Duxbury's Chandler School next fall will get dragon stickers, special seat covers and starred birthday sashes they can wear all day.
But no cupcakes - they're bad for you.
The tradition of cupcakes at school birthday parties died last month when the School Committee unanimously ratified a new handbook that redefines the way students celebrate in class.
``I'm a little saddened,'' said Chandler parent Nancy Krahmer, who favors healthy eating but mourns the loss of the childhood ritual.
School officials made the change, part of a district-wide move to improve student health, after a poll of parents found nutrition to be one of their top concerns, Chandler School Council member Ann Kalous said.
Frequent classmate parties once had students consuming numerous unplanned cupcakes each school year.
``It would be 23 times during the year that other families would not be anticipating that their kids are going to be eating something sweet,'' Chandler Principal Deborah Zetterberg said.
The new system will substitute copious special attention for frosted goodies, Zetterberg said. In addition to the sash, seat cover and dragon sticker, each birthday kid will get a birthday pencil.
Reason #483 to homeschool. Although, I suppose quite a few of them could all be lumped together under The Banner of Stupidity.
Frequent classmate parties once had students consuming numerous unplanned cupcakes each school year.
I'm quite certain we don't even have a word in our language to describe how incredibly stupid this statement is. Numerous unplanned cupcakes? Did a large quantity of miniature cakes just spontaneously appear? Sounds like Bake Sale Heaven.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I've never sat down and planned the sequencing or quantity of my children's consumption of cupcakes. They just, uh, happen.
Wow, then your parents were lucky! Now that we are older, we hear stories about how we would tell Mom the night before that we needed 35 cupcakes.
BUT CAN THEY READ,.. DESPITE THE BLOOM OF IMPROVED DIETARY HEALTH???(inquiring minds want to know.....)
But no cupcakes - they're bad for you.
What about emotional well being? Hey, there will be childhood trauma experts to console the kids.
Think of the extended therapy in adulthood.
I am in the wrong business. :)
" Not if your birthday is in July."
Hey! My birthday's in July. I always thought it was cool because I would get new stuff just about time my Christmas stuff wore out. My brother's birthday is is January so he got his all at once. He hated my birthday!
I really need to sit down and write my congresscritter. We need legislation to help these poor souls. Twenty years from now, I'm certain they'll have difficulty holding a job because of all their cupcake angst. WE NEED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR THOSE WHO WERE CUPCAKE DEPRIVED!!
How can we tell? MA teachers are fighting the MCAS exam to justify graduation. It seems that even a kid who fails can get his or her score overturned. MA teachers are pretty nasty about the test- most of them want to continue passing kids who should have been held back on the grounds that it's someone else's error in an earlier grade and why should this teacher take the responsibility?
Duxbury MA also known as Deluxbury. Very affluent town on the coast.
My "adopted" grandchildren, four, ten and ten, were here last weekend for three days. Their Dad and I decided to engage in a "science experiment" and did not let them have any sugar the whole three days. No sodas, no juice drinks (worse than sodas) no candy, nothing with added sugar. Just healthy snacks, strawberries and cherries, natural sugar.
The bottom line was that they were the best behaved that either one of us had ever seen. Please, thank you, all the right manners. And moreover, they were HAPPY! They had a great weekend, and there was no fighting, grousing, sassing, crying. Just three great healthy kids. What a relief it was!
I hate to disagree with everyone here, but I think that having the schools provide ultra sweet stuff is counterproductive.
That's great that you made that decision and I'm glad that it proved out. But why should schools decide?
When I grew up, I had instructions of what I had to eat when and when it was okay to have a treat. Yes, I disobeyed sometimes but my parents always found out.
Why should the schools stop at cupcakes? What if there is a perceived crisis in eating cheese or drinking milk? What if all kids were required to eat oatmeal and garbanzo beans, so as not to offend anyone who can't tolerate anyone else eating animal products?
Still, 20-30 cupcakes each school year won't kill a kid. If the child's parent make sure they're eating and exercising properly, it won't even make them obese.
Jackasses. If you can't get a grip on your school board, you need to put your kids in private school you like.
I guess they never heard of carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Not everyone. The schools shouldn't be handing out sugary snacks, period.
With all of the rigors caused by "ed reform" (starting at kindergarten !) the kids would probably be happier to get a special birthday play time where the birthay person could choose what game they play for 15 minutes or so.
This is DUXBURY, for heaven's sake. It's not like the kids aren't going to get a birthday cake and anything else there little hearts desire at home.
Probably not. This is the Peoples Republic we are talking about here.
Thank you!!
Is this the school whose mascot is the "Fighting School Supplies?"
:) LOL! I don't know! I will have to take your word for it.
Home of the Fightin' School Supplies.
A tiger was the emblem of Thomas Lake Elementary School in Minnesota. Officials there decided it was too mean and violent-looking, so they asked the students to pick a new symbol from a list that included a sweet-looking tiger and some school supplies. The students voted for the school supplies–a pen, a pencil, and a ruler.
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