By the time they got to junior high, it was all sack lunches. My daughter's junior high was built in 1947 and had questions about the water quality in the old pipes, so they were also expected to bring potable water from home. Oh, the inhumanity!
Something tells me your kids probably grew up to become responsible adults ! ;)
Any truth to that?
Here in Calgary, Canada, schools don’t have cafeterias at all, everyone is expected to bring their own lunches/drinks and they eat in their classrooms. I asked a Canadian once if they had anything like a “free lunch” program, and she looked at me like I was nuts. If someone forgets they’re given ramen soup for lunch. I’m guessing if a child comes regularly without their lunch it’s dealt with privately. I’ve since learned that schools here with lower economic populations have free lunch programs, but it’s done school by school basis, not district wide.
Interesting.
Maybe sometimes it goes a little too far, but Asian cultures (maybe most traditional cultures, maybe even ours, years ago) expects a reasonable level of responsibility from children. My ex grew up in China near Beijing, and she told me how students were responsible for making the fire (coal-fired stove) in their classroom in the morning, a maintaining it. They were also put to work on various tasks around the school.
We seem to have come to a point where we don’t expect children to do anything for themselves (never mind others). Heck, our governments don’t seem to even expect poor adults to do anything for themselves.