Some updates:
1. This weekend I’ll be going on the Confirmation Retreat. One of Paula’s responsibilities is planning the Confirmation program for DM, so I was able to get a position as one of the teachers which has been a wonderful learning experience, both as a teacher and as a Catholic. We will be going to Big Bear Lake, up in the mountains until Sunday which will also allow us to escape the heat wave (see point 2).
2. Heat Wave!! I have gotten to be here for at least two record breaking days, first in the fall when we were at 113? and now yesterday was in the mid 90s, breaking records from 1966. Yikes! It was super hot. I could even see the heat waves coming off of the playground during recess. But of course, parents didn’t check the weather, so I had kids in PE with sweatpants and sweatshirts. Like the name implies, they were quite sweaty.
3. Amazingly, I don’t think I’ve ranted on my blog before about students’ lunches. They are disgusting and killing the environment.
Most of the kids are on free or reduced lunches through the state of California, so usually only one or two kids bring their lunches from every class. With all the good press that school lunch programs are receiving (going organic, having their own gardens, no pop, salad bars, even “family style” meals, etc.), you’d think that they would be doing well in every school, but I think those must be only charter and suburban schools. Our kids for lunch today had the choice of:
- Sugary juices and pink, white, or chocolate milk in plastic bags (and no one uses a straw, so they bite a hole in the side and suck on the baggie)
- Main dish:
- Hot dogs wrapped in breading in a plastic wrapper
- “Uncrustables” Peanut butter and banana goo sandwich (it looked sick and every kid that tried it threw it away) – in plastic wrappers
- Salads (only 4 per grade level) with iceberg lettuce, carrot shreds, chicken, cheese and croutons in a plastic tray wrapped in plastic
- Sandwiches (only 4 per grade level) with bun, meat, and cheese in a plastic tray wrapped in plastic
- Grilled cheese sandwiches in a plastic wrapper
- 5 carrots in individual bags with ranch dressing in tiny packets
- “steamed veggies” – carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower in individual cardboard trays covered in plastic – I like vegetables and I like microwave frozen veggies, but these looked and smelled horrible
- Garlic bread in an aluminum lined paper bag
- Applesauce in a plastic tray wrapped in plastic
- 2 Animal graham crackers in plastic wrapper
- Ketchup in packets
- Food is all served on styroform trays that get thrown away
- Silverware (sporks) come individually wrapped with a napkin and a straw – which no one uses
So if I am counting correctly, every student had at least 6 plastic wrappers, one tray, and silverware thrown away. Multiplied by 230 students, that’s 1380 plastic wrappers thrown away just at lunch on the average day.
And really, how many students do you think pick up carrots, veggies, white milk, or salads? Not many. And if they do pick up the veggies, they promptly douse them with ranch dressing. I love how our government is instilling wonderful eating habits in our children. Doesn’t everyone know that the groups on the food pyramid are bread, dairy, oils, sugars? Obviously. I’m not suggesting that they make all kids vegan or something, but it’s just very frustrating to read in the paper about schools that have students composting and growing food that they eat in the cafeteria. Or schools where the kids actually cook some of their own meals. Or schools in which they have salad bars and make your own food so that kids can choose the veggies and proteins they eat. And can have as much fresh fruit as they would like. Like here, and here, and here. Instead, children whose food options are already limited on the outside by lack of grocery stores and quality of the stores that do exist as well as financial difficulties, are further limited by the segregation of the quality of lunch and breakfast programs in their schools. Let’s guarantee earlier deaths for the environment and our kids at the same time. Sounds like a plan to me.
It sometime makes me wish I would have stayed in nutrition and become a school dietician. Maybe later.
4. The government in LA does know how to do its parks though. The one next to the school has been getting new sod for the past two weeks (it’s going to inevitably be torn apart by soccer cleats in less than 2 months) and has been watering the grass like crazy. Smart thing to do at 1pm when we are experiencing record highs, right? The water will all soak in so well and minimize waste. And while they are making sure the parks are looking nice (2 other parks in East LA that I ran past today were being re-sodded and re-watered as well) let’s cut LAUSD budgets even more. Sounds perfect to me. If the kids are going to be dropping out of school earlier, they need a pristine grassy park to lie around in all day. I’m not bitter. Especially since my class was kicked out of the park yesterday when we were playing soccer (with permission) on the “old” grass.
5. On a happier note, I’m getting super excited about PLACE and I can’t wait to begin – which makes it extra hard to stay focused on JVC.
6. We will be moving on May 1st to another house. It’s 2 blocks from school which is extremely exciting and weird at the same time (students as our next door neighbors?). We’ll have a nice yard (garden!!), and I will be able to walk in 5 minutes to school. And we will be about a 10 minute walk from downtown (Hello Yogurtland!)
7. Some pictures from this past weekend with mom, dad, Pete, Joe and Carola:
Street lights at LACMA
on the beach
sunset on Manhattan Beach
Pete being a goofball during our bike ride down the coast
Raarrrr! Dinos at the Natural History Museum
Yogurtland = Yum
Up the hill on Angel's Flight
And a couple funny statements:
- Student: “Coach Katie, he’s not letting his light shine.” Me: “What? How do you know that?” Student: “Because he doesn’t want to play Frisbee with me.”
- Me: “So is Juan your only sibling?” Student: “No, I’ve got an older sister, but she’s really old; a younger brother who doesn’t live with us; and a baby brother, but I don’t know if he is a boy or girl.” Hmmm…. That could be a problem.
