I went to the little man’s school (9) on Wednesday because he wanted me to come in and have lunch with him. Apparently parents can pop up at school and eat in the cafeteria with their kids, something I would always shy away from doing. But, the little man begged me so I packed up my steel lunch containers for the both of us, and up to school I went.
I waited outside the cafeteria for his class to show up for lunch. When he saw me, which he didn’t until his teacher pointed me out because he was focused on getting into the lunch room, I received a very loud, “Oh Wow, just Wow!” What was that supposed to mean? I hope it was a good oh wow…
We ate lunch and the first thing that I learned is that lunchtime is only 20 minutes long! I am a slow picky eater and I, an adult, could not finish my salad in twenty minutes! When I went to school, lunchtime was an entire hour. We ate lunch, and then ran around in the school yard if we were finished early enough. When middle school, and high school rolled around, lunch was cut down to 45 minutes, but I adjusted. But—20 minutes???
My little guy ate his lunch quickly and sat there in silence with his nose in his book like I wasn’t even there…so I asked the little girl sitting across from me if I had heard right…if lunch was really only 20 minutes?
She said it was. So I asked how she could eat in twenty minutes? The reply blew me away. She said, “because we have to just eat, no talking, no noise, and if we are done early we can read a book.” I guess that explained why you could hear a pin drop in a cafeteria full of third graders. It was like being somewhere lost in the twilight zone. A silent lunch!
Then they wonder why my kid can’t sit still in class, why he talks too much, why now that they moved him to another bus- which I found out is a SILENT BUS, why he can’t kept quiet! Are they kidding me? When do they want our children to be children? When DO they get to talk and be kids exactly?
I don’t ever want to hear from them again that my kid talks too much when he is required to ride a school bus from home in silence, and eat in complete silence. It’s crazy! And—now I wonder what their definition of “talks too much” is.
My son wouldnt last 2 minutes in a school like that. It sounds incredibly stifling and unreasonable to expect that behaviour from young children, or any children for that matter. I’m with you, something is not right.
Well, it sounds nice to me… Orderly, quiet kids eating instead of an inferno of noise and activity and idle time with hyperactive kids that have time to do just about anything. Lunch breaks in primary school were big sources of stress and insecurity for me, but I could have lived with these… Quiet, orderly, knowing what to do and only 20 minutes. I am sure it makes life easier for some kids albeit I can also see your point that the active kids don’t have time to burn off their energy before having to sit still.
… in class.
oh. my. goodness.
what are they DOING to our CHILDREN!?!?!?!?! i am appalled. it sounds like some kind of cruel experiment of hitler or something. im horrified. that is HORRIBLE.
we had half hour lunches. even in high school. that was “all we had time for” i suppose. and with the amount of food they served, and the time they put it all away, we really didnt have that much to eat anyway, sadly….. but then, like you said, we were allowed a recess or free period. in high school the gym was open and “supervised” – so we hung out there or at our lockers.
20 minutes. and silent. and the silent bus… man id be driving my kid. granted, im going to homeschool… but its things like this that reinforce that decision. 🙁
Welcome to the 21st century.
I used to live near 2 schools with large playgrounds, one right across the street, the other one block to the east, about 100 yards away.
I used to sled down a hill when it snowed at the school across the streets. Gated off. No Trespassing. The fence is about 10 feet high.
The school down the block had 2 huge and well kept baseball diamonds. You could get 2 9 vs 9 games going there at the same time. You could play after dark too, there was sufficient lighting.. Gated off. No Trespassing.
The parking lots of both schools had basketball hoops with a foul line and 3 point line painted in. Had is the key word. It’s gated off too.
That is sad. I keep feeling like they want our kids to be little grown-ups instead of children. When do they get to run around, play and be kids?
Sometimes I wish I can transport my children back to the days I was young. Despite all the difficulties I had, I don’t think I was pushed to grow up quite this fast, and forced to act like adults.
if you think about it for a minute, thats unreasonable for an adult too. to be expected to sit in complete silence during lunch or a bus ride? i mean, most people do because we dont want to talk to strangers, but if we were somewhere with our friends, would we really sit in silence during a meal or car ride/bus ride/subway ride? i mean EVER?
no thats just not normal. something is definitely not right. 🙁
how do they get the kids to actually not talk? what is the power they are holding over the kids to actually succeed in getting them to behave? i have a hard time just getting my son to be quiet during church…. and hes by himself! LOL