Author Topic: Schools banish birthday cupcakes (Read 322 times)

vorticon · « **on:** June 05, 2004, 02:24:57 PM »

""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.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=30551" "

xrtoronto · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2004, 02:32:19 PM »

what kid wants a birthday pencil??

...let'em eat cake!

vorticon · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2004, 02:39:59 PM »

they cant...apparently the school system beleives its there job to ensure the kids are healthy...that of course completly discounts the existance of cafeteria food...

NUKE · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2004, 02:44:07 PM »

cupcakes killed because some kids are lazy fatties, lol.

I remember when I was a kid, me and my brothers would ride our bikes, play football, swim and stay outside all day until well after dark. We were never fat. We had this fat kid down the street named Charlie. Charlie was fat . He would very seldom come out of his house to swim or play with us, even when we practically begged him. We could sometimes get him to play football....for about 30 minutes maybe.....when we played probably for 4 hours at a time. We would ride our bikes to the mall a few miles away to play arcade games. Charlie's mom would sometimes drive him to the mall to meet us.

I'm sure cupcakes are not the problem, LOL!

cpxxx · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2004, 07:39:37 PM »

I think you must be of my generation Nuke or close anyway. Different countries but the kids are the same everywhere. We had a fat friend too. He never strayed far from his house unless his Dad brought him in the car.

The rest of us rode our bicycles or if too poor to have one, rode on the crossbar of a friend's on 'adventures'. Mostly we walked unless there was a bus. I remember walking six miles to visit the local airbase to see the planes fly and then six miles back. Or we would walk up to the Hellfire club, a spooky old house on the Dublin mountains. For food we had a few sandwiches, fizzy drinks, and ate wild strawberries we found in the hedgerows on the way up the hills.

The trouble is many kids don't do that anymore. The parents won't let them because of fears about the supposed 'dangers'. The traffic, kidnappers, paedophiles. I remember as an eleven year old leading a group from age seven up on a trip to the beach via bus and train. When I joined a first aid unit. A group of 20 or more boys would be led on day trips led by a sixteen year old. Someone would be arrested for that these days. We had a lot more freedom than we allow our kids. My brother was a cub scout. They used to march a mile or two to their den. Now that's reduced to a few hundred yards because the latest generation could cope with it particularly the girls apparently.

Nowadays kids sit in play video games, eat to much junk food and get fat and lazy. When they do go out it's in the car. Kids haven't changed just us grown ups. The result is lots of fat kids where in the past the fat kid was the exception.

So no more cupcakes for birthdays in Duxbury.. Here in Ireland though we never had a tradition like that. Indeed schools don't even have cafeterias. You bring your own lunch or go to the fish and chip shop.

rpm · « **Reply #5 on:** June 06, 2004, 03:18:49 AM »

Sadly, I'm not sure it would be safe for kids to run loose like we did. There are too many wackos on the prowl.