[email protected]

In a message dated 11/19/2001 7:01:01 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:


> > That our right to bring peanut butter to school is more important than
> > having Jessie and Mark there? Call me crazy, but I think people are more
> > important than food preferences. Altering something this simple to show
> > love, caring, and respect for another person seems pretty basic.
> >
>
> If they chose to marry Jessie or Mark, or to be roommates, then it's love,
> caring and respect. If they go to a school because of compulsory
> attendance
> laws and happen to be in the same district, that's not quite the same
> situation. Maybe another child only will eat peanut butter for lunch and
> really wants it, or is hypoglycemic and vegetarian and peanuts are a staple.
>
> Making the 400 (or however many) kids feel guilty for the medical problems
> of
> the two doesn't seem equitable to me.
>
>

Well, I don't really think it has to be about guilt, although I see your
point. Truly, I believe that even in public schools it's possible to create
community (I also know that, sadly, mostly it doesn't happen.), so it's not
about guilt.

Of course the advantage of creating community is that you find ways to solve
problems that don't involve lawsuits.

Kathryn


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lynda

There is a woman that runs a "one room" schoolhouse in the next town up from
us. If the kidlets were ever forced to attend school, that is where they
would go.

She contracts under a charter school. The charter pays the rent on a
beautiful new two story house that is walking distance from the university
and lots of other neat things to see and do. She has twenty students
ranging in age from 6 to 18. They take off on week long camping trips,
they've been to DC and places like the Shakespeare Festival.

At anyrate, I digress. There are a few of the kids that have various
allergies. At the beginning of the year they studied allergies and as a
"community" came up with a plan work and live around those allergies.

A kids were interviewe for a local program and the general concensus was
that they were so glad they went to this school. For the kids with
allergies they said that they no longer felt like "freaks." For the kids
that didn't have allergies they said that they were glad they went to this
school because they hadn't even known how bad allergies could be and had
always at "regular" ps just thought the kids with allergies were "weird."
One little girl, I think she was about 6, said "I'm glad they have allergies
cause . . ." and then stumbled along trying to explain that she didn't mean
she was glad they had allergies but glad they were in her school because now
she didn't think they were weird. She ended it by saying, with a look of
wow, "I didn't know fake food could taste so good." Meaning things like
non-dairy cheese.

It can be done, just takes folks with the right attitude.

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: <KathrynJB@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 6:57 AM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: Food Allergies, etc.


> In a message dated 11/19/2001 7:01:01 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [email protected] writes:
>
>
> > > That our right to bring peanut butter to school is more important than
> > > having Jessie and Mark there? Call me crazy, but I think people are
more
> > > important than food preferences. Altering something this simple to
show
> > > love, caring, and respect for another person seems pretty basic.
> > >
> >
> > If they chose to marry Jessie or Mark, or to be roommates, then it's
love,
> > caring and respect. If they go to a school because of compulsory
> > attendance
> > laws and happen to be in the same district, that's not quite the same
> > situation. Maybe another child only will eat peanut butter for lunch
and
> > really wants it, or is hypoglycemic and vegetarian and peanuts are a
staple.
> >
> > Making the 400 (or however many) kids feel guilty for the medical
problems
> > of
> > the two doesn't seem equitable to me.
> >
> >
>
> Well, I don't really think it has to be about guilt, although I see your
> point. Truly, I believe that even in public schools it's possible to
create
> community (I also know that, sadly, mostly it doesn't happen.), so it's
not
> about guilt.
>
> Of course the advantage of creating community is that you find ways to
solve
> problems that don't involve lawsuits.
>
> Kathryn
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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