On the radio yesterday they said that a state senator from one of the nearby towns is pushing to expand the lunch hour for school children. He (or she) believes that a longer lunch hour will make the students less lethargic and better able to concentrate. He claims that right now they are rushed to scarf down their food and have little time to play or have fun. The school officials response was short, “more lunch equals less learning.”
The lunch period here is *twenty minutes*. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? His “radical” proposal is to increase it to *thirty*. While I was in school, I saw my lunch hour slip from 40 minutes to 35 to 30. Does the extra time mean their precious test scores go up by a point or two? Because I’ll tell you what it does not do — it does not make for happy, healthy, productive students.
But oh wait, I forgot, that’s why we have exercise programs, expensive diet regimens, and lots and lots of ritalin.
This is no suprise, society looks down on the younger generation as just a group of troubled kids. It is easier to blame the new generation for all of the problems, and so easily take away any advantage that they have to succeed. Why not take away money from education to give tax breaks to everyone. And they wonder why american kids are so “uneducated” but that is ok, we can just add more tests to the students, who already have a high enough stress level as it is, to rate if the school should lose more money… pathetic in my opinion…