Comments on: No sodas for teachers

By: Milo

Milo — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:00:25 +0000

Typical nanny state mentality! One person pees their pants, everyone has to wear the diaper. I was born in America but I don’t know where the hell I live now.

By: Little Swallow

Little Swallow — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:34:21 +0000

It’s silly to take them out of the lounges. However, if a school has a “no drinking soda or eating snacks in class” rule for students, it seems reasonable that teachers would be held to the same rule out of respect (at least during class time — need not apply to lunch, prep periods, etc). I would argue the same for the dress code: if the students have to abide by it, teachers and staff should too.

By: Andy Freeman

Andy Freeman — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:45:42 +0000

> This just strikes me as another example of trying to “protect” children by infantilizing everyone else.

It is.

What role have teachers played in said infantilization trend?

By: ricki

ricki — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:59:39 +0000

This just strikes me as another example of trying to “protect” children by infantilizing everyone else. It’s like the move that was afoot a few years ago to reclassify any movie in which a character was seen smoking as being rated “R,” to protect children from demon tobacco (yes, even Popeye cartoons would be rated “R”).

You don’t teach someone to make good choices by taking away the possibility of making bad ones.

And, AFAIK, no teacher gets “free” sodas – like any vending machine, you pay a premium for what it contains. (We have a pop vending machine in the student lounge in my (college) building. It costs a buck to buy a pop. People still use it.)

By: McSwain

McSwain — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:35:34 +0000

Good grief. The soda machine in the teachers’ lounge gives me the opportunity to buy a soda to drink with lunch if I forget to bring one from home. I’m not drinking it in front of the kids, for crying out loud.

And even if I were, as an adult I have the right and maturity of judgment to decide how much soda I can and should drink. Kids’ parents should be able to make those decisions for them. But if soda is readily available at school, that takes it out of the parents’ hands.

By: MTheads

MTheads — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:31:23 +0000

Authority likes to push around those most likely to obey them. It’s much easier to take teachers’ soda machines than to get parents to watch their kids’ food intake. It’s much easier to tell teachers they have to model good behavior than it is to enforce good behavior from the kids. It’s easier to leverage change from the people who need the work than it is to leverage kids to change.

It reminds me of all the tactics to change the behavior of victims while coddling the bullies. Victims are more likely to comply.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:44:48 +0000

Welcome to the brave new world…keep chanting “yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…” And they will…

By: Beth D

Beth D — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:18:52 +0000

Does this type of modeling apply to dress code as well? If students can’t wear flip-flops, does that mean teachers can’t either? There are just some rules that apply to kids that don’t apply to adults: driving a car, drinking alcohol, voting, gambling, etc. That does not mean that all adults in contact with children have to abide by the same rules. If that were the case, the school bus would stop by my house to take me to work!

By: Bobo

Bobo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:04:27 +0000

Chandler,

Get a grip. The machines are not free. Teachers much pay for the drinks. It is not like it breaks a school budget because they provide free drinks for teachers. Wake up!!

Certain things in society are made available to those once you reach a certain age. Our society makes a big deal ot of little things and this is a perfect example.

Grow up, America!!!!!

By: Quirky Mama

Quirky Mama — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:46:36 +0000

I think letting my kid see an obese science teacher eating fast food, Twinkies and soda for lunch is okay. Sometimes the BEST influence for a child is a direct, obvious correlation between actions and consequences.