Food for thought

Lunch program keeps focus where it’s needed

Everything seemed bigger back when we were kids, didn’t it? Go back to an elementary school as an adult and the response is almost inevitable: “It all sure seemed bigger when I went to school here.” Whether that’s the classroom, the hallways or that stage in the cafeteria where those annual holiday musicals en- tertained(?) parents gathered to watch, our adult lenses put them into a more realistic perspective. And our sense of awe, which is worth preserving, is perhaps diminished a bit in the process.

Christmas was way bigger when we were kids. Those weeks leading to it seemed to take forever.

And, of course, adults in many cases seemed like giants, and it was far easier for a parent to come across in almost heroic proportions in the eyes and mind of a young child.

Magnification of our youthful senses isn’t reserved for places. It happens with experiences and emotions, too.

That’s why we thought it was great news the Bentonville School District had adopted its Every Kid, Every Day lunch program that establishes a critically important approach: Kids don’t pay an emotional price for the actions, or lack of action, by adults.

Just imagine your days as a kid in school, especially elementary and maybe those days in middle or junior high schools. It’s time for lunch and you head to the cafeteria to get some of that scrumptious food. Then, when it’s time to check out, the district employee points out you don’t have enough money in your account to pay for the food.

Now, as much as parents like to encourage individuality in their kids, such a scene is the last experience a youngster wants. It can be like showing up to school on Halloween only to realize nobody else is wearing a costume. To an adult, that would be perhaps a little embarrassing. But to a child, such spotlight experiences can seem downright humiliating.

Students at some schools were told to go to the principal’s office and call their parents.

Bentonville officials realized the pitfalls of policy as they discussed how to handle students with insufficient or negative lunch account balances and the need to develop a consistent approach across all schools.

Increasingly, educators have gotten wise to the notion that hungry kids are a lot harder to teach. Such an analysis applies to any of us: We simply don’t perform as well in mental exercises when the body’s basic needs — food, rest, security — are not adequately met. “We live in one of the best communities in the world, and for a student to be hungry and go to the cafeteria and not get a plate of food, it’s unthinkable,” said Janet Schwanhausser, the Bentonville district’s finance director.

Beyond that, though, is this incredibly rational thought from Schwanhausser: Discussion of an individual student’s financial situation ought to be between the school and parents. It should not involve the children.

What, after all, do small children have to do with family finances? Well, they’re expensive and provide a tax deduction, but that’s just the nature of kids and the federal tax code. Most kids, however, have no control over whether a family is fabulously wealthy or dirt poor or somewhere in between. When financial matters creep into their educational experience, it’s wise counsel to limit those discussions to the adults involved rather than having policies that could result in a form of shaming of the children in one of the places they shouldn’t feel it — their schools.

Parents owe it to their kids to provide as best they can for their basic needs at home and at school, and many of them work hard to do it. Others struggle and would give anything to make sure their kids don’t get caught in a spotlight. So it’s great news that the Bentonville School District is factoring compassion into its policies. It’s the right thing to do and keeps the conversation where it belongs, among the adults.