Isn't it ironic (school related).

[tmarquez]

In DD's school, everything is rewarded with candy...or ice cream. Read a lot, get candy. Do "quality work" get candy. Turn things in on time, get candy. Get a 100 on your spelling test, get candy. Everyone finishes a project, ice cream party time!

Yet they also send notes home to the parents if your kid is overweight.

DD gets so much candy EVERY DAY that she can't eat it all. It ends up coming home in her backpack.

She's in 1st grade.

 

[Magic Mom]

Thankfully DD's school doesn't do this. Candy is rarely used as a reward. They get it once in a while but that's it. Other rewards are extra wellness (recess) time, lunch with your choice (principal, coach, teacher etc.), movie and popcorn, kickball with the principal, homework pass etc.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My boys don't get candy for a reward at school. That's good for us, we don't do much candy at all. They have had pizza lunches (paid for by the teacher), sub lunches, extra recess, etc., this year and in the past, but not candy. DS6's K teacher gives out a lot of stickers for good behavior, but K kids like stickers.

Forgot about the Treasure Box - DS' K teacher has a Treasure Box, they get to pick something on Friday if they had all green cards (behavior) for the week. I haven't seen any candy come out of that, DS usually gets little trinket type toys.

 

[HelenePA]

mine dont get candy that much but every month they come up with coupons for ice cream, free kids meals at friendly's, free slushies at turkey hill, pretzels from the pretzel factory, the principal also gives out snack coupons to use in school for doing your home work each night, and stuff like that.. I NEVER got stuff like this in school!! My dd7's teacher also hands out stuff for being quiet.. yesterday she brought home a frog that shoots water. Lovely.

 

[Tosie]

In our school we don't do food rewards - in fact, we have a no-food-in-the-classroom rule. (For parties, the kids play games, do crafts and get stickers and small toys). Our kids are rewarded with good grades (like they should) and the occasional certificate or pin for something really outstanding.

Our next door neighbor district does the opposite. My co-worker splits her time between our school and theirs and says the kids are regularly rewarded with m&ms, skittles, etc.

Crazy.

 

[daisyduck123]

I'm a 1st grade teacher & I NEVER give out candy.....I mean, it's been at least 5 years since I've given out a candy treat of ANY kind.

I don't even give them out at Halloween. I figure they get enough of the stuff then anyway.

 

[Hillbeans]

Our school district has a no candy policy, and i'm glad that we don't have to worry about it since no one has to be the bad guy then.

 

[design_mom]

That is ironic!

When DS was in first grade they got candy as rewards too. Not a lot, but daily. If a child was on "green" (good behavior) for the day, he could choose a piece of candy or a ticket as his reward. The tickets could be saved to earn bigger rewards like lunch with the teacher, etc.

 

[Anne34]

Our school district has a no candy policy, and i'm glad that we don't have to worry about it since no one has to be the bad guy then.

Our district also has this policy. We can have some junk food at the class parties, but they are trying to get the kids to eat healthier and request healthy food.

 

[Disfan3]

Teacher here

Not sure if this is state or fed law but starting in JULY this sort of thing will not be legal in the classroom...or how I understand it is...a school cannot purchase it but a teacher could still buy it with their money and pass it out (which is weird!). Not even granola bars (which really hold no nutritional value anyway) can be given out.

 

[jazzielady]

Technically, candy and other Unhealthy snacks were prohibited several years ago by th Healthy Schools Act -or something like that - and every district had to develop a wellness policy.

About a month later, everyone was ignoring it.

 

[ctinct]

Where I work, they did away with candy fundraisers several years ago. It stinks for some of the kids, because this is a high poverty school, and many kids would sell candy to be able to afford field trips. It was very easy to sell enough candy (to other students) to be able to see a Broadway show or whatever---now, sadly, they probably just don't go.

 

[disney1990]

I graduated from high school in 1969. We had cupcakes for birthdays and candy in the classroom for Halloween and other holidays. I do not believe that food in the classroom is the cause of childhood obesity. I believe it is coming from eating habits that are developed outside of the classroom. We did not have the obesity problem in the 60's and 70's like we have today and there is less food in the classrooms now.

I see "kids" in their 20's that basically eat pizza, chicken nuggets, french fries and other fast food on a daily basis. When I was growing up this was never the case. Our Mom's prepared dinner with veggies and we ate what was on the table or we didn't eat.

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Interesting. When I was in second grade about 10 years ago, candy was given as a reward to the kids whose table earned the most points in one week. I forget what we had to do to get the points, though.

 

[arminnie]

I graduated from high school in 1969. We had cupcakes for birthdays and candy in the classroom for Halloween and other holidays. I do not believe that food in the classroom is the cause of childhood obesity. I believe it is coming from eating habits that are developed outside of the classroom. We did not have the obesity problem in the 60's and 70's like we have today and there is less food in the classrooms now.

I see "kids" in their 20's that basically eat pizza, chicken nuggets, french fries and other fast food on a daily basis. When I was growing up this was never the case. Our Mom's prepared dinner with veggies and we ate what was on the table or we didn't eat.

Ditto - I am in your age bracket. I really don't remember ANY kids being fat. Maybe one or two would be a little bigger, but not obese.

I was talking to one of my post college roommates today, and we were discussing how we used to cook real meals (salad, meat, 2 vegs and dessert) when we came home from work. There were usually 3-4 of us sharing a place, and we rotated nights. We kind of laughed about how we could not imagine a 21 year old doing that today.

In defense of some of the younger ones - chicken nuggets really hadn't been invented during my youth. French fries at McDonalds were a real treat maybe 2-3 times a year. So was pizza - so the temptations and fast food alternatives were not there.

I find it kind of ironic with some kids' obsessions with mac and cheese. For us that is what Mother served when we were too poor to have meat. We did not look forward to it although it was homemade and good. My mother (very proud) would have killed us if we'd told people we had mac and cheese for our dinner.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I just finished up student teaching with a K class....let me tell you, I have never seen so much food being brought into the class before in my life, most of it was junk.
Let's see:
Patterns were made with marshmallows, skittles, and m&ms
Patterns with different colored/shaped candy corns
one week before halloween the kids got popcorn balls (not the worst thing but)
Once every week there was a star of the week, this child was to bring in his favorite snack for all his classmates on Wed. And it was usually cookies, cupcakes, etc.
Class holiday parties
They had a rewards system and when it got to a certain point they got an ice cream party.
St. Patrick's day they counted how many different marshmallow shapes they had.
Went to the firehouse, they had dalmatian shaped cookies.
The list goes on and on....
The kids were NOT allowed to eat the candy while in school (as per policy), but they are eating it when they get home, KWIM.
The thing that REALLY got me was we had a little one who was allergic (anaphactic too) to peanuts and milk so while all this food was coming in, she had to sit and watch everyone eat it and had nothing.
So happy that experience is done and over with, my heart broke for her.
Food does not need to be used as a teaching tool, especially when you have someone who could have a fatal reaction to it.

 

[minkydog]

I just finished up student teaching with a K class....let me tell you, I have never seen so much food being brought into the class before in my life, most of it was junk.
Let's see:
Patterns were made with marshmallows, skittles, and m&ms
Patterns with different colored/shaped candy corns
one week before halloween the kids got popcorn balls (not the worst thing but)
Once every week there was a star of the week, this child was to bring in his favorite snack for all his classmates on Wed. And it was usually cookies, cupcakes, etc.
Class holiday parties
They had a rewards system and when it got to a certain point they got an ice cream party.
St. Patrick's day they counted how many different marshmallow shapes they had.
Went to the firehouse, they had dalmatian shaped cookies.
The list goes on and on....
The kids were NOT allowed to eat the candy while in school (as per policy), but they are eating it when they get home, KWIM.
The thing that REALLY got me was we had a little one who was allergic (anaphactic too) to peanuts and milk so while all this food was coming in, she had to sit and watch everyone eat it and had nothing.
So happy that experience is done and over with, my heart broke for her.
Food does not need to be used as a teaching tool, especially when you have someone who could have a fatal reaction to it.

I totally agree. I can't remember EVER getting candy in school. It just wasn't done in the 60s in my city. I'm a school nurse and it irks me no end that our cafeteria food is disgusting--chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs, corn dogs, tacos. Very little "real food", everything comes prepackaged like something you'd get at a truck stop and pop in the microwave. And some of our teachers give out candy on top of that.

Last week one of my little diabetic students showed up to check her blood sugar and when she opened her kit bag there were TWO bags of jelly beans in there. WHAT??!! "My teacher gave it to me. Can I eat it?" NOOOOO....This kid's sugar is NEVER in good control. The last thing she needs is jelly beans. I made her take them home to her mother (and thankfully, she is young and obedient, so that's exactly what she did. Her mother had about the same reaction I had.)

 

[bumbershoot]

My first grade teacher rewarded with candy.

And her husband was a dentist.

 

[rabyoga]

I rarely "award" my kids candy. I give things like extra recess/dance party (they love that) or a game they love to play. I don't like reward with things... I prefer doing something fun My kids seem to like fine.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

My first grade teacher rewarded with candy.

And her husband was a dentist.

lol don't you get it!!! She was trying to give the kids cavities so they would go to her hubby to get 'em filled and bring in more $$$