The school canteen rules They are something that amaze me every day. I have been reviewing those that appear in my son's school regulations and observing what happens every day.
Children should eat the food on the plate, with no choice between several of equivalent nutritional quality. They can't get up and go to the bathroom. They do not go to wash their hands before eating. Normally they should remain silent or make as little noise as possible. They cannot repeat if they have not eaten all three dishes. Seriously, it puts it. To repeat chickpeas or steak you must have eaten dessert.
When adults eat in a menu restaurant or in the dining room of the workplace or studios nobody makes us eat in silence. We can get up, go to the bathroom. Nobody assigns us a mandatory and immutable site, we sit with whoever we want. Of course we can usually choose between several dishes and it is not mandatory to eat everything if we do not like or do not feel like it. Of course nobody pretends that we eat the fruit before repeating steak. We can complain if the food is not good or if it is frozen when they are going to eat it.
Children who use the dining room receive, it is said, a food and nutritional habits education. But in this education you are forced to eat what you do not like or do not feel like, to eat everything they put on you (or almost everything), to sit down with who they send you, to be quiet, to not have the right to refuse a dish or to guide you by your own appetite. They may no longer force you to eat things by covering your nose, but with subtle comments that make you have to ingest something against your wishes. I don't think that educates for the right food or for socialization.
To end, prices of the school canteens are really low compared to the food of any community restaurant or dining room. And when you pay little you can demand little. And even less if you are only a child and it is assumed that you have no decision-making capacity or are able to trust your appetite.
