Middle grades students talk about eating at school
How and what should kids be eating when they’re in school? In their years of prime growth, they need food to fuel their energy, yet schools often restrict their eating to very limited times and places. Middle school students have strong opinions on the subject of eating or not eating—in the classroom, and through the school day.
“The teacher should actually trust us, because in seventh grade, we’re not in elementary school. We’re not going to make a big mess out of food, and we’re not going to try to disturb her by eating. A lot of people can’t think right when their stomach is empty.” —Javier
“At my school, we have lunch late. By the time we get to lunch, everybody’s hungry. The thing that disturbs most of the kids is the food is real small. The meat is all skinny, so the kids aren’t even full. When we go upstairs, the teachers will be, like, ‘You just had lunch, so pay attention.’ And the food isn’t good enough. It doesn’t refill us, it doesn’t give us energy.” —Denue
In 2006, WKCD asked Kathleen Cushman and Laura Rogers, Ed.D. to make sense of the complicated and often turbulent world of middle school students. That work, made possible by MetLife Foundation, appears in Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from Middle Schoolers (New Press, 2008), in which many of the following passages appear.
If we’re hungry, let us eat.
Universally, kids want to be able to determine when they snack. They believe that offering them more opportunities to eat—and to eat enough—will improve their attention and energy for learning.
“They complain about how the kids aren’t paying attention in class, and it’s because we’re not eating. If I don’t eat, I get a headache and I lay down on the desk. And then it’s, like, ‘Put your head up.’ I can’t concentrate because I need something in my system.” —Genesis
“I think [food] would help you out a lot with your testing. Like in my elementary school, when we were doing state testing, they gave you a cup of apple juice and some crackers if you were hungry. Then you could just snack on that and then go back to your test.” —Gabe
Some schools ban all eating except during lunch. For kids who are rapidly growing, and almost always hungry, this policy proves difficult to enforce.
“At my school, you can’t eat until lunch. Some kids bring snacks to school and go to the bathroom and eat it when they’re hungry, and just come back to the class. You’re not supposed to do that, but we have last lunch, and if the kid is hungry…” — Javier
“We didn’t want to go to class, people bonked. And some people used to sneak in class and eat when the teacher wasn’t looking.” —Jessica
“In my school, they only give food at breakfast and lunch. A lot of the kids miss the breakfast and they are hungry. We don’t eat again [until] lunch at twelve o’clock, and it’s actually tiring to sit there the whole while. By the time we get to lunch, the kids want the bigger slice of pizza, so everyone is pushing. When the small slice comes up, everyone is standing there waiting until another one comes out. And then the lunch lady just stands there until somebody takes it, and if you don’t, the whole lunch line is stopped.” —Amelia
To snack or not to snack?
Some schools have a set time for all students to eat a snacks—though many schools leave it up to the teachers to decide, which can create some confusion for kids. Sometimes the teachers provide the snacks, which students see as a special gift (when there's enough for everyone).
“At my school, we get snacks around 10:15, and we get more energized for learning better. We buy it from a store and bring it in for our home advisory, which is only sixteen people. At the beginning of the year, the teachers bought it, and now the students buy it.” —Jessica
“We get to eat snacks every day. We bring them from home, and we can eat them anytime in class, as long as we’re quiet. [But it depends] on what team we’re on. If you’re on team one, two, three, four or five, you get snacks, but if you’re on team six, seven, eight or nine, you don’t. I don’t know how they do it, it’s weird.” —Jason
“In one of my classes, if the kids are really nice, we can bring snacks. But we can only eat it if she’s not talking a lesson.“ — Javier
“Sometimes in sixth grade, when kids were hungry if we didn’t eat breakfast, my teacher would give us a little bar, but she only had so many, so all the class couldn’t have it. It was kind of unfair.” —Kenson
“When it was hot, at the beginning of the school year, my English teacher brought in two jugs of water for us. She brought in cups and she gave us water when we were thirsty.” —Kenson
What do we want to eat?
Kids are divided, like the adults in their schools, on the kind of food schools should provide for lunch.
“I think schools should serve healthier food, more food that’s better for your brain, so that you can work. It would be a lot easier for you to do better with your schoolwork.” —Gabe
“If you don’t serve junk food, the kids will just go to the corner store to buy like chips or candy and stuff like that. So they should sell it, but make it expensive so people won’t buy it, or buy as much. Like, sell a candy bar for two dollars. [But] there’s no point, ’cause most schools have a corner store really close.” —Edward
Eating in the classroom
Students understand there are responsibilities that go along with the privilege of eating in the classroom, notably cleaning up after themselves. They have mixed minds about it.
“[Eating snacks in class] works well but sometimes the teachers could take away that privilege if it gets distracting.” —Canek
“The teacher should actually trust us, because in seventh grade, we’re not in elementary school. We’re not going to make a big mess out of food, and we’re not going to try to disturb her by eating. A lot of people can’t think right when their stomach is empty.” —Javier
“In my other school, they wouldn’t let us have snacks because it would make a mess to clean up. It’s just a little mess, it’s not like it’s impossible to clean it up—let the kids eat something.” —Genesis
“In my school, they don’t let us eat. They say, ‘Oh, roaches’ and stuff, and that the janitors don’t always come and clean up the room like they’re supposed to. When I was in seventh grade, they came every day after school, but now, they don’t really do it that much.” —Kenson
“In my pre-algebra class, when my teacher gives us food, the students have to clean it. It might only be a little bit, but it makes a big mess, so it takes time out of our period. Fifteen minutes before the bell rings, everybody has to stop what they’re doing and clean up their mess. So I’m not crazy about that.” —Denue
Students don’t want to be unfairly blamed for someone else’s mess, and they are therefore ready to agree to rules that ensure individual responsibility.
“[Kids] should clean up, because it’s their mess that they made. Nobody else should be responsible for cleaning up the mess they made. My teacher, he only makes us clean up the stuff that’s under our chairs. Because the janitors, they do a good job cleaning up the room, except they don’t go under the desk and chairs. We have two janitors in every floor, so when we get in the classroom in the morning, it’s really clean.” —Daquan
“Well, I think that the teacher should make them clean after every period so he’ll know which period made a mess. When most kids eat their sunflower seeds, they spit it all over the floor, and they don’t clean it, so if you come into that classroom and you shared that seat, and you have gum or something and you’re chewing, the teacher might think that you made all those sunflower seeds all over the floor. And then you have to pick it up, clean it, and…” —Denue
“[The teacher] should stay there and watch the kids when they make the mess. But when it’s near our desk but we didn’t put it there, he shouldn’t make us clean it.” — Amelia
