Aibu to think that wasting eggs in this way is wrong?

[WillyNilly00]

I'm a TA at a school and today the teacher was telling me about a Russian roulette style game she planned to play with the children before Easter. It involves the children picking 1 of 2 eggs to 'back', then the eggs are dropped to see which is hardboiled, until just 1 child wins. Apparently 10-15 eggs are used.

Now I am against encouraging children to throw eggs at all but aibu to morally object to this game? Surely in this age of encouraging children not to waste anything and teaching them to be environmentally conscious this is inappropriate?

The teacher I work with looked at me like I had 2 heads when I raised this point.

The hard boiled eggs can be eaten afterwards.

We used to do egg jarping at Easter in school where everyone took in a hard boiled egg and basically two kids at a time would bash their eggs together. Whoever's shell broke was out and the intact egg went to the next round until eventually there was one winner.

It was brilliant fun and there used to be a lot of excitement about the event!

I also don't like food waste but I think I'd let this go for the sake of the 5 raw eggs that will be wasted - it's a drop in the ocean... Having said that, if they dropped them on a clean mat they could make an omelette afterwards. Maths AND Home ec

It doesn't sit right with me. Tossing a coin would teach the same.

We have our own hens and there little bodies work hard to produce an egg a day. The caged hen industry is cruel and barn kept not much better and even free range hens are culled at 18 months.

Could you not suggest a game involving water ballons for the same engagement? Not all dcs would enjoy smashing eggs, ds (5) is very careful collecting eggs and gets upset if we accidentally break one.

It's just a bit of fun. Oh for heavens sakes.

I don't like it either. I've always been revolted by pie eating competitions and suchlike too.

Sorry that was a Private Eye quote "What a virtuous cunt you are sir!"

Not directed at OP

Are the eggs dropped or thrown? You've said both in your OP.

I imagine they'll use out of date eggs, perhaps?

Oh FFS. We used to have a problem solving/science activity which was to construct a way of stopping eggs being broken when dropped from a height. It was great. I want to stop food waste but this is so inconsequential.

Water balloons?! Noooooo! Plastic waste. We're all so woke now there is nothing we can do anymore, nothing.

Is it any different from an over weight person eating them? Or a religious school painting them?

Maybe I'm po faced and joyless but I would refuse to allow my children to take part in something like this. Ruining good food while people are going hungry is just immoral (see also cake smashes and "sensory play"). Maybe my perspective is different because I have previously been seriously skint and had to have a food parcel from social services at my worst point. I longed for party invites for my son because there was a chance the parents would be invited to eat any leftovers when the kids had done. I would literally have snatched your hand off for an egg in those days and would have been heartbroken to see them wasted. Unless the demographic is very middle class there will probably be onlookers at this activity in this position, maybe too ashamed to admit it though. Definitely needs reconsidering. Buried treasure is a good game for probability and is quite fun and messy. You use beakers (or recycle yogurt pots). Put "treasure" in some and not others then put a bit of play sand in so you can't tell which is which. The kids then get to empty the sand through sieves or dig it out with spoons and see what the ratio of treasure:no treasure is. The sand is collected for reuse and not binned so waste is minimal. You can use tokens that can be swapped for a prize if you're looking at them winning something to take home.

But how do you know it's 'good food' and not out of date?

DD's playgroup stopped making necklaces out of pasta when one of the children tried to take everybody's home for tea.

Do you think they let the kids play with rancid eggs?

Whoops. I just wanted to say that is one of the most heart breaking thing I’ve read in a while.

YANBU. I hate to see food wasted too. There are many other ways to teach children about probability and if you want an Easter activity do an egg hunt or pick different chocolate eggs out of a dark sack or something.

This is ridiculous.

People who are talking about ‘I’d do a game with sand’ - do you know where sand comes from? Bloody enormous quarries in big diesel lorries. Chocolate - palm oil and rainforest destruction.

By contrast, eggs are far lower impact.

I can’t bear Thick Woke. Posters on this thread reall need to check themselves. .

@WorraLiberty To be honest we didn't go into whether a drop or a throw. I imagine a small throw in order to assume no egg ends up on uniform? But I'm honestly not sure, does it make a difference.

Nothing was mentioned of the eggs being out of date either.

You dont need to smash them to know if they are raw or hard boiled. Spin them.on their sides and tap lightly with the flat of your hand. A raw one will continue to spin slowly, a hard boiled one stops spinning

Chuckling at the idea of children lobbing rotten eggs at each other...

I say good on the teacher for trying to make the lesson fun. And they are learning something at the same time - it would be ok with me.

Painting eggs for Easter was never seen as food waste.

I can't get worked up about this.

On sports day we have a "race" where two children throw an egg to each other then take a step back, and repeat, until one drops the egg and it breaks. The winner is the non-dropper. They love it and we use the shells on the school veg patch to deter slugs.

Thanks everyone for the alternative ideas.

I don't pretend to be completely green or know the environmental impact of everything, my main concern was of the messages this game sends. I will 100% go back to the teacher with the immortal point, I completely agree that this would be heartbreaking for a child going without food to witness.

I keep chickens. I really don’t think their ‘little bodies do such hard work’ to make eggs. They just make eggs. Lots of them. They do not give a shit what happens after that. We quite often give them to toddlers to throw at trees.

So egg and spoon races are wrong?

Aye - truly the work of the devil