To be really surprised at dd's teacher?

[BananaPudding]

Dd's class is going to start standardized testing in March, and as the testing is so long, it has become custom to provide the children with snacks at intervals. Dd brought home a letter from the teacher's request that included a list of snack suggestions. Things like animal crackers, cubed cheese etc. And....small bags of peanuts.

Dd has no allergies, and perhaps no one else in the class does either. But AIBU to be surprised that the school is actually requesting peanuts? Another mother I talked to this afternoon thought I was very silly to be surprised at all. It seems to me that even if no one in her particular class has a peanut allergy, it is odd to set the precedent of bringing them.

both of dd's primaries have banned nuts.

are they requesting or suggesting?

totally different

Not silly at all IF no one has peanut allergies in the class.

No one in my son's class has a nut allergy and I send him to school with mixed nuts nearly every day. Obviously, I wouldn't if someone did.

Are you suggesting that nuts should be banned completely, everywhere?

Seems odd to me when schools have spent so much time and energy trying to get parents to understand why they have a nut ban. That could undo the whole policy in my school, we'd recommend fruit or veg or plain biscuits.

I think it's totally unnecessary to specifically mention peanuts when everyone knows they are a known trigger of serious allergic reactions. Suggests a lack of thought.

your list is probably cut and pasted from a standard list of suggestions.

during a healthy lunchbox campaign a couple of years ago one came home suggesting peanuts despite the school being nut free.

I'd be more concerned that the testing is so long they need to have snacks!! Never heard of that before.

you are right to be surprised, its a rare school these days that doenst have a child with a nut allergy.
there is at least one in every class these days.

DS has nut allergy before anyone starts shouting at me!

The advice from the anapahylaxis campaign to schools is that they should not ban nuts for various reasons

No, no, I'm not suggesting that the school ban nuts. It's more what Cory said, I just thought it strange that such a known allergen was on the list.

It was a suggestion, not a request.

Trust me, there is no real "healthy eating campaign" in Texas schools. The food they serve on a daily basis is shocking.

Dd takes a packed lunch, and I do sometimes send a peanut butter sandwich. But it's for her personal consumption; she wouldn't trade because she hates jelly and condiments with a passion and wouldn't even want someone else's sandwich

I do know there are kids with nut allergies in the school somewhere, because they have a nut-free table in the lunch room. However, it's probably as Eccentrica says, and it was just a copied old list. I wasn't ever angry about, just surprised.

Upahill, the standardized testing of children in America is a joke. The tests take the entire school day. And IMO, the schools are not actually "teaching" anymore but just cramming for tests. The schools get a lot of government funding for how many take the tests and how well they do. And they cannot pass their grade with passing the tests. It's part of a program that Bush started called "No Child Left Behind", and in theory it sounded like a good plan. But in practice it's a flop.