BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 11-13,  2016) — BIC was the name of my first ballpoint pen. BIC then became the Berkshire Innovation Center. Now there’s another BIC in town.

THE PLANET has long known that food and classrooms are not a good fit, if, that is, the object is teaching and learning. Food is rivaled only by smart phones and tardiness as a distraction of focus and a certain reduction of classroom quality. Of course, this is Pittsfield. Most anywhere else, this would be cited and noted. In the city, though, the PSD embraces anything that can justify their existence, particularly if if erodes classroom performance. Classroom failure allows the PSD to demand more money. We all know how that has worked out for Pittsfield’s youngsters, parents, citizens, and taxpayers.

Breakfast in Bed at Crosby

Kids at Crosy Elementary School are now getting the equivalent of breakfast in bed. Each of Crosby’s 440 students can get breakfast in their classrooms — that’s 29 rooms for students in pre-K through 5th grade. Every kid enrolled in a Pittsfield elementary school received breakfast and lunches at what the department calls “at no cost” through the CEP — Community Eligible Program. These “free” meals aren’t free at all. They are bought and paid for by beleaguered Pittsfield taxpayers, the vast majority of whom have no children in the system. Crosby has taken the next step: Pancaked and Poptarts replacing lessons.

Sylvana Bryan told Susan Guerrero of The Pittsfield Gazette that the BIC program (Breakfast in Class) “allows for a healthy breakfast to be available to every child and is served after the school day begins.”

Notice, she said “after the school day begins.” This means that breakfast — now the responsibility of the school and not parents, families, or households — easts into academic time. How can that be good? What happens when these kids get into classrooms that do not start with breakfast? Have you ever heard of Pavlov‘s dog?

Bryan claims that BIC “makes it easier for all children to participate. The idea is that students eat together in their classrooms at the start of the day.” Fine. Teachers now become waiters, waitresses, maitre ds. The funniest part of BIC is that officials say it takes “10 to 15 minutes.” In other words, kids must wolf down their meals. No word on the prep or the cleanup, not that grammar school children stuffing their faces as fast as they can are messy.

Bryan claims that “Schools who [sic] have been participating in BIC have seen improvement in academic performance, improvement in student behavior, and improvement in student attendance.” That’s a whole lot of improvement for a few stacks of pancakes. But is it so? She cited no data. What of food waste? Clean-up? What of students who are late for class? How much teacher and custodial time is consumed? Do bathroom needs increase? Since the academic part of the school day is delayed, how smooth is the transition from feeding to learning?

Teachers Weigh In

What do teachers think? THE PLANET presents these comments, without names, natch:

From Crockpot Queen: “I find that kids that bring breakfast to the classroom find it to be a big distraction. They don’t complete their morning work and then the little trash cans are overflowing and it’s not even 8:15 am. I wish they would keep them in the cafeteria during announcements and just send them after… or insist that they come earlier if they want breakfast. I know some kids really need it but it does influence what should be going on the classroom.”

Full and Fed Up: “It is supposed to help with attendance, mainly tardies. In the beginning, it did. Now, not so much! … It was crazy, stressful, and annoying.”

Green Bunny: “I’m sure there are children who are poverty stricken and don’t have enough food for breakfast. I’m sure many children are not eating healthy breakfasts but eating sugar or fat laden foods for breakfast. I’m sure that the school is a logical place to make sure that children have enough food to eat. I’m NOT sure, however, that teachers should be the ones to make sure they’re eating a healthy breakfast. This is yet another parental responsibility that’s pushed onto us. When are we as teachers going to say “STOP!! This is NOT OUR JOB!!” When there are so many complaints about children not passing the almighty test, why why why are they (the ubiquitous they) pushing more and more extraneous stuff at us?!? If I could just TEACH (there’s a novel idea–insert symphony of sarcasm!) fripperies like math skills, reading, writing, the children would pass the infernal tests easily. Maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t need to prove ourselves with the stupid time-wasting tests. Sorry, OP, this makes me a little hot under the collar. It’s lucky you didn’t ask about Daily Physical Activity or I might have had an aneurysm.”

What do you think, taxpayers.

You’re the ones who’s paying for these flapjacks?

While you’re looking in the mirror for the answer, THE PLANET opens The Comment Line. Please, please, please: Keep the intelligence quotient high. Give us your best. Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“The child of the mountain lies unaware of the clarion call.” — Simon & Garfunkel, from “Scarborough Fair,” (1968).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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