« Sandstorm | Main | The Terminal »

May 24, 2006

This is how educators spend their time?

I ran across this story in the zero-tolerance section at OpinionJournal.com from Basha High school in Arizona:

Alvers and other Basha High students are seeing red over a school policy that charges them 25 cents for two half-ounce packets of ketchup at lunch. The policy was enacted recently to limit waste and messiness in the school's lunch area.

Well, actually, not waste, just messiness:

"If you have unrestricted access to things that explode, things will happen," said Kristine Marchiando, the school's principal. She said students were twisting ketchup packets and stomping on them, requiring an outdoor lunch area to be steam-cleaned regularly.

Can kids bring their own ketchup? Nope.

Students opting to bring their own ketchup bottles to school have had them confiscated by security. They have been told the bottles are considered open food containers and represent a health-code violation. Students have been threatened with suspension if they persist.

Health-code violations? Puh-leeze. What about those students who bring bag lunches to school? Are their lunches examined daily for substances which prompt the CDC to immediately shut down schools and office buildings? You know, substances such as tunafish, peanut butter, or god forbid, eggsalad?

Actually, the article doesn't even mention bag lunches, so they may not even allow them. At the base of all this, I think its more about making the dining facilities at the school more profitable (or at least more able to cover their costs). I know on an average-sized hamburger, I normally use 2 ketchup packets. That 3rd packet will just not cut it for an entire order of french fries. So for my 4 extra packets, I would pay 50 cents. The school's cost? Probably around 2 cents. A 1500% profit.

Ultimately, what this principal is doing is tragic. Blowing up ketchup packets is so easy, these kids would probably become bored with it and stop altogether soon. To call the resultant burst "an explosion" is a fairly generous use of the term. Ultimately, by depriving these kids of their giggles, she is only motivating them to experiment, and they will also likely escalate out of spite. If she thinks it costs alot of money to steam clean a floor outdoors, just wait until they discover the amazing aerodynamic properties of a slice of bologna, or the natural attractive force between sliced pickles and a cafeteria ceiling.

Of course, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek right about now, but the whole situation is stupid. The school wants to charge for ketchup? Fine. But punnishing students who are enterprising enough to bring their own is stupid. If public schools actually taught economics any more, this would be a great topic on how supply and demand lead to fair market prices, and conversely, how price-fixing inevitably leads to smuggling and the rise of black markets.

Posted by TJ at May 24, 2006 05:44 PM

Comments

Posted by: littlesis at May 24, 2006 10:44 PM

Post a comment