Last week, I took part in a parent panel on the local CBC morning radio program. With a couple of other parents we discussed the fact that Ronald MacDonald of Big Mac and Supersize fame was guffawing his way through the hallways of elementary schools promoting healthy living. It was a heated and rather funny discussion that ran the gamut of opinion......from absolute disgust that such a corporate icon of fast food could be doing anything but promoting fat gobules found in McGarbage to an attempt at putting the Clown in context of all the other "healthy living" activities and new nutrition policies the school system has been implementing.
My personal feelings? I thought it wasn't a great move because of the mixed messages, but that my son got the point of the entertaining Ronald MacDonald show in his gym. According to Max, Ronald was promoting healthy living. He sarcastically told me: "Yeah, you eat a Big Mac, then you go for a run and burn it off, and then order another Big Mac and then go for a run." Ah, yes balance! Me of all people ended up being the voice of humourous reason......
Sometimes stories can take on a life of their own, especially when there are only a handful of radio stations to tune into in this fair city. On the day it aired, everywhere I went I bumped into somebody who had heard the panel and who wanted to air their own feelings. It hit some weird nerve ending. I guess the school admin offices throughout the city were inundated with phone calls from irate parents who didn't know the big goofy guy was in town. CBC received several emails, and in turn interviewed a school official to try to find out who was responsible for approving this horrendously hideous heavy handed event. Today, there is an opinion piece in the local paper that referred to a comment I made on air. This morning, the Minister of Education, from his cellphone while standing in the Toronto Airport waiting for his flight to China to promote New Brunswicks "FABULOUS" school system, announced that Ronald MacDonald will from here on in be banned from our elementary schools. The news made national headlines.
Read the story for yourself
Thank God for small miracles......................we have saved our children from the artery clogging calamity caused by too many chicken lips.........er I mean nuggets.
I think people have too much time on their hands to really care about more important issues. I also think that the ire shown indicates that parents don't realize how savy our children our. WE underestimate their ability to read a situation realistically. We also think we can "save" and "protect" them from the evils of advertising as well as anything that could wreak havoc on their tender psyches. How will kids ever learn to critically think if we protect them from controversy? Get real!!
My personal feelings? I thought it wasn't a great move because of the mixed messages, but that my son got the point of the entertaining Ronald MacDonald show in his gym. According to Max, Ronald was promoting healthy living. He sarcastically told me: "Yeah, you eat a Big Mac, then you go for a run and burn it off, and then order another Big Mac and then go for a run." Ah, yes balance! Me of all people ended up being the voice of humourous reason......
Sometimes stories can take on a life of their own, especially when there are only a handful of radio stations to tune into in this fair city. On the day it aired, everywhere I went I bumped into somebody who had heard the panel and who wanted to air their own feelings. It hit some weird nerve ending. I guess the school admin offices throughout the city were inundated with phone calls from irate parents who didn't know the big goofy guy was in town. CBC received several emails, and in turn interviewed a school official to try to find out who was responsible for approving this horrendously hideous heavy handed event. Today, there is an opinion piece in the local paper that referred to a comment I made on air. This morning, the Minister of Education, from his cellphone while standing in the Toronto Airport waiting for his flight to China to promote New Brunswicks "FABULOUS" school system, announced that Ronald MacDonald will from here on in be banned from our elementary schools. The news made national headlines.
Read the story for yourself
Thank God for small miracles......................we have saved our children from the artery clogging calamity caused by too many chicken lips.........er I mean nuggets.
I think people have too much time on their hands to really care about more important issues. I also think that the ire shown indicates that parents don't realize how savy our children our. WE underestimate their ability to read a situation realistically. We also think we can "save" and "protect" them from the evils of advertising as well as anything that could wreak havoc on their tender psyches. How will kids ever learn to critically think if we protect them from controversy? Get real!!
5 comments:
Your son hit the nail on the head "Eat a Big Mac, go for a run, eat another Big Mac and go for another run". What I think is funny is that we won't allow Big Red into the classrooms but for years we have allowed companies like Greco and DQ sponsor our school teams. Sure they are sports teams but not every kid plays sports but every kid does know who sponsored their school's hockey, football and basketball teams. A bit of an oxymoron if you will.
Should we turn our backs to corporate sponsors all together and have what little money our sports team get taken away? It seems schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place doesn't it? They cannot sell a cookie in the cafeteria, they must promote healthy living but have to do so on a minute little almost non-existent budget due to government cuts to the Physical Education, Music and Arts programs in the schools. When a corporation wants to show a little social-responsibility they are told to pack up their big red shoes and hit the road.
So now what do the schools do? Do they tell Greco that they can no longer sponsor the FHS Hockey Team because it gives the wrong image? Do they have to tell McDonald's that they are no longer interested in the financial handout used to buy much needed equipment that should be the responsibility of the government to begin with?
Being stuck between a rock and a hard place is an uncomfortable position to be in. I don't agree with the Ronald doing Pep Rallies in my kid's school but hey if he wants to give the schools money without the rallies I see no problem in that as long as the Golden Arches are not stamped on each basketball. Somebody needs to give money to the schools, somebody needs to get those larger kids moving again otherwise we all end up footing the big, fat, grease soaked bill.
My first thought when I started reading about Ronald McDonald getting banned (it's spelled with a "Mc", isn't it, really?) was that he was somehow offensive to Muslims or somebody. Well, all sorts of things are offensive to Muslims, or to atheists or to liberals and we've read plenty of reports of court cases where various radicals succeed in getting things banned, or governments declaring things unacceptable and banning them. Like Piglet, like the Cross, the Ten Commandments, anything deemed politically incorrect.
What a relief it was that the government actually had a legitimate reason for banning Ronald McDonald! I thought the new Liberal regime was already starting the radical leftist fascism we see plenty of these days, actually. But they just got started, so they could still get nutty...
Say... what've the Liberals actually done so far, except talk, talk, talk? Anyone even remember their election promises, and if so, do you believe they're really serious about keeping them as soon as possible? I personally doubt they'll do much and might even make the Tories look better in contrast, though frankly the Tories could've done a helluva lot more good stuff but chose not to.
Oh well, that's NB politics. C'est la vie. *Sigh*
What I can't seem to wrap my mind around is the fact that our schools do get a lot of state aid, yet I still had to suppliment my child with his own paper for school. Let me clarify this a bit.
As a business owner, it is my responsibility to collect sales tax for all the "wares" I sell to the public. In my state of Georgia, depending on the county we deliver food to, the tax could range anywhere from 6 to 8% of the subtotal of goods. At the end of the month, I must fill out a form which seperates the counties by the taxes they collect. In some cases, some counties collect taxes for our certain things that others do not.... but they all collect taxes for education: public schools, if you will. Now I am only one business.... and Atlanta has MANY. Where does all that tax money go?
On top of that, our schools are considered non-taxable... meaning that they have a state tax ID number where they don't have to pay taxes on goods that they buy.
I'm not against this, and feel that they need need all the breaks that they can get... but it still baffles me that the money collected through our taxes is never enough to supply our schools sufficiently with even the most basic needs. I was always shelling out money for things I thought the school should have already. Enter the corporate world for relieving parents of these extras, and insuring our schools have more money to do the things they want to do. We are easy fodder for them, and they know it.
It may have been an attempt in McDonalds case to give out a better image than the one they have as far as their "fat" food goes... but then we have a parent who tried to sue McDonalds because she willingly fed her child a steady diet of McDonalds (breakfast, lunch & dinner) as she had no time to prepare her child a proper meal.... and of course the child was tipping the scales far past the point of anyone his age.
To me... it's a double-edged sword that McDonalds took on. They can never be really believable until their food is fat-free to the public as a whole. Yeah, I know you can always buy a salad there... just watch out for the dressing you put in it... you might as well have ordered the burger and fries.
On the plus side of this education equation, our state does have a lottery sponsored system that allows for our children to go to college tuition free if they maintain a GPA average of 3.2. They must attend a college in the state, but that's a small price to pay for free tuition.
Only too bad that we don't have lottery funds for public schools, where we can get the kids things they need while they are still young and starting their learning process. Isn't it an important place to start... at the beginning? As it is now... they only know how to ask for more dollars from us.
Since posting this story, the phone calls and emails have continued to flow into the schools and the radio station. The goverenment of Nova Scotia is reconsidering their involvement with Ronnie in their schools........a big Mac rep has been interviewed on the morning show.....it's completely and utterly beyond silly. Everywhere I have gone in this city, acquaintances have shared their opinion with me. My husband has had various people approach him too.
Today I had to venture over to the school to drop off stuff for the Christmas Bazaar and found the Principal......an earnest, honest man who is very careful and serious when he makes decisions......quite despondent and upset over the hoopla. He has taken the whole thing personally and I felt badly for him. He is the one bearing the brunt of the ongoing silly saga....
Our community includes corporations. Our government has cut budgets to the bone in the schools. Like you Ellen, supplementing for paper and basics is the norm around here....hence a zooped up Christmas Bazaar coming up which will fetch $$$$ for the school, most of which goes to essentials.....and most of the money coming from the pockets of the parents.
We need to find a way to pull all members of our community....gov't, churches, corporations, small businesses, families, neighbours to contribute and to play a role in our educational system. It only makes sense that we invest in our future.
Kids are smart.......they get it. They know that a corporation like MacD's has ulterior motives. It's not like they're hiding it......
And one more thing.........parents should learn just to say NO and to put some parameters around their children's lives. For God's sake, parents need to grow the frig up and do their job overseeing the nutritional content their children are consuming. And......get them outdoors playing ball.
OK.......rant over........ mine anyways :)
Very well said.... and yes, we were seperated at birth.
Post a Comment