So I read a blog entry today about a teacher who feels guilty about eating nuts at school. Now she does not have any allergic children in her class, nor is the school peanut and tree nut free. However they were at one time but that failed. The new idea is for the teachers to abstain and ask the kids to as well, but again it's not policy. Kids can still bring in their nutty foods.
She goes on to say how guilty she feels about her secret stash of mixed nuts she has in her draw. That she always washes her hands after eating them. She is aware of the allergies in the school (again none in her classroom). She seems responsible about it, but feels guilty. I think that feeling alone shows that she does care. Her post was well written and not accusatory against food allergic children or parents.
My point of this post is to ask, what's acceptable to you? We each will have our own tolerance on what is OK and what's not. In general I am OK with what she is doing. Provided she is not interacting with other children who do have allergies and is not eating the nuts in front of the non allergic kids when asking them not to eat nuts. I do think a teacher needs to set the example. Kids learn from teachers just as much as they do from home.
OK what do you think? Should she feel guilty?
I have a son with a peanut allergy. I don't think she should feel guilty at all. Especially since she doesn't have allergic kids in her classroom right now. My son is in a peanut free school, but generally speaking I'm not in favor peanut bans at school. My son is not contact or airborne reactive so it doesn't seem necessary in our case. The school has put it in place on their own, but next year he will be in middle school and will not be in a peanut free building. We're okay with that and have other appropriate food allergy plans in place. We take his allergy seriously and make sure people are making the appropriate accommodations for him.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do applaud this teacher for her level of awareness and willingness to take food allergies seriously.