To many Americans, rich, creamy, nutritious peanut butter is regarded as a mainstay staple of the childhood diet. Picky children who will eat nothing else can be pacified by a simple “PB&J.” Peanut butter can be applied to almost any unsavory fruit or vegetable and they instantly become edible. For decades, peanut butter sandwiches have populated kids’ lunchboxes.
However, in the past two decades, schools around the country have grown increasingly cautious with the infamous allergen. Some schools have gone so far as to ban peanut products from campuses completely.
As a person who spent his childhood cautiously navigating a lunchroom full of allergenic time-bombs, I can understand why some people may think peanut prohibition is a good idea. I can also see why it would be a big mistake.
Like it or not, primary school is where youngsters learn how to navigate the world around them. We learn how to build and maintain relationships, how to follow orders, how to question authority, and how make independent choices, including the choice of what to eat.
As a child with a peanut allergy, the school lunchroom was where I learned to select safe foods. The lunchroom was where I became aware of the constant threat of consuming something toxic, and it’s where I learned to ask what the heck I’m eating.
When children with severe food allergies don’t learn to be wary of what they eat, that is where the real threat is born. A child who was coddled a and kept in an allergen-free environment won’t gain a real understanding of how to operate independently in a world full of allergens. I think it’s better to allow the possibility that a child might have an allergic reaction in school, where they have immediate access to medical help, than to leave them to figure it out when they’re out on their own.
This Thanksgiving, I went with my family to eat at Boudro’s on the Riverwalk. They had a fantastic four-course Thanksgiving menu that consisted of a green apple and butternut squash soup, a cranberry and walnut salad, your choice of turkey breast or a ribeye for the main course, and a pumpkin creme brulee.
As I was ordering from their special holiday menu, the only choice I needed to make was whether to eat turkey or steak (the answer was obvious: steak). I paid little attention to the rest of the menu.
When the soup came, it looked gorgeous. It was a beautiful green and was garnished with a little dollop of sour cream and tiny little leaflets of some green herb. I mixed the sour cream garnish into my soup thoroughly before eating it. It was delicious, and I wondered allowed what that little unrecognizable herb was.
The when the waiter came by a couple minutes later, my dad asked what was in the garnish. The waiter replied, “Just sour cream, tarragon, and a bit of ground peanut.”
I gulped down a big mouthful of my peanut-contaminated soup.
Needless to say, the rest of the meal was a bit uncomfortable. The waiter brought me black and white soup, which I played with nervously until it was simply gray, and it was time for the next course.
Luckily I didn’t react to the peanut, and the rest of the meal was relatively uneventful. However, my uncomfortable experience at Thanksgiving dinner served as a valuable reminder to always read the menu, and to always let my server know I have a food allergy.
When considering whether to allow allergens in the classroom, we should consider the fact that these children will be living with allergens for their entire lives. It’s like teaching abstinence in the place of traditional sex ed., it doesn’t prepare students for the reality of the real world. It actually does the opposite by creating a false sense of security in the minds of vulnerable kids.
However, in the past two decades, schools around the country have grown increasingly cautious with the infamous allergen. Some schools have gone so far as to ban peanut products from campuses completely.
As a person who spent his childhood cautiously navigating a lunchroom full of allergenic time-bombs, I can understand why some people may think peanut prohibition is a good idea. I can also see why it would be a big mistake.
Like it or not, primary school is where youngsters learn how to navigate the world around them. We learn how to build and maintain relationships, how to follow orders, how to question authority, and how make independent choices, including the choice of what to eat.
As a child with a peanut allergy, the school lunchroom was where I learned to select safe foods. The lunchroom was where I became aware of the constant threat of consuming something toxic, and it’s where I learned to ask what the heck I’m eating.
When children with severe food allergies don’t learn to be wary of what they eat, that is where the real threat is born. A child who was coddled a and kept in an allergen-free environment won’t gain a real understanding of how to operate independently in a world full of allergens. I think it’s better to allow the possibility that a child might have an allergic reaction in school, where they have immediate access to medical help, than to leave them to figure it out when they’re out on their own.
This Thanksgiving, I went with my family to eat at Boudro’s on the Riverwalk. They had a fantastic four-course Thanksgiving menu that consisted of a green apple and butternut squash soup, a cranberry and walnut salad, your choice of turkey breast or a ribeye for the main course, and a pumpkin creme brulee.
As I was ordering from their special holiday menu, the only choice I needed to make was whether to eat turkey or steak (the answer was obvious: steak). I paid little attention to the rest of the menu.
When the soup came, it looked gorgeous. It was a beautiful green and was garnished with a little dollop of sour cream and tiny little leaflets of some green herb. I mixed the sour cream garnish into my soup thoroughly before eating it. It was delicious, and I wondered allowed what that little unrecognizable herb was.
The when the waiter came by a couple minutes later, my dad asked what was in the garnish. The waiter replied, “Just sour cream, tarragon, and a bit of ground peanut.”
I gulped down a big mouthful of my peanut-contaminated soup.
Needless to say, the rest of the meal was a bit uncomfortable. The waiter brought me black and white soup, which I played with nervously until it was simply gray, and it was time for the next course.
Luckily I didn’t react to the peanut, and the rest of the meal was relatively uneventful. However, my uncomfortable experience at Thanksgiving dinner served as a valuable reminder to always read the menu, and to always let my server know I have a food allergy.
When considering whether to allow allergens in the classroom, we should consider the fact that these children will be living with allergens for their entire lives. It’s like teaching abstinence in the place of traditional sex ed., it doesn’t prepare students for the reality of the real world. It actually does the opposite by creating a false sense of security in the minds of vulnerable kids.
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