The girls' school organized a swim party and everybody was asked to bring snacks. We brought a nice cake and there was fruit and a lot of snacks with peanut-butter. Solange came home with that face. The one I know so well. No anger just frustration. She didn't eat anything. Too much risk.
Her sisters with their bellies full, almost exhausted by the sugar. It's party time, sweet is delicious and especially to take a bite of every different piece seems the perfect thrill.
I wonder, should you, as a school and as a team of teachers take care of kids with food related allergies?
Is the fun of a gathering about all the participants?
How does the community deals with a minority?
A thought could be about the fact: that at the campus there are kids with serious allergies. A next step could be: a policy about allergies.
In the meantime Solange will stay healthy knowing she can't eat any snack most of the time, which is not to bad neither. She just does not eat because the food that is proposed could harm her body.
In the kitchen she makes herself a nice snack:
two slices of bread with Emmental cheese, slices tomato and dried herbes from the Provence.
Grilled in the toaster.
So,should I propose at school a more attentive way of acting about peanuts? There is no allergy policy at all. What is the right balance and how should one proceed? I know that in the United States there is a package of rules and measures, a serious school policy about allergies. The lobby is impressive. We have never been there, we had the girls in European schools. In the schools we frequented the whole issue about allergies was most of the time a personal adventure and not implemented as such in the school policy.
It remained foremost a family topic and we took care of it. The situation was clear. We didn't expect something from their side.
Which seems reasonable. But at the same time I think, some training and explanation in classes could be very helpful. Creating empathy and understanding without the focus on a peanut free campus.