Free Meals Debate: Private vs Public Schools - Essay Sample

Introduction

There are critical arguments among schools in both the private and public sector in what should be done when it comes to providing students with free meals. There are both sides with each having a point to say to such a case. Providence of food is an open manner to students who especially lack money to provide from themselves for different reasons from one to another. Students who require means of proving for themselves are mostly stigmatized for lacking money to pay lunch. They are either criticized or judged, and in most cases, the other students tend to isolate themselves from such students, and they end up not eating all through until they go home.

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It tends to create small groups of students from different types of upbringing backgrounds, the ones well-off and the ones who are not. Children advocates support the free meal provision for all students whether rich or poor to keep them at the same level, and they get to learn this growing up by been fair to all no matter the differences they might have ( Harris, and Connie 3). Providing for all students helps in cutting off critics and shaming of other students and avoidance of any student going hungry.

Providing to all is all rounded and not a depraved notion since it creates fairness among all students, but there is also a point whereby some students can provide for themselves, and they are better of carrying theirs and for those who lack they are provided for at school. This is a term of justice in that everybody wins. Why give food to students who can as well provide for themselves? It's entirely equitable to start this rule in schools and can assure satisfaction to both parties (Weaver-Hightower and Marcus 17). Though one can see it been a good idea, there can be a chance of criticizing in the school since the concept of one carrying and the other been provided, ends up with one student having a different type of meal from the other. The students supplied in school can have no choice of the kind of meal they feed while the one carrying can look down upon the others and the results can be no different from all been provided for.

Reduction of stigmatization in schools is not a worthy enough motive to waste money the taxpayers have worked hard for. As most say nothing in this world is free. There is always a highly incurred cost when it comes to the provision of food. The kind of budget school administrations will be very high if all students are set to be provided for meals every day (Khera and Reetika 4742-4750). These can create a big problem to the administration sector and the school's board members since they have to find means to deduct the expenses without funding from their own pockets. Though there are arguments such as; the provision of free lunch is but a mere consumption of taxpayer's cash. This makes sense, but not a genuine one since some children will have to starve a whole day and students have to have but enough energy to study.

Parents have worked twice as hard to provide packed lunch for their children before they leave for school. There is a high level of depression among the parents who are made to feel to have failed in providing for their young ones (Wallinga and David 405-410). Most women cannot live up to society's expectations in the kind of pressure they get from making a meal and suppressing failure feelings. Opting out of the free meals for students is a lose-lose situation in whereby, there is guiltiness in either feeding them with the school's lunch which is less nutritious or making them a delicious and nutritious meal in a limited time range. Its burdening parents when there are expectations that they have to end making their children healthy food to carry to school when they cannot utter a word in the inadequacy of the federally sponsored school meals program (Yousefian and Anush et al. 7). Many support the implementation of free lunch as a way to improve nutrition and health to the students involved in both the private and public schools.

Segregating of children who rely on these sponsored meals has become a significant problem in most schools. The students provided for or given the cheaply priced meals are set to one area while eating while the ones who carry form their homes are directed to eating their lunch from outside. These segregated students mostly come from immigrant families (Gerard and Stephen 1003-1017). This kind scenarios inhibited the cross line of citizenship, economic differences, and race that sets the motion of cultural segregation that is endured into the students at an early age. The widespread of this stigmatization is a source of arguments, and it is not nurtured to think of such as a thinking stretch to shaming and stigma around the school meals shapes the future socially of everyone.

Many controversial ideas have genuine reasons from one to another. Yes, food is not cheap and so providing for all students in all schools is not easily said as done. As much as it is not easy to produce, also letting children especially who come from not the well-off families to stay hungry and be shamed in front of other students cannot be an option. Equity and justice are entirely different terms in such cases. Justice is not the best, but a better choice in that for those who lack are provided for, for those who can get at least a meal can carry and even share with other students. It also comes to what the students are taught in school.

Works Cited

Gerard, Stephen. "Who is eligible for free school meals? Characterizing free school meals as a measure of disadvantage in England." British Educational Research Journal38.6 (2012): 1003-1017.

Harris, Connie. "Throwing a Life Saver to Content Reading through Peer Tutoring." (1977).1-16

Khera, Reetika. "Mid-day meals in primary schools: Achievements and challenges." Economic and political weekly (2006): 4742-4750.

Wallinga, David. "Agricultural policy and childhood obesity: a food system and public health commentary." Health Affairs 29.3 (2010): 405-410.

Weaver-Hightower, Marcus B. "Why education researchers should take school food seriously." Educational Researcher 40.1 (2011): 15-21.

Yousefian, Anush, et al. "Understanding the rural food environment--perspectives of low-income parents." Rural & Remote Health 11.2 (2011).1-11