Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Lunch cleanup teaches
kids responsibilityQuestion: My child attends Manoa Elementary School and recently told me he has lunch monitor duty, which includes sweeping and wiping tables after the class leaves the cafeteria. Also, after completing their duty, students are not provided soap to wash up with. Why are children as young as 5 sweeping and wiping tables? Isn't this the cafeteria personnel's or custodian's job? They are getting paid and should be doing the cleaning, not the children. Who is responsible for delegating this duty? Is this something all students in all public elementary schools do? With so much talk of standards, what standard is being taught here?
Answer: You indicated you were hesitant to contact the school directly about this, but often that's the best way to find out what's going on at your child's school and to voice your concerns.
As Manoa School Principal Susan Imamura put it, "Please call and talk to the school." Parents are welcome to come in and see what's happening and to ask questions, she said. The school has not received any complaints about students helping out, which she said is outlined in the school's student handbook.
Assigning students as "table monitors" after lunch is part of a statewide Positive Behavior Support Program, in which children are taught respect, responsibility and safety, Imamura said.
"We have that in different settings -- walkways, playground, cafeteria, library, restrooms, assembly, bus," she said.
One way to be responsible in the cafeteria, for example, is cleaning up the eating area. Students rotate cleaning five tables. "It's not like they're assuming the responsibility of cleanup" of the entire cafeteria, Imamura said. "It's like reinforcing some of the chores and responsibilities they probably have at home."
As for not having soap, Imamura said while there is no soap available in the cafeteria, students have access to liquid soap in nearby restrooms.
As explained in a "Kokua Line" column last year, the state Board of Education's administrative rules also say: "Students shall assist in the cafeteria as part of their duties in school services. Not more than one full day of cafeteria duty in any one month or more than a total of seven full days in one school year shall be required of any student. Any exception must be approved by the district superintendent."
Eugene Kaneshiro, director of the Department of Education's School Food Services Branch, said at the time that some parents have complained about using their children for "slave labor," but they are advised to resolve the issue at the school level with the principal.
Beyond learning responsibility and contributing to the school, pulling cafeteria duty "is part of growing up and part of how Hawaii does its school lunch," Kaneshiro told "Kokua Line" last year.
Auwe
If the police, abandoned-vehicle inspectors and meter maids would issue citations to parked cars without current safety stickers (most apparently don't have insurance), our roads would be safer and less cluttered. -- No Name
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