maybe they should have a smoking patio like Parker did.

I know first hand that some school have large numbers of children to feed in a short amount of time and the only way to feed everyone is quickly. It is sad but true. 400 kids in one room doesn't work except in shifts. K-5 is 6 shifts and since our schools only let lunch helpers work part time you do the math. Most lunch times are between 11-1. I don't think kids should be quite, but an indoor voice is a must. That is just a safety issue. I see kids every day who talk through lunch and dump their food without eating, even if they are allowed to stay and eat who wants to when they can go out and play. If you want your kid to have more time send a cold lunch, then the line and time they get there is not such a problem. I really only hear complaints and not many helpful ideas.

Wow JVLTRNSPLNT - You REALLY don't know me at all, and you are very judgemental. I do happen to know first hand what this is like. I do visit my son on his lunch. I am very involved with the school, I attend functions, I am part of the PTA, and I bet most teachers there know me on a first hand basis, and even better - they probably actually like me. I work well with the teachers there, get feedback from the teachers, and the teachers feel comfortable enough with me to call ME if I am able to be of assistance to them. Yes, I am involved and I am not a "tattler" as you wrote. I am one that tries to help the school and let them know that I am there to help when I can. I am trying to make a good experience for my son and daughter in every way. Why don't you worry about the people that are NOT trying to be involved in making it a better place for their children. That would be a better place to start.

jvltrnsplnt, I agree that your comments were uncalled for. If you will notice, we are trying to be proactive and come up with a solution that will work for all involved...the PROBLEM already exists, but until this article was published, it was not discussed much in Janesville School District (to my knowledge). The children I am concerned about are not even my children, but I do not want their education to be affected because of lunch room/time rules that can improve-if the correct method is applied to affect change. I see that as progressive rather than "tattling". btw: parents and other caretakers have a right to be concerned about their children's school lunch experiences (good OR difficult). This is not just a School District of Janesville's issue. This is a problem in many communities and health care workers, social service workers and educators alike are concerned about how the shortened lunch affects children. I think we are starting to see....

jvltrnsplnt: In answer to your question, yes my husband and I have both gone to lunch with our daughter and witnessed firsthand the treatment the kids receive. And since I know that rule1999's child attends the same school as my daughter I am glad to hear he contacted the superintendant. Especially since I did the same thing earlier this year. My question to you is, do you have children in the Janesville Elementary school's and have YOU ever gone to lunch at the school?

jvltrsplnt - Your attack on 1999 was totally uncalled for and without basis and your post makes almost no sense at all.

Wow, I hope you can all still see what's going on from where you sit in your ivory tower. Just how many of you actually GO to your child's school and have lunch with them? Do you know these things first hand? Sure, kids come home from school hungry. They're still growing! Most kids enjoy an after-school snack - they've had recess and lots of learning time since lunch! As for you rule1999, you certainly seem to have all the answers. Tattle and tell someone else to fix it. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Silent lunch is a separate issue from pushing them out too soon.
The silent lunch part is great, but the part of forcing them out too soon is bad.

truth1: Go sit in one of these schools: Jackson or Lincoln
THEN give me your opinion of the "silent lunch". Bet you will change your mind after listening to the whistle and hearing the kids get pushed out of the lunchroom!

Rule1999-That's great that you contacted the superintendent about the lunch issue! Just to warn you though that the e-mail might not make things change. I don't know how things work in the Janesville District, but the district I do have experience with contacting and speaking to the school board and superintendent do not result in a change. Unfortunately, this is more than just a local issue. Just as the article above said it is about state mandated instructional time. The issue of shortened lunchtime is a state and national issue as well. Here is an article from the Wisconsin State Journal back in 2007.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mm/247214

Good luck to you in your endeavor though!

I have actually never heard of the "silent lunch" before seeing it on here.
That is a great idea as well as a health issue.
You tend to EAT FAST when you want to talk.
15-20 minutes to socialize AFTER eating is the healthy way to go..Whoever implemented that is a genius.

I have emailed the superintendent, Tom Evert and encourage you all to do the same on this issue: tevert@janesville.k12.wi.us. Great job Adams school - lets see if we can get the others on the band wagon. Socializing at lunchtime should not be banned.

crash99: You are indeed lucky for your child to be at Adams. My husband switched jobs this year so he is unable to go to lunch as often, but it was this year that I have addressed to the principal at my child's school the problem I have with their lunch period and nothing has changed. I actually thought about switching schools, but my child said no. Only one more year and then the switch to Edison so I said I would wait until the end of this year to decide.

my child goes to adams school in janesville and i have ate lunch there many times with her it is a nice lunch period the staff is polite, pleasent, and helpful to the kids from me watching the kids in the lunch room 50% of the kids dont want to eat unless it is the candy and cookies in there lunch then it is just play time until they can go outside my child eats the hot lunch and i have never heard or seen her not have enough time to eat what she wants and believe me she is a talker so she is getting time to laugh and socialize and when it is time to go out side children that want to stay and eat are moved to a table so they can finish and make room for the next lunch period to move in i would like to say good job to the adams school staff and mrs grant adams is a well runned school and i am lucky my child is a student there

I hope the gazette does do an article on the elementary - maybe an editorial where someone goes and eats with the kids to experience it. I hope many of the parents here go to their kid's school and do the same thing. The more people that are aware of this the better.

Every day brings yet another reason why more parents are homeschooling to get their kids out of these messes.

..........not even time to eat

............sheeeesh

Teachers only get 30 minutes for lunch, same as the kids. And we have the same issues with long lines, socializing, leftovers, wanting to be first on the playground, and nervous tummies.

babaloo1: Do you offer the "Spicy Chef" salad?

As a parent who will have kids in school soon I don't like the idea of kids being hurried either. All part of this fast paced world we live in. I am for giving kids the same ammount of lunch time as the teachers get.

Actually I have cooked,and eaten, the cafeteria broccoli and yes we do "steam" it. Steaming is the preferred method by the DPI as it loses less nutrients...lol ...and no we don't turn it into mush or hide it under cheese sauce...and yes the kids like it!! In fact the favorite soup on the ala carte side is broccoli.. So give the broccoli a break <g>

Nope. Served it in "to go" cups.

caddyshack: Did they give the kids time to eat it?

truth1: Have you ever had the cafeteria broccoli? It was steamed too.

Yes, "silent lunch" is one of the best ideas I've seen for the reasons you stated....This thing of kicking students out before they have time to eat is child abuse, plain and simple..I thought "schools" were supposed to help prevent abuse, not create it.

I read an article about the "silent lunch" a short time ago, but I cannot remember where. Try to "Google" it. The theory of the silent time is to get kids to use the first part of lunch time to actually eat and enjoy the savory cafeteria lunches. It sounds like a good idea as long as we also quiet the whistle blowers. Kids can eat in peace, no leftovers, no nervous tummies, no rushing to be first on the playground, all is good.

If I were one of these students that was "kicked out" of the lunchroom, I would just take my lunch to a classroom or somewhere else and eat...If I were the parent, they WOULD be "allowed" to do this, too.

ms sassy- That is a very truthful post.

I tell you, I'm just STEAMED seeing this.

I don't have kids in school, but if I did and this was going on with them, it would STOP and FAST.

I would have a talk with the "school" and the kid would do whatever amount of "disobeying" it took to rectify this nonsense.

I don't know that it will lead to "kill or be killed" but I find the practice of forcing elementary children to sit silently at lunch with the threat of having the lights turned out or missing their recess to be very distrubing. Isn't the teaching of socialization skills one of the functions of an elementary level school? I'm not being critical but I wouldn't leave my child in that enviroment.

Barack Obama is right. People are angry, and bitter. They cling to their religion, guns, and now I'll add school lunch time for their children. This is a perfect example of how the Citizens have lost control of our government. Nobody wants short lunch periods, but there they are. Look at all the comments on something as small as this. Start digging around on the Internet, and find out how bad it really is. It will hurt, you'll want to scream, and you'll want to just forget about it because it's so bad. Think the tax credit will help? If more money is made available to the same number of people without any increase of goods or services, the only thing that will happen is prices will increase. All that extra money is coming from debt. Debt owed to other countries. Debt that your children will be paying back, if the economy doesn't collapse first. I would be screaming about that, and not lunch time issues. Ya, it hurts in your stomach to think about it. What to do?

It's undoubtely NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND and Bush's fault.

It's all Fergers fault!

Not only is it setting a bad example for social skill building, but also table manners (not gulping down your food, enjoying the taste of the food, waiting for others to finish before excusing yourself, etc.)

This is a real sad story. I guess this is just another example of how life has gotten too busy to live. It's not a very positive message to send to children...what will they be like when they are young adults? Speeding in their cars, disregarding others waiting in long lines to get to the front, kill or be killed?

thekid3477: We are not talking about high school kids. We are talking about elementary students.

geez kids. yer in high school. grow up. if you want more time do what the rest of us did an skip the class before or after:)

I just wanted to add that the school I was referring to is not in the JSD. I still think it would be interesting to have a study done on the lunch period for elementary schools in the area (maybe county wide).

My younger brother would come home from elementary school with half his lunch in his lunchbox and tell the same story about "not having enough time" to eat. Now, when I was in elementary school, in the mid to late eighties, we had lunch at noontime and had about 20 or 30 minutes not including recess. We could talk and socialize and sit wherever we wanted at the tables. In fact, we weren't allowed out to recess until a certain time so we had time to eat lunch. Same thing in middle and high school in the mid to late nineties. We weren't rushed through our lunch AND we had time to socialize. What happened? What has become so important that lunch and social skill building are all but eliminated?

I am all for the petition. I will check into starting one. If anyone knows in the meantime -please advise :-)

babaloo1: I sent an e-mail to the superintendent. He forwarded it to the principal of the elemetary school my daughter attends. That is when the principal told me that the kids can take the whole lunch period to eat. Well, my child still comes home during the weeks that her class is last in line with stomach aches because she is hungry. It really angers me but unless a petition were to be started, I don't think any changes will be made. (Not sure how to start a formal petition or I would be the first signature.)

As a food service person, these comments of turning lights off and yelling at kids really disturbs me. Lunch time should be a healthy, happy experience not one full of fear!! I'm at the high school level, not Janesville, and we have our kids thru the main/ala carte lines in 6-10 minutes and our kids have a 30 minute lunch. I like to talk with the kids, and make sure I smile, so they do feel comfortable. The other side of the coin is the fact there isn't any money in any school district budget anymore-so they keep pushing hours back on support staff-to get more done in less time. But..the DPI wants more and more from the food service people. So there you are, with the DPI pushing more and more programs, with no staff time to do these things. All the while they hold it over your head that they will pull their funding if you don't do it their way. Those of you with kids who are afraid of "the lunch-lady" I'd take it to the principal, the supt., and to the school board if necessary. I think maybe there should be some looking into your elem. lunch programs.

I would also like to see the study done in the elementary schools - great idea Athena. Are all the elemenatary schools in Janesville under such short time frames for lunch? I also agree with you Athena - my son comes home full of anxiety too from the atmosphere in the lunch room - I am curious which school this is. If you want, you can email me at lkrule@sbcglobal.net.

I'm all for adding another 15 minutes to the school day so my child has time to actually eat. Maybe this way the teachers would be able to focus more on teaching than having to take a break for a snack in the afternoon. My child is in 4th grade and I send graham crackers for the class to eat at snack time. If kids were allowed to finish their lunch then they wouldn't need snack time. Another thing, maybe they need a few more minutes in between lunch periods.

Gazette staff you might want to do a study in the elementary schools instead of the high schools.

Last year I contacted a person at the DPI concerning lunch time. The person I e-mailed said that there should be at least 20 minutes for lunch from the time the last child in line sits down until lunch period is over.

The school I had my child in last year had a lunch period of only 20 minutes. By the time the last kid in line sat down that kid only had 14 minutes to eat. There was also a mandatory "no talking" time the last ten minutes. There was an atmosphere of anxiety and hurriedness in the air. My child would come home with an upset stomach and saying that food would get stuck in his throat and chest during lunch. He was also deathly afraid to talk because he didn't want to get into trouble and have the class's stickers taken away. He was also bothered by the lights going out and the shouting of the supervisors to finish up and be quiet. The hot lunch kids and cold lunch kids were separated as well in order to save time on seating.

The powers that be said that there were no fixes in the near future for the short lunch period except to extend the school day or to have my child just eat cold lunch because it was faster.

and I realize that there are several "shifts" that need to work through the lunch schedule, but it seems to me that 10:45 is too early for 9 and 10 year olds to be eating lunch (Janesville Elem school). Then after they have lunch, they turn around at noon to give them a "snack"...this doesn't make sense to me.

We have the same situation at my daughters school. I have had my child come home hungry all because they were last in line and had only 5 minutes to eat. I have even sat with her at lunch when she was younger and have seen how they treat the kids. Turning off lights and blowing whistles to get the kids to be perfect angels with no talking and hurrying them up to eat so they can go play outside.

And you wonder where poor eating habits and eating disorders come from?

I have since told my daughter to finish eating and that the school can call me if they have a problem with it. I am not having her be hungry just for the sake of the lunch patrol. Besides I am the one whose paying for the lunch, the least they can do is let her eat it and not throw it away.

Not all kids eat at the same pace. My kids (elementary studets)come home "starving" often. They just sit down to eat and have to dump their trays because the teachers are telling them to go outside! Maybe gathering 100 kids in one room to eat and allowing them only 20 minutes to complete that task is just asking too much!

I have an 8 year old in the Janesville School District and I agree with frusion. When that whistle blows it doesn't matter if they just sat down from the hot lunch line. They are MADE to throw the food away and go outside. I tried to address this with the principle and was told the same thing as frusion, the kids can take the whole 30 minutes to eat. My husband used to go at least once or twice a week for lunch with our child and after talking to the principle told the "whistle blower" that when our child was done eating is when they would go outside. "Whistle Blower" was all up in arms because the next group of lunch would be coming in and they wouldn't have time to clean up. A lunch period should be just that, eating and socializing. Here again, we wonder why kids are scoring crappy on tests. I know my child comes home with hunger pains some days because her class was the last through the lunch lines. If I as an adult cannot concentrate when I am hungry, how can the schools expect an 8 year old to score well when they are hungry?

when children learn they have to eat fast, they do that with all of their meals and, as stated, it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain the stomach is full. Obesity is a huge problem, if you will excuse the pun. Governor Doyle is wanting people to take the Governor's Challenge. How does one teach children how to get fat and then to slim down in the same breath? I don't think a full hour is necessary (and, in fact, TOO much time to get in trouble with older students), but 20 minutes just isn't long enough.

I have a child at an elementary school in Janesville. They have 15 minutes to eat and then 15 minutes for recess after that. The 15 minutes to eat is not long enough. I believe they should be able to socialize and eat during this period. My son's school does not allow them to talk during lunch. All the lights are turned off if they do. They miss their recess if they talk. Kids need the time to socialize and eat. If the reason for the school not letting them socialize is because they need the time to eat, well, I am sure if a child doesn't eat enough one or two days they will start to eat more the next time. Let the kids socialize and get it out of their system during lunch and recess.

I've got 5 kids and lunch time has been a concern of mine for years. When they were younger and I packed their lunch, often they would come how with the lunch box half filled. When asked why they did not eat all of it, they commented they didn't have time. The lunch lady would blow a whistle when it was time to end eating time and go to the playground for the remaining lunch time. I called the principal with my concern and she said technically they can stay eating as long as they want. But, that was not the case. Apparently the principal never communicated that policy to the whistle lady because after sitting with my kids for lunch, there is no option to stay. Lunch lady shoos the kids out of the lunch room whether they are still eating or not.