RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31621, 6 March 1968, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

DINNER FOR ONE

Are those of you who regularly send their little ones off to primary school aware of the blackboard jungle into which you are thrusting them, all unwittingly? One of the Sunday newspapers recently carried an item which exposed the whole dreadful business. It stated that parents and teachers were worried about a growing rash of lunch thefts in schools. It also said that the practice began after the free milk in schools scheme was dropped. It is a situation which

will horrify many sensitive young mothers, who will picture bands of marauding thieves, driven crazy by the lack of milk, swooping on some poor innocent lamb of a child and savagely seizing his peanut butter sandwiches, gnawing at them ravenously and throwing the crusts away contemptuously. A child with an iced cake in his lunch is simply asking for trouble. It might be wise for parents to be warned against putting choice items like bananas in school lunches for fear

they will attract the attention of the playground pirates and lead to ugly brawls. Life in the primary school used to be simple, and one hopes it does not come to giving children lockers, separate dining times, or having their eating supervised. Some of the pupils allowed to sit up late enough for “The Untouchables” might already have seen the prospect of business success with the protection racket. It’s hard to know how it will all turn out. Perhaps it might be best simply to give them back their milk.