Fruit and Fluoride.

More unique-ities from the island of misfit toys.  As previously mentioned I teach "the Littles" or 7/8 grade students - they are my biggest class (a whopping 12).  I am unaware if this legislation is new or if it has existed for sometime and it was just outside of my sphere but the Littles get fruit or veggies every morning; students from K-8 get supplemental fruit every morning for a snack.   Our cafeteria manager brings into the class small samples of grapes, apples, bananas, etc.  She has even brought my personal favorite pomegranate {{wahoo!!}}.

I personally think it is great!  Fruit is difficult here on the island because of the duration it takes to get here and the expense of ordering it as an individual.  Let me break this down.  I can go to the store and purchase tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. at the outrageous prices and still they are slightly less than fresh, we can order from Costco which is fresh (2-3 days on the barge) and triple our price (individuals, we have to pay the shipping by cold-storage space it takes up on the barge), or we can team up with other families/groups on the island splitting the shipping costs.  So when the school orders (every couple of days) we often team up with a school purchase which makes the cost of good fresh fruit somewhat reasonable.

I like knowing that I (as the teacher of the Littles) am going to get good fresh fruit EVERYDAY! It also helps with the "hangries" = when students are hungry they get angry, hence, the hangries.

The latter part of the unique trends here on Sand Point is that all the students here get flouride every Tuesday.  I vaguely remember getting this in grade school *read 3-4th grades.  I also remember wanting to vomit each and every time we had to "rinse and spit".  Again due the underlying fact that I have taught only grades 9-12 for the past 15 years I was unaware that this was still in practice.  The interesting thing about it here, is that EVERYONE gets fluoride K-12.  They bring it in every Tuesday morning, the kiddies open their little cuppies of fluoride, rinse/swish it around until the timer on the nurse's iPad shouts "BUZZZZ"!

Today and EVERY Tuesday the fruit and flouride worlds collide.  If the fruit comes before the flouride, all is well and the peasants rejoice.  However, today, the fluoride came first - chaos!  You would literally believe that I have pulled out their fingernails or am removing their skin by making them wait to eat their fruit after their fluoride.  They are told (most severely) that they MUST wait the 30 minutes for their teeth to absorb the treatment.  I have to remind myself repeatedly - "they are only 12/13, they are only 12/13, (then the voice SHOUTS in my head) "THEY ARE ONLY 12/13", then magically their 30-minute wait time is done and the zombie fruit monsters devour their catch - munch, munch, munch.

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