Brett Berk

The NYC Board of Education’s Panel For Educational Policy finally voted the other night on its controversial bake sale policy. The rule was created to ban homemade goods like cookies and cupcakes and pot brownies from being offered at school bake sales, while allowing store-bought items like Pop-Tarts and Doritos to be sold with impunity. The Gay Uncle already covered this issue once in his MOMLOGIC column. But now that the policy was actually approved, he would like to add one thing. WHAT THE FUCK? This is one of the most nonsensical and wishy-washy means of dealing with the situation of nutritional education that he has ever seen. If you’re going to ban, ban. If you’re not, don’t. But there is no logic whatsoever to this rule (except if your goal is to favor mono-diglycerides and artificial cheese flavoring.)

Gunc would like to propose a revised policy, one based on his seminal and informed and intelligent and measured Babble article “In Praise of Junk”, in which he outlines not only the reasons why Junk is deserved by kids, but how to co-opt its power and teach your child real lessons about food, consumption, and healthy eating habits. It should be required reading for anyone making public policy–or anyone who has a kid. And guess what? You can read it for free right here.