guardian.co.uk,
Rowenna Davis, Friday 15 June 2012
 |
| Martha Payne has been publishing a blog showing pictures of her school meals. Photograph: Mary's Meals/PA |
Martha Payne, I salute you. This nine-year-old has won a victory for child activists
everywhere. A few hours ago she was allowed to reinstate her blog on school dinners as her local council performed a screeching U-turn on its call to
censor her. National media agencies rejoiced and the Twittersphere is still
beaming. Hopefully the experience won't just make her a stronger activist, it
will inspire a generation of young bloggers to follow suit.
Everyone's
for child empowerment in principle. Far fewer of us can handle it in practice.
When Martha photographed her school meals for her #neverseconds blog and gave
them a health rating and a mark on her "food-o-meter" everyone
thought that was sooooo sweet. Until it actually started ruffling feathers.
Then Martha told the world how she was hauled out of maths class and ordered to stop blogging.
Apparently,
this was a decision on behalf of Argyll and Bute council, who issued an
amusingly long and defensive press release against the "unwarranted
attacks on its schools catering service … which have led catering staff to fear
for their jobs".
It's
astonishing. This nine-year-old should have been held up as a heroine for the
region. She's a shining example of what true education is about. We don't go to
school to learn passively and swallow what is given to us, whether it's dogma
or croquettes. True education is about learning to question and to challenge.
The pinnacle of education is when you're empowered to have agency in the world.
That's exactly what Martha had.
Perhaps
that's why she captured national attention. Even before the outcry she had 2
million hits and raised money for Mary's Meals charity, which donates food to
the third world. When the censorship started Jamie Oliver, Ian Rankin and Mike
Russell MSP jumped on board. By mid-morning she was the top
"trending" item in Britain and the third most popular worldwide. But
we should be careful not to be overtaken by celebrities – the point about this
story was that a child was leading.
Kids learn
early if they're going to be listened to or trampled on. One of my first
political experiences was with our school canteen. We were 17 and our meals
were horrific – chips, beans and cheese and… no, wait, that was it. We asked
them to change, but they wouldn't, so a collection of us decided to make and
sell our own healthy, home cooked food right next door at knocked down prices.
Everyone joined the boycott, including the teachers. The next week, variety had
been introduced and hygiene increased. Victory was ours, and it inspired us to
keep going.
Nor are
these fights trivial. School dinners might sound like small fry, but you
quickly come up against major issues of power and status. In our school, the
canteen couldn't be changed because it wasn't just a local contract; it was a
national deal between Serco and the national government that gave them exclusive
rights to serve us without competition for years.
I'm not
sure who served Martha's meals, but power was certainly involved. The council
sounds arrogant and out of touch, and because she lives on the west coast of
Scotland, standards for school meals are different. There are reports that
improvements throughout Britain appear not to have been applied to her
unidentified school.
Martha's
work is also important because of our country's growing obesity challenge. The
fact that obesity now costs the NHS £500m a year and is affecting one in every
three children in the UK means we need more health and variety, and we need
kids taking the lead on that. Again, Martha is a shining example.
After the
victory in my school canteen I went into politics, and now I proudly serve as a
councillor in Southwark. Together as a council we have introduced free healthy
school meals for all kids. Getting that right and giving young people a sense
of ownership over that service is essential. I hope others in Southwark will
follow Martha's lead and blog their experiences to hold us accountable. We
adults could learn something, the food is likely to get better and kids get
involved. We'll all have second helpings of that.
 |
| Nine-year-old Martha Payne's blog about her school meals has gone viral on the internet. Photograph: Gordon Jack/scotimage.com |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.