SO kids are rejecting school meals. I wonder why? Apart from the fact that we've had it suddenly rammed down our throats simply because Jamie Oliver said so, I can't think of anything. Except maybe that a school's version of 'healthy' appears to mean 'let's take everything nice, remove all the sugar, and bring it back as tasteless rubbish that nobody wants'. And I've never even liked school meals. I can't see why chicken nuggets were ever considered appetising, but maybe that's because I don't eat them at home.
My parents have always encouraged a balanced diet, so I don't consider a vegetable to be the evil of the Earth. But now, they've got rid of chicken nuggets, chips and fizzy drinks, and replaced them with pizza, sandwiches full of mayonnaise and home-baked biscuits. Maybe, because they have been made with wholemeal flour and low-fat cheese, they can be considered 'healthy', but what does that mean?
Surely a healthy person eats a mixture of everything, but this is not being encouraged. People don't want to be forced to eat something, they want the choice. That's why, at our school on a Friday (otherwise known as Chip Day), many will go for those sliced potatoes. Of course, they need to have something else with them. So people go for cheese or beans. They take this, instead of the salad or pasta, because this is what they've always had. You can't expect people to change just because you want to; they have to feel like it too.
So why is this the case with school meals? It could be because those children rejecting healthy school meals don't eat healthy food at home. If somebody eats fast-food and ready-meals all the time, they probably won't like the healthy option offered by the school. In this case, teaching the child to eat healthily won't make any difference, because they'll just go home and the lesson will be contradicted. If councils want to cure this, they will have to teach more than just the children, but their parents too. This wouldn't be easy, it's virtually impossible, but maybe if children were taught about the values of eating healthily from an early age, then parents would learn something from them.

AS we are just about to break up for our summer holidays, I can't help but look up at the grey sky and wonder when the sun is actually going to shine. It was only a couple of years ago that we were being told not to use water because of droughts. The year before this one, we suffered rain all summer. Of the two opposites, I can't think which one I'd prefer. With any luck, we'll get weather somewhere in between. But I know which one's looking more likely by the day.
It's with weather like this, that you start to question all those reports of global warming. It's hard to believe that something that is supposed to be heating the world is causing all this rain. I understand now why they've called it climate change, although I can't see any change in ours. Except perhaps more water.


IT feels like every day this week I have looked at the news to find that there has been another teenage murder. And nearly as many times, a member of government has announced a new initiative, or told us that so many thousand knives have been seized from members of the public. It is saddening to think that gangs are often the reason for this. It's almost ironic that, in a supposedly civilised society, we still have gang warfare, where members of each kill each other simply because they are in different gangs.
The Government has said that they will arrest and jail anybody found carrying a knife. Surely the police are supposed to do this anyway, since it's illegal. But that's not my problem with it. I know that taking knives and their owners off the streets will probably prevent crime, but doesn't this make gangs more determined not to get caught?
Perhaps searching for knives isn't carried far enough. If it would reduce knife crime, I would be happy for searches at schools. I'd rather lose a liberty than hear about another stabbing. Because, although at the moment it is just a distressing story on the news, one day knife crime may affect me personally. And that scares me.


If you would like to contribute to Teenspeak, please email julie.walker@brighouseecho.co.uk or stephen.firth@brighouseecho.co.uk