"Let them eat cake!," Marie-Antoinette is said to have blurted when she was told the French people had no bread. The origins of the quote are in dispute - but there was nothing uncertain about the message coming from an Auckland primary school this week: "Don't let themeat cake!"
Oteha Valley School has banned birthday cake from being brought to school, as it prepares for new national healthy eating guidelines. It seems the school is concerned little Johnnys and Josephines are falling prey to the dangers of sugary sponges and all sorts of delectable icing concoctions.
With this piece of news, any hope that we might be excising the political-correctness bug from our education system has crumbled away. The school's principal says there are "lots of children born in September and October, and you might in a class have four birthday cakes in a week".
We've done some maths (though, we wouldn't say it's water-tight - we were too busy scoffing cake in class). The school has 150 students, according to a 2006 ERO report. So, depending on how thinly the cakes are sliced and if every student brought in a cake for their birthday, an average student might get 16 slices a year, maximum. That's the equivalent of one slice every three weeks or so - hardly enough to have the anti-obesity mob banning the bake-offs. The school needs to get back to basics.
