Gangs

Next year my daughter will enter the public school system as a Kindergartener. I'm a mess. Largely due to an article I read in the local paper discussing an alarming trend in grammar schools nationwide. The data suggests that since 2003 more and more kids are abandoning the lunch pale in lieu of the brown paper bag as their food transport carrier of choice. Even more alarming it seems that younger and younger kids are "bagging" it. Research on this important topic dating back to 1980 concluded that the pail to bag ratio was relatively even with a bimodal distribution to describe the population: kids in grades 4-6 preferred the bag whereas kids in K-3 tended to opt for the pail. This data held over the next 23 years with a dramatic change in 2003 where bags started showing up in 2nd and 3rd grader cubby holes in significantly larger numbers than expected. The researchers contend that by 2006 (the year my daughter will start) the bag will have an almost 2:1 advantage over the pail and for the 1st time ever bags will edge out pails within the kindergarten population. This is devastating news as for decades the delicate balance of power between rival gangs the "Pailers" and the "Brown Paper Baggers" was held in check. With the dramatic rise in "bagger" membership the remaining "pailers" are going to have to go underground and will likely result in an escalation of violence as a means of survival. As a long time supporter of the Pail movement (I had a killer orange Scooby Doo lunch box thru the 3rd grade) I remain a concerned parent and will do what I can to reverse this alarming trend.