students like to know about their teachers' lives

today we got to talking about things that are in food. i told them right out that when talking about food content is the only time they will ever hear me use the term "crap." there is a lot of crap in foods that don't need to be there. somehow the topic of my vegetarianism came up and they ask all kinds of questions about my health and they asked about protein and iron and stuff, and i told them i get all the protein i need from the veggies i eat, and that my iron counts are actually higher than they were when i was still eating meat.

one student says that she wanted to be a vegetarian, but her parents wont let her because they say she needs meat because she is still growing. i came to a conflict. this is so not true, and it could be considered my duty to teach them that this is not true and to tell them why. but on the other hand, you don't want to undermine a parent's authority with their children. so i did a quick calculation in my head and came up with "well, it is possible to get everything you need for this stage of your growth while not eating meat, but you have to pay a lot of attention, it's not easy. it requires a lot of work to make sure you're getting everything you need, and it could be expensive because sometimes, oddly enough, meat is just cheaper than veggies."

i did, thankfully, find that most kids know that it is not good to have red meat more than 2-3 times a week. so there is hope yet for this generation and their health.