Some schoolchildren in Italy are getting a taste of the rest of the world.
In Rome's public school cafeterias, the bambini are served foods from other nations once a month. Maybe Brazilian food one month, maybe Thai food another.
"We live in a globalized society -- there are so many people represented in our city," the commissioner of schools pointed out in an interview with the New York Times.
The concept was not without its opponents.
Italians have a reputation for being fiercely protective of their national cuisine and some parents complained loudly, the newspaper reported. Because of the beefing, the kids in Rome still can eat Italian every day. But, once a month, they also may opt for foods they might never have had a chance to try.
And I think that's great. For kids in every country. Not for the sake of promoting universal understanding or eating our way to world peace or anything so noble. It's all about the food.
There probably are millions of American kids who don't know that real Chinese food does not come in a can, that not every Italian meal consists of limp linguini swimming for their lives in an ocean of tomato sauce and that many Mexicans have been known to go an entire day without eating a taco. It's not their fault. It's because there are millions of American parents who don't know those things, either.
And, while it's certainly not my job to tell other parents what their children should eat, I'm pretty sure what my kids will remember most fondly about me -- if anything -- is that I encouraged them to sample food that wasn't available at the drive-thru window.
It wasn't always easy. As anyone who ever has tried to feed a real kid knows, they can have a fierce resistance to anything they haven't seen constantly advertised on cartoon shows. One of my sons ate so much peanut butter as a kid he still sticks to the floor.
But, when we traveled on family vacations, we stopped at foreign restaurants whenever possible and I encouraged them to order the specialty of the house, even if we didn't know what it was before it came to the table. Or after it came to the table.
At home, the most tattered cookbook in our house was the one that contained recipes from dozens of other countries, because I tried them all. My stepson still refers to some of the stuff I put on his plate as "Rumanian buffalo brains." And I probably could have been in deep trouble with children's services if they had discovered that I coerced my oldest son into eating haggis on a trip to Scotland.
Fortunately, my kids survived and -- as I had hoped -- they developed an appetite and an appreciation for the foods of other countries.
It is, of course, possible to grow up into a successful, upstanding citizen eating nothing more international than a French fry. But I think it would be wonderful if school systems in this country could expose our children to the foods of other cultures.
Although I probably would let my kids stay home on the days they served English food.
D.L. Stewart is a columnist for the Dayton Daily News. He may be contacted at dlstewart@daytondailynews.com.
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Children should be encouraged to sample foreign cuisine
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