From the three days that I spent in school at the start of the school term recently, I noticed that Cass did not wash her hands before she ate during recess. From my observation, 9 out of 10 kids do not wash their hands before they eat and I am appalled. I am appalled as I get to see for myself where these kids put their hands and what they touch the moment they reach school. Kids are made to sit on the floor at the lobby of the school – one of the dirtiest places as people walk in and out. I also see many kids sitting on the floor just right outside the stinky toilets! You would know how filthy, wet and stinky Malaysian public school toilets are if you have attended one yourself. Next, the wooden desks inside the classrooms. I see dirt stains on the desks and chairs and I doubt that they are ever wiped. The other thing is the stairs railings. Most kids sweep their hands on the railings for support when they go up and down the stairs and I doubt that these railing are ever cleaned. What I am totally against is that kids are made to sit on dirty floors everywhere in the school — lobby/entrance of the school, hall, classrooms and outside toilets. OMG!! I also saw kids sitting on pee-stained toilet seats and then dashed out of the toilet without washing their hands, GAWD! My jaw almost dropped when the OCD me saw it! And I have not once seen any teacher reminding these kids to wash their hands before they eat. No wonder Sherilyn had hand-foot-mouth disease once, when she just started primary 1.
Since the start of school, I have been reminding Cass to wash her hands before she eats but each time she returned from school, I found out that she had forgotten to wash her hands before and after her recess.
So this is what I did – by putting a stick-on note pad on her lunch box as reminder. This note is always in her lunch bag. I hope this will serve a good reminder to her. I know soon she will ignore this yellow sticker and that is when I am going to change the color or design of the stick-on note pad! 😀
Do you find out from your kids if they wash their hands before and after their meals in school?
