Pi Day

Hello, all! The "Pi" is not a type-o; it is a pun. Alisa's 6th grade math class has been learning about pi (as in 3.14...),and, so, just for fun they had their annual "Pi Day" celebration with an assortment of real honest to goodness pies. There were just about every assortment of pie you can think of, and the students had a fun time.
Now that I've gotten the "pleasantries" out of the way, let me get down to the real deal where this "Pi Day" was concerned! Anyone who knows me or follows this blog should have seen this coming! Each of the 60 sixth-grade students was asked to bring 2 pies to class. A note was sent hom extending an invitation for parents to attend, too, and eat pie with their student. Unfortunately, 12:45 in the afternoon isn't quite conducive to many work schedules. About a dozen parents showed up. Let me be a little more optimistic than that: two dozen parents showed up. Other faculty and staff were also invited to partake of the pie party. As I mentioned, the festivities began at 12:45. Let's just do a little math for a moment, why don't we: 60 students times 2 pies each = 120 pies. Now, let's say we divided each pie into 8 servings: that's 960 slices of pie for how many people?! Less than a hundred. The way it worked out, each participant could have had a pie and a half to themselves! That's one "problem" as I see things: way too much pie and no "back up plan" for what to do with extras! Don't let me get on my "poor starving college student" soapbox about how coming up with money for extra stuff like this is a real sacrifice for some families, and for it to go to waste is wrong on so many levels. At any rate, my second "beef" is that kids brought lots of cream pies (chocolate and coconut seemed to be popular), but they stayed out at room temperature all morning. Talk about a mess! Do you recall me saying there were over 100 pies? Well, guess how many pie serving utensils there were? If you guessed about 5 or 6 then you win. Why not ask the parents who agreed to attend and/or help with Pi Day to bring a labeled utensil or two? Don't some of the grocery stores (like Tom Thumb) give a free plastic cutter/server when you buy from their bakery?
We (the room mom and handful of parents in attendance) tried to organize the pies a little so that there was a method to our madness--fruit pies on that side of the cafeteria, cream pies on this side. Kids were practically sticking their noses in the pies to savor the aroma, servers were licking their fingers. One kid had the nerve to put the can of whipped cream that I brought for Alisa's lemon pies up to his mouth as if he were about to spray it directly into his mouth. I put a swift end to that nonsense. Kids ate pie and more pie until they were green around the gills. Some took their unopened pies back to class with them, and there were still dozens of pies stacked in the teacher's lounge once everything was said and done.
When I asked one of the 6th grade teachers why they didn't just request that each student bring one pie, I was told that sometimes the cream pies are more popular and the fruit pies are usually left. Okay, so why not have students sign up for what they're going to bring? I mean, even if only 25% of the students brought pie (25% of 60 is 15 times 8 slices per pie = 120 slices), everyone could have at least one slice. And, if they cut small slices (now there's a novel idea), people could sample several kinds of pie without wasting so much. I know I'm making it a lot more complicated-the proverbial mountain out of a molehill, but it just seems that there could be a better way than to waste all of those pies (and the time and energy for those of us who actually took the time to make a pie or bake the frozen ones). Okay, I'm stepping down off of my soapbox now. My bed is calling my name. Good night! Until next time...