Imagine if instead of being head of the party planning committee, the teacher built in fascinating enrichment opportunities and paid some extra one-on-one attention to the children.
Here teachers have nothing to do with it. It's parent-driven.
There is a general agreement that there should be less snacking in school, and more healthy food. But there is also an unwillingness to scale down the birthday thing-- like an arms race, nobody wants their kid to have less or feel bad. 25 birthdays out of 180 school days is a lot. Some of these parents are also totally unaware of food allergies (as we all know), so the brownies with the nuts may well come right into the classroom.
For my kid's birthday, I send in a book for the classroom library (wrapped fancy) and let my kid present it for reading aloud. For some reason this model hasn't taken off.
