Thanks Thea, and it's getting harder and harder to escape all of this.

Anyone who doesn't believe in this has not seen the effects of additives.

Where I taught we used to 'relieve' mothers of the pain of making cakes on their child's birthday. So, parents paid for a muffin for each child that came from the canteen (factory-made).

They were huge.

I had had one really bad experience in the past with these muffins, so I suggested to the children that we wait till close to the end of the day to eat them. The reason for that was that one boy, taller and wider than I am, was highly-responsive to additives.

Anyway, the concensus was that they eat them just before recess. and given that the child's mother had signed off on his having them, I gave in.

So the children ate, went out to play, came back in and...I was looking out for this boy, by the way,

Within minutes every single desk was upside down, and chairs were being hurled across the room.

I quickly got the students (who were petrified), out of the room, rang for help, and waited with him for help to arrive.

He then stormed out of the room and ran away.

I found him eventually, in what we called 'the forest' sitting under a tree crying.

I talked quietly to him about how he was feeling (shitty was his response), and asked if he wanted to come back to class.

He said he didn't because he was now feeling bad about his behavior.

So we had a long talk about things and eventually he came back to class with me.

That was the last time we ever ordered muffins again.

This student was a very nice boy. He was never made to feel any blame for his reaction, but it was a salutary lesson for us as a staff, for him, and for my students.