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The little Philippino boy from Montreal is making the news. The issue here is: how he eats his lunch. According to the educators in his school he “eats like a pig” - that’s what the boy and his mother say they were told by a teacher and the principal, respectively. More news coverage…

As it turns out the seven-year-old Luc Cagadoc eats in the traditional Philippino way: with a fork and spoon, pushing the food on his plate into the spoon with a fork.

Since the incident the usual “he said, she said” game is on; human rights groups, cultural sensitivity “experts”, lawyers and media people got their bone to chew on it. The school’s spokesperson says the boy was “misbehaving”; the principal is quoted as saying: “Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat…” etc. etc.
Of course, the mother of the boy talks about trauma, about her son being emotionally hurt.

The principal was also quoted saying: “I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly [...]”

Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (the school board) spokeswoman: “It was an educational intervention and in no way had any intercultural dimension.”
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These two statements in the supposedly multi-cultural Canada are disturbingly idiotic. Everything related to manners, etiquette and socially accepted behaviour - is culture related.

Eating “correctly” recalls funny memories…
Let me tell you how I was taught to eat correctly:
- fork in your left hand
- knife in your right hand
- cut only one bite off the steak
- no, don’t have the fork in the small piece that you are going to cut off but hold the whole steak with it
- after cutting the piece off, take the small piece (bite) with the fork and put it in your mouth
- chew with closed mouth
- never ever put the knife in your mouth!
Additionally: elbows tight close to your torso, never on the table, be quiet (Magyar ember, amikor eszik, nem beszél), sit upright on the chair etc.

For small kids (say, age 4-5) it is acceptable that the parents cut the steak in pieces, so they can eat using only fork - the knife is a dangerous tool, plus, they lack the dexterity to handle both utensils.

Now, based on my limited experience of eating in public places in Canada, here is my “scientific” finding: 94.7% of the population eat like a four-year-old child: cutting everything in small pieces and not using “correctly” the fork and the knife. Monsieur le Directeur, what should we do about these people? Can we move them to another table? Maybe to yours?