school cooking lessons

[vixnpips]

that will be the school ur thinking of! and yes i'm a rather proud mummy.. let me know about the goat cheese lady.. i'll be ever present in the play ground no doubt!!

[vixnpips]

Have to say that I was told it is no longer home ec.. but FTT (food technology, textiles ( which makes me think of sewing a sarnie but there you go!)) anyway, this means... they have to design the food...hmmmmm..learn about healthy eating.. but I covered that bit anyway!..

bring back home ec I say!

[Thomzo]

I wonder why Jamie Oliver isn't on the case? You'd think that school cookery lessons would be right up his street!

[Millie]

I was a bit miffed when my ds1 (then aged 14) came home from school with a list, which included packet pastry and breadcrumbs in a tub. Hubby was about to start making the pastry up (as he wasnt allowed to make it in the lesson ) when he said they were all told it had to be shop bought. Grrrr but fine, so he started showing ds how to do the breadcrumbs.........not allowed, got to be shop bought

Hes just left school and that school never showed them how to make things with basic ingredients, it always had to be shop bought I think some schools are really missing the point

[mrsflibble]

recipe for sweet chilli sauce
http://foodandthoughts.blogspot.com/200 ... -evah.html

my cooking teacher used to be anoyed every time I brought in something prepared at home as a replacement for shop bought stuff. Things like pastry, pasta, even tuna mayo spread. have any of you ever tasted one of those sachets?! eugh! give me half an hour and my store cupboard any day.

She could never admit that I could cook without packets. I never got good grades, but whatever.

my little brother is at the same school now, different teacher but same attitude so he just follows the line in class and shows his cooking flair outside school.
he makes fantastic fajitas.

[red]

I find this really depressing... when I was at school cookery lessons - everyone made shortbread. I have for years condemned them for wasting my time with something to frivolous as shortbread when they should have been teaching people the basics.. (when I went to uni I had to show people how to make scrambled egg etc... cos they had never done it before!)
but reading this thread - I realise our teacher was not that bad.. at least we made stuff from scratch - and I home ed my son so did not realise what goes on in schools now... the very notion that you are teaching people to cook by getting them to assemble pre made food boggles the mind

my 13yo has a physical disablitity which affects his dexterity, and he has learning difficulties.. but he can still make a decent cheese omlette....

[vixnpips]

It's a sad time when the government spends money on the over weight issue, talks of taxing "fat foods", rearranges how schools teach our children cooking at school ( which is supposed to iclude healthy eating). As far as I can see it's all lip service and grasping at collecting more taxes.
At the end of the day teachers do only teach what they are told too ( shame about the attitude of some tho). But In my opinion the whole situation would be a lot better if the schools did teach the basics, where food comes from, how to boil an egg and cook from scratch etc. At the moment they are not addressing this and I believe that if they did. we could have a generation who could look after themselves better when they leave home, would be aware of what they are actually eating, and this might have a bigger effect on an over weight population, just by going back to basics.
It does irratate me that as many of us I take responsibility for my childrens health and life skills, but then they are told different at school.
Kids love cooking, and I have yet to see a child who makes their first cake not to have enjoyed making it, looked pleased about it and enjoyed eating and sharing it. Shame this doesn't continue in schools!
BY the way, the cooking lesson went well, with teacher tasting all the home ingredients and saying how wonderful it was, but then marked my boy down as he hadn't cooked what she had said! Oh well can't win that one.

[vixnpips]

oh thanks for the sweet chilli sause link... will be trying that one out!

[the.fee.fairy]

Gah, that's one of the things that annoys me about the whole education system.

When my sister was learning to write, the teacher said that the spelling didn't matter, as long as she got her thoughs across!! how ridiculous! What that leads to is a nation of ill educated, nearly illiterate people who can't spell to save their lives - or formulate a written argument, or even write a decent letter.

In textiles, i think i made a pyjama case, a pencil case and a fabric game. have i needed to make one since? Nope. I would have preferred to have learnt to make a basic shirt, trouser and skirt - at least that would be handy now. My mum had to teach me to make them instead.

School is no longer about setting people up for life and making them aware and independent, its about creating a consumer mindset, a group of people who won't buck the norm. Its wrong...so very very wrong.

As an aside...why is it i was always told to dye my hair a natural colour? I got good grades, i now have a degree and i don't see that my hair colour ever held me back - i learnt a lot better than most with 'natural' hair colours...

[vixnpips]

Ahhh I asked about the natural hair colour bit... and was told.. wait for it....

It's is so not to cause a distraction to others! LMBO

Have yet to find a colour for hair that causes other folk to stare for a whole course of education tho. Although I'm guessing if someone comes up with a dye that changes colour according to heat for hair it might cause such a distraction. LOL ( remember the T-shirts??)

[vixnpips]

for anyone who doesn't remember... here's a link LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercolor

[glenniedragon]

I remember them! I always wondered why you wanted to draw peoples attention to sweaty crevices! yeuch, I was a Goth at the height of their popularity so they were far to colourful for me, but my hair was always brightly coloured,(some may remember my old avatar I haven't quite grown out of that!). I'm having to stay a sombre mouse this year as I had to have all my hair cut short because it was like straw, I digress....I already cook with mine too, I don't trust the schools to prepare them for life-and by judging by Vix's experiences of our local secondary school the majority of the kids are going to be living on packets and preprepared foods when they leave. School should be about learning to learn and preparing to leave and make a contribution to society, but targets and politics are the top priority. I don't remember my parents voicing these concerns when I was young, have things really changed that much?

kind thoughts
Deb

[mrsflibble]

when i left on our last day of year 11, we left at 1pm and had to go back for the coach to the leaver's do at 7pm. in that time I had 6in hacked off my hair, dyed it jet black and had my nose pierced.

I'd left school like this:



and went back like this:





and oh my god I was so pleased when the head of house didn't recognise me. all the way through school I was a goody-twoshoes, I even became one of the senior prefects, but the look on her face was priceless.

[Millymollymandy]

Good on you!

[Annpan]

Hee hee

I went to a posh private school and on my last day I died my hair pink, spiked it up and walked through the city centre with my blazer on... I thought I was so cool

It was the type of school where you had to wear a specific type of scarf, socks, shoes, hair bands, skirt, trousers, etc... everything was basically part of the uniform.

Oh and back on topic a little... it was an 'academic' school and didn't teach cooking, woodwork, textiles, etc (basically you were supposed to pay other people to do this ) I was laughed at when I told them I wanted to be a farmer and breed pigs... well I am nearly there, so there, HA!