I run into a surprising number of people in their 20s and 30s who have no idea how to cook. Healthy eating - particularly on a budget - is much easier if you know how to cook. Since family seem to be failing at teaching these skills, some are calling for a return of home economics programs. It seems like a good idea - not only practical, but confronting obesity early is very attractive.
One can make arguments that physical eduction, assuming it focuses on teaching a life-long appreciation of physical activity, and shop classes should be considered relavant. Sigh ... and then perhaps basic money management and critical thinking...
probably too much idle dreaming for the day...
Can't resist this. The X and Y generations don't want to learn how to cook, because they don't want to cook. And the Z generation is eager to follow in their footsteps. Why? Because 40% of meals are consumed in restaurants and fast food joints, and another 40% come prepackaged in neat plastic or aluminum containers, ready to throw into the oven or microwave and slather onto plates in time for the TV or video games or soccer practice. People are just too busy to set the table and sit down for a quiet square meal anymore. Of the remaining 20%, probably 3/4 have a small assortment of cooking utensils, sufficient to accomplish standard cuisine in the plethora of cookbooks, written by a breed of dying food enthusiasts, like our grandmothers. And the remaining 1/4 probably spend $thousands on enough utensils to host a queen's reception. But how many of them like Kate in No Reservations would go so far as to serve fish heads to their kids, when spaghetti will do just fine, thank you?
Posted by: Roger | June 16, 2012 at 08:39
The most useful high school class I had was Critical Analysis. Senior year is a wonderful time for learning to take ideas and statement apart in a careful way. Learning HOW to analyze and how to learn pretty much never happened in school. Kids were expected to just hit upon things that worked for them by trial and error which is crap shoot schooling.
For cooking rather than the type of home ec we had in junior high a sort of Mark Bittman approach would be great in today's world perhaps combined with delving into international foods.
Yes, design gym in a way that high school kids can find things they like so that they will continue to do those activities. Heck, things like yoga, track, weight training, fencing, etc. can be co-ed classes so could be done by topic rather than gender. Kids today NEED more exercise. Get more sidewalks, too, and have kids walk more in everyday life.
I'd have loved it if girls had been allowed to take shop class in junior high and high school, and recall another girl fighting to get into auto mechanics, having already begun studies in that in California before she moved to my childhood state.
Posted by: Sukie Crandall | June 16, 2012 at 10:16
Going full circle. I chuckle sometimes thinking how social behavior has turned full circle in 100 years. In the late 1800s to middle 1900s at least, it was OK for two men or two women to sleep together, but it was strictly forbidden for an unmarried man and woman to spend more than an hour or two alone together. Today, however, heaven forbid if two men or two women were to sleep together, but that is very much OK for an unmarried man and woman.
Women have been dominated since the beginning of time, and only recently in some societies have they managed to gain a small foothold.
In medieval days, the average lifespan of a knight may have been less than 30 years. Obviously those knights who beat the odds had learned a few clever tricks, such as chivalry.
chiv·al·ry
1. the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms.
2. the rules and customs of medieval knighthood.
3. the medieval system or institution of knighthood.
4. a group of knights.
5. gallant warriors or gentlemen: fair ladies and noble chivalry.
So what does chivalry have to do with increasing ones longevity? How about being nice to a lady for a change? Remember how gentlemen always allow ladies to go first? Rumor has it that knights started that tradition long ago. If you were a knight escorting a lady or ladies through a closed doorway, you always allowed them to open the door and proceed ahead of you, because you never knew how many knights may be on the other side, ready to slice you into jerky.
And then there was Joan of Arc. She claims the voice of angles told her to do it, but I think she was pissed at knights because they exploited women. What if she had succeeded?
And years later we had Rosi the Riveter. Look at those biceps! Who would dare mess with Rosi.
And after Rosi, a lot of us were becoming wimps. Women were walking all over us, kicking sand in our eyes.
We wore the aprons and washed the dishes and took out the garbage, and they washed the car and fixed the flat and replaced the clutch while we sat around the poker table smoking and drinking and telling dirty stories about the women who were doing our jobs better than we ever did because we were too lazy to make an effort.
We even resorted to some underhanded tactics.
Now the trouble with schools these days is that women are not allowed to teach students, as they instinctively know how to teach children. They are forced to teach the way some government bureaucrats and school boards think teaching should be. Children are taught how to regurgitate what is underlined in the book. They are not asked to read between the lines or fill in the gaps between them. What if school kids, starting at an early age, were taken once a month to some business or manufacturing facility or museum or sport or musical or farm or utility or zoo or university or science lab or...whatever to participate and ask questions and become aware of the gigantic world around them and the many opportunities awaiting them?
Now here is a dumb idea. Every class has one or more talented and gifted children, children who regularly get bored because they are being held back by their less fortunate classmates. Why not have those children help teach the class? Why not have them help the struggling students better understand the concepts, so that they may move a little faster. Well, that is not a dumb idea, and I did not think of it. Some successful schools may have been doing this for centuries.
Posted by: Roger | June 17, 2012 at 01:03