I like the idea of learning what we need to learn. That makes sense, some of the math concepts we learned were pointless (sorry math teachers) like logarithms?? When will I ever use that? Is there any point to me learning that? Math is mandatory all the way through school so it seems to me that we MUST all need math, but to that extent? Physic was not mandatory at my school, if it was I would question it as well. Yes, obviously it is helpful to know lots about the forces (drag, momentum...) and quantum physics, but it won't hinder you from surviving. Unless you think that you can jump in front of a semi and it will have time to stop, then perhaps knowing the rules of momentum might have been helpful. :)
But what about helpful classes that are options, not mandatory? Home Economics for example, not a requirement. Some of us might have got to experience a month or two during a CTS module our grade 9 year but I never had the time to take a class like that. The only class that was an option (a true option) was drama and that I feel definitely helps with teaching. My point here is this, home economics teaches kids how to prepare food, make healthy food choices. Especially in our time and age this is important. I can not really cook anything to save my life, I cook chili (and it is really good) and one pasta dish but that is it. This may be partially because I don't know if I can dedicate the time to learning how to cook something. I think of cooking as a life skill, it should be important!! Maybe our schools should emphasize this way more, so that maybe the future generations won't keep making such poor food decisions.
Prof Balderson, (C and I phys ed non-majors) told our class the other day that the younger generation is the first generation that won't out live their parents lifespan if they keep on their current track. Isn't this ridiculous? With all the knowledge and information we have, we still have people making extremely bad food decisions. Whether you can do logarithms won't necessarily affect your health, but eating McDs all the time because you can't cook just might. (not proven, just a statement, McDonald's may be a healthy place to eat... trying not to get sued!!)
I think our education system has become so worried about the skills that will help society that they have forgotten about creating a person, a well rounded person. We can even see this in sports as well. Kids that are excelling at a sport are taken to or put in a school that is about that sport and then just trained for this. What about the person in general? I am a firm believer that all the other things you do helps you with achieving your main goal. IE. myself with volleyball, that is what I wanted, but I played basketball and softball as well. Softball helped with arm strength, commitment, leadership, mental strength, team skills, all sorts of things. Basketball - conditioning, game mentality, strength of whole body, leadership, mental strength, determination, hard work. Now this may just sound like complete randomness of items that each sport helped me get, but honestly if it wasn't for the other sports I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did.
Maybe our education needs to take a look at what citizens we want to end up with and build that type of citizen, not just someone who can do a job. I know in my classroom I will be doing my best to help make a better person and not just be looking at a grade.
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Wow you really hit it on the nail. Like you I also suck at cooking. I feel pressured to learn how to cook now, yet I have little motivation and time for learning that skill. Sometimes I think just buying fast food is the easiest answer, however I realize that eating out all of the time is not healthy for me. Having to take a foods of cooking class each year would have been quite useful. I remember there were a few grades that food class was mandatory, but once I could choose other options I never took foods class and I forgot everything I had learned.
ReplyDeleteWhat value does math have? Sure, the basics are useful, but so many concepts no one ever uses. I guess the real question is why are some of the useless math concepts part of the curriculum? Perhaps we need to look at the people that are responsible for creating and updating the curriculum and ask them what they were/are thinking! As we know from class, more people on those committees now are not even teachers!
Vanessa I am so glad that you agreed with me. I wasn't sure if it was my traditional up bringing that made me think I should know how to cook. I am not saying that the woman always has to cook for the man I am just saying I feel that I need to know at least the basics. I don't like hearing about people going out for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. That to me is such a loss of the holiday. Most holidays for me the focus is really the family time and now that we (my siblings) are getting older we try to pitch in as much as we can to help my mom with the load. I, being the youngest get the easiest task :) but those are some of our family moments, lots of them happen in our kitchen and I wonder if families are missing out on that when they go out to eat. Can you have a heated debate in a fancy restaurant? I know most of our family meals at some point hit politics (very heated debates happen between my family) and that is usually when my mother and I start the cleaning up because it is the same battle every meal but it is good for the family.
ReplyDeleteFood is a necessity to life, but I also think it is important to our social aspect as well. We interact, we learn from being taught, it is also about bonding! I can remember so many times my mom making homemade bread (so delicious) and me being with her learning and trying to help out (my bun was always rock hard... apparently you can't play with it for ten minutes and expect it to still be nice and fluffy!) but I really think this is partially why my mom and I are so close. We had the time together to make the connection and show interest. But do people who go out all the time also have that bonding time?
I am not saying that if you go out to eat all the time you don't know how to socialize or that you can't bond with someone, not at all. I just wonder how it affects the relationship and all the missed opportunities to build a stronger bond.
Does this make sense? Or am I just way out there? They say food is the way to any man's heart, I obviously need to learn how to cook then ;) But this couldn't be true if food didn't matter could it? All the boyfriends I have had that cooked me dinner, their action did make me feel more connected almost, it was such a nice gesture... now obviously it wasn't about the food because I have had some not so great meals, but it is about the actions for me!
Food... how important is it in our society?