Being involved in food education for many years I read and hear about chefs quite often. I am often amused by their celebrity and watch what they do on T.V. because in fact; they have created a positive interest in food preparation and careers related to food.
Today on the Katie show when Rocco DiSpirito stated that he goes around to high school to teach them how to make food, and talks about healthy food because there are no food courses in place in high school, I almost jumped through the T.V.
As FACS educators we often hear statement about subjects that we already have place such as, "someone should teach that....". But blatantly saying he is the only person in the United States that speaks in high schools and talks about Healthy Food preparation is a bit off of the charts.
I am trying to be rational and calm but I am having a hard time with this specific situation.
Why can't we as a field/profession break the mold that has been put forth about Family and Consumer Sciences/Home Economics? Why is it so impossible to get famous people or industry to support the work that FACS educators do? If we could all work together it would be so ideal.
Ponder these things as a FACS educator and continue to, or start to share the work that you do with the public because as a FACS professional you are important!
With love from your retired FACS teacher,
Jane
This kind of thing makes me insane, too! "Someone should teach that..." "We should've had a class like that..." "Wish they would've taught that..." AARRGGGHHHH!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMy sanity saver this week, believe it or not, was Parent/Teacher Conferences. I had so many compliments on the curriculum I teach from parents, it was amazing. One set of parents told me how excited they were when their daughter came home talking about HDL and LDL, and how glad they were that she was actually learning about things like that. Another couple had no idea what the "Adult Living" class entailed, and when I gave them the overview they were genuinely impressed and happy that their son was taking a class that "teaches real life, helpful things" (this from the parents of a future dentist; usually the "academic" parents are much more enthusiastic about Calc & Physics than my classes).
With the general shift away from vocational opportunities and increasing emphasis on making EVERYONE "college-ready" (insert eye roll here), I feel like a generation of college-bound individuals missed out on the chance to learn these critical concepts and skills; now that they are parents and realizing what they missed, they're becoming very appreciative of what we do and are encouraging their kids to take advantage of our classes (along with Calc & Physics). So forget you, Rocco! MY students know what's up!
Go Denise!
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