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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 7:18:21 GMT 1
What is not taught at school (correct me if I'm wrong) is parenting in which cooking should be in that curriculum. Why is this? How can a parent or parents teach their kids something that they were never taught? TBH, my mother was an appalling cook, so if it hadn't been for the classes at school and college, I wouldn't have had a clue either.
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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 7:20:24 GMT 1
I was never taught to cook at school but apart from an occasional Chinese or even more occasional fish and chips (mainly because there was none near where we lived) I have manage to avoid life in the "made for you" lane. What about Mrs exile? (Cue incoming accusations of sexism etc etc)
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Post by glazedallover on Jul 11, 2023 7:23:38 GMT 1
What is not taught at school (correct me if I'm wrong) is parenting in which cooking should be in that curriculum. Why is this? How can a parent or parents teach their kids something that they were never taught? TBH, my mother was an appalling cook, so if it hadn't been for the classes at school and college, I wouldn't have had a clue either. Was that what they called 'home economics' back then ? At my junior school that was for the girls , while the boys did woodwork. Happy days.
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cernunnos
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Post by cernunnos on Jul 11, 2023 7:32:09 GMT 1
What is not taught at school (correct me if I'm wrong) is parenting in which cooking should be in that curriculum. Why is this? How can a parent or parents teach their kids something that they were never taught? TBH, my mother was an appalling cook, so if it hadn't been for the classes at school and college, I wouldn't have had a clue either. Parents are supposed to teach their kids , and that is what has caused the problem , in my point of view.
My mother and father were both good at cooking , I wasn't taught cooking at school but learnt it at home. The generation after, both father and mother were expected to go out to work , being equal, so no time to cook .
Before, of course, there were very little choices of fast food outlets , just the chip shop for fresh fish and real chips .
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Aardvark
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Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
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Post by Aardvark on Jul 11, 2023 9:27:00 GMT 1
What is not taught at school (correct me if I'm wrong) is parenting in which cooking should be in that curriculum. Why is this? The "parenting" issue is at the root of a lot of today's social problems. At some point parents started expecting schools to take on the responsibility of things that parents used to do. Not only cooking but social skills, respect for women and elders, the concept of Right and Wrong, being responsible for their actions, and the most basic......common sense. I suppose once Discipline was taken out of the hands of parents they thought "What the hell, let the schools take over, I'm off to the pub".
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exile
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Post by exile on Jul 11, 2023 9:30:38 GMT 1
I was never taught to cook at school but apart from an occasional Chinese or even more occasional fish and chips (mainly because there was none near where we lived) I have manage to avoid life in the "made for you" lane. What about Mrs exile? (Cue incoming accusations of sexism etc etc) She can cook too. Having a working mother, not liking school dinners and needing to have some midday sustenance was a starting point for being self sufficient in the kitchen from age 12 onwards. Then 4 years in student accommodation with meals not provided allowed a bit of fineness. (It was here that I met someone who could not even boil an egg - I kid you not). At one stage I was cooking a couple of times a week for some of my colleagues. Main choices were a cheese and potato pie (very satisfying after a beer or two but very poor in term of nutritional balance) and curry (definitely not the Vesta variety).
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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 10:57:58 GMT 1
How can a parent or parents teach their kids something that they were never taught? TBH, my mother was an appalling cook, so if it hadn't been for the classes at school and college, I wouldn't have had a clue either. Was that what they called 'home economics' back then ? At my junior school that was for the girls , while the boys did woodwork. Happy days. Yes...that was in the days when there were just two choices of gender and clearly defined roles IIRC, cookery became home economics when they added ironing a shirt to the curriculum. Didn't like that bit at all! I would have liked to do woodwork as well....
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Post by jackie on Jul 11, 2023 10:58:25 GMT 1
I dont think it’s as simple as lack of culinary skills although this maybe is a contributing factor. Low in nutrition, cheap processed foods must also be to blame and for people on low incomes during this cost of living crisis this may be the only type of food they can afford. Just look at the cheap processed frozen food places like Iceland sell. Also accessibility to healthier foods and fruit and veg may be restricted too. Fresh fruit and veg isn't exactly cheap either. Many housing estates in the UK just have takeaway outlets and a small corner shop and not everyone has a car or may be too old to drive.
I often hear adverts on the radio from supermarkets offering meal deals comprising of 3 pizzas and a bottle of coke for £…. so bad food and drink is also targeted at low income people.
Like most things I suspect the real situation is more complex.
I agree that Home Economics should be taught in schools again, as well as cookery skills it should include basic nutrition teaching, the role of vitamins, what constitutes a balanced meal etc etc.
It’s not just in the UK either, more and more I see supermarket trollies here loaded with fizzy pop and processed food.
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suein56
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Post by suein56 on Jul 11, 2023 11:07:26 GMT 1
Main choices were a cheese and potato pie (very satisfying after a beer or two but very poor in term of nutritional balance) and curry (definitely not the Vesta variety).Although I went to single sex schools and had 'home economics' lessons so could cook when I went to College there were no cooking facilities available in our residential blocks .. we had a kettle to make instant coffee. So, recently encountered to-be-OH and I tried a Vesta curry pack for 2. Not long after that we rented a place of our own so we could cook our own food. OH learnt to cook by experimentation after we got together .. his efforts were usually successful and mostly delicious - they still are.
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suein56
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Post by suein56 on Jul 11, 2023 11:08:55 GMT 1
I agree that Home Economics should be taught in schools again, as well as cookery skills it should include basic nutrition teaching, the role of vitamins, what constitutes a balanced meal etc etc. It’s not just in the UK either, more and more I see supermarket trollies here loaded with fizzy pop and processed food.Can only agree ..
Having seen a news item about fresh food deserts in the US where the supermarkets are full of packaged and tinned products with not even a lettuce leaf in sight. No wonder a majority of US citizens are overweight.
As to growing their own .. it might be difficult if you live in a trailer park surrounded by concrete and earn pittance wages.
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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 11:12:36 GMT 1
Ready meals aren't just not nutritious, they've been proved over and over again to be stuffed full of fat, sugar and chemical additives. I make ready meals to freeze when the weather's bad, but I know exactly what's gone into them. Fast food here is a pasta or rice dish based on home-made, bottled ratatouille or passata. Or eggs What is lacking is a sufficient quantity of good-quality meat or fish. Even then, unless you're a Rothschild it's a gamble what conditions it's been raised in and what it's been treated with.
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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 11:17:10 GMT 1
Main choices were a cheese and potato pie (very satisfying after a beer or two but very poor in term of nutritional balance) and curry (definitely not the Vesta variety).Although I went to single sex schools and had 'home economics' lessons so could cook when I went to College there were no cooking facilities available in our residential blocks .. we had a kettle to make instant coffee. So, recently encountered to-be-OH and I tried a Vesta curry pack for 2. Not long after that we rented a place of our own so we could cook our own food. OH learnt to cook by experimentation after we got together .. his efforts were usually successful and mostly delicious - they still are. The Vesta curries and paella were my Mum's idea of haute cuisine Luckily, when I left home to go to college, she gave me a superb little paperback cookery book (still got it) which tided me over until the first trip to France and the discovery of 'real' food
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Post by Polarengineer on Jul 11, 2023 12:17:40 GMT 1
In my post I consider parenting to be dealing with raising babys to infants to teens the psychology involved to avoid trauma and destroying their minds most new mothers have to get a book (Dr Spock) to look up all that stuff (if they can read, that is).
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Post by houpla on Jul 11, 2023 13:10:26 GMT 1
Don't 'mum and baby' clinics exist anymore in UK? Here in la France profonde it's the mother and or grandmother/aunts that provide the support network. Or not....but mostly it works quite well.
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Post by jackie on Jul 11, 2023 16:26:37 GMT 1
Ready meals aren't just not nutritious, they've been proved over and over again to be stuffed full of fat, sugar and chemical additives. I make ready meals to freeze when the weather's bad, but I know exactly what's gone into them. Fast food here is a pasta or rice dish based on home-made, bottled ratatouille or passata. Or eggs What is lacking is a sufficient quantity of good-quality meat or fish. Even then, unless you're a Rothschild it's a gamble what conditions it's been raised in and what it's been treated with. This was the case when we first moved over but as the years have gone by more and more ready meals, mass produced quiches, pizzas, aperos, burger kits etc have appeared. Nothing wrong with it occasionally but shouldn’t form the majority of a person’s diet. Most of the bread, viennoiserie, and patisserie stuff sold in Supermarkets is pretty mass produced too. Not to mention the awful Harry’s bread that is stuffed with sugar and never goes off…. There has been a lot of debate recently about ultra processed foods and how bad they are for you. French supermarkets abound with then just as much as UK ones I was very lucky to have a mum who cooked great, nutritious food on a limited budget. Meat was made to go far - a chicken would feed 6 of us and the carcass made into soup. She also made great puds like steamed jam sponge pudding to fill us up! I remember being jealous of kids who had Mother’s Pride bread instead of bakery bought proper bread for their school sandwiches and KFC bargain buckets for dinner. Seemed so exotic to me at the time…..
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