School "cookery"?

[Sychnant]

DS is in Year 7 and this term they are doing cookery.

Next week he has to take in dried pasta, grated cheese/breadcrumbs, a suitable dish, and... a jar of pasta sauce.

I think this is ridiculous, and not cookery. It will be pretty awkward to carry home (2 buses) and I can't see that it will be nice to eat after being reheated. And it's not really cookery is it. He knows how to stir together pasta and sauce and put them in the oven. I'd much rather they taught him to make a red sauce, which we can then mix with pasta and have for tea.

Should I say something to the school or will I sound like a loon??

We all managed. In primary we made things like pasta bake and shepherds pie.

In secondary we got a brief and we chose what to make. we made all sorts. no one had any sort if accident and it was one teacher among two classes. one class read cook books and decided on what they would make the following week and the other class cooked. and It was far better that way than wasting time on toast. We could actually take edible food home and not waste money on stuff no one would eat. pasta dishes, soups, cakes and biscuits, ratatouille.

If they could choose what to make they chose what they were able to make. read the instructions and if they had a question teacher answered it.

I remember cookery in Home Economics classes in middle school, back in the 80's. I remember that refrigerated biscuit dough (I'm in the US, biscuits are savory rather than sweet here, what you call biscuits we call cookies) played a large role in what we made. I don't think I've used refrigerated biscuit dough to make anything other than biscuits since then.

I don't teach Food tech but do run a Guide unit where we do get the girls to do cooking. I am always shocked at how poor a lot of girls skills are - even from families I would expect to do a lot of home cooking.

I remember once one of the brightest girls in the unit (grammar school, ended up with A's at A level) at the age of 12 didn't have a clue how to cook the pasta - or even be able to follow the directions on the packet. She put it in boiling water - but then turned off the heat!

I remember once one of the brightest girls in the unit (grammar school, ended up with A's at A level) at the age of 12 didn't have a clue how to cook the pasta - or even be able to follow the directions on the packet. She put it in boiling water - but then turned off the heat!

I am amazed at adults who are otherwise very competent, having graduated college or obtained technical training, who cannot follow cooking instructions. In some cases even seem to be unaware that food packets have instructions. They approach every everything cooked on the stove as if it were a can of soup and everything in the oven is cooked per the long memorized instructions from a frozen pizza. If the item seems raw by what time they imagined it should be done, they crank up the heat, then leave the room.

What I found more shocking is the image the family presented you would have thought that cooking would be a regular activity, very traditional values from the outside.

I was talking to a mum a few weeks later and they admitted to not letting the children in the kitchen as it was too dangerous.

I hope the cooking improves for your DC but I do remember my Yr7 HE lessons and the first few being things like fruit salad, I had been cooking a while so chopping fruit wasn't a challenge for me but others really struggled. This was the late 80's, I also remember teaching a lot of people how to cook during my time at uni.

For a first lesson I wouldn't be too bothered. It's probably about weighing out the pasta and mastering the oven/getting things in and out safely. It'll be a cheap dish because for some of them it'll go wrong. I'd expect them to move on to better and more complicated things as the term goes.

Some families are really bad at teaching/letting children cook. DS1's best friend is almost 16 and the only thing he can make is pot noodles, toast with cheese or scrambled egg in the microwave. His mother does all the cooking and doesn't think 'children' should be in the kitchen.

Thanks everyone!

We made the sauce on Monday night. He made and cooked pasta bake at school today, reheated it himself this evening, and ate it ALL for tea. Was enough to feed 2 of us! So at least it tasted good.

(as we were making the sauce he revealed his ambition to go on Junior Masterchef... even though this is the only thing he's ever cooked... will try asking him to make dinner tomorrow. Bet I can guess how that will go lol)