why not teach kids to cook instead we teach kidsa bad diet of food technology

[zippitippitoes]

....... I so much agree with this article

I couldn't agree more!

both DH and I learned to cook in secondary school.

my ds(12) did quite a bit of cookery at school, only for one term though

I was appalled at what dd2 did for gcse in this subject what a waste of resources..and everything is jargonised

they don't look at eg a balanced diet/menu/meal they look at a concept for a savoury snack etc etc and think mostly about how to package it and the silly flow charts

I've just ordered the book Bad Food Britain only 3.99 from Amazon here

It is very well reviewed

I have just added that book to my amazon shopping basket. Thanks.

I never did food technology (nor studied in UK) but the slant of it sounds pretty specialised (ok commercialised) for a gcse. Did it replace some more general domestic science gcse?

it came in with the textiles equivalent (replaced needlework) resistant materials (replaced woodwork)all have an industry bias

that's sad. Training children to be useful to companies has no place in gcses, or even A Levels. We should be expanding their minds, not teaching them to be good corporate workers.

I think "food technology" is such a massive waste of time but have to be careful in school as the tech teachers are v sensitive about it.
One boy in my form last year showed me his (crap) food tech folder - full of pointless "surveys" asking people what food they would liek to see served at a children's birthday party. Can you guess the answers?
He laughed / cried and told me he hated the subject. Why did he choose it as a GCSE? Because he liked cooking and didn't realise how pants the lessons would be.
I covered a food tech lesson recently too.
What did the children do? Watched a video about packaging sandwiches. What a waste of time.
I do not value one subject more highly than any other but this subject has clearly been hi-jacked by complete buffoons who wrote the syllabus.

my dd did it because we thought it was cooking..

and as it mentions in the article they spend weeks on one topic eg the savoury snack but never actually make a savoury sanck or in fact cook anything..

also the kind of questions with there loaded meaning like the "what are the benefits of irradiated foods"

their

bumping for www

I agree with Joanna Blythman too. So what do the parents of secondary children on mumsnet think of this? Does it concern them? I have to say that although I knew children weren't being taught to cook at school, I didn't know it was this bad and that they were being taught about mass produced food. Disgusting. I think Jamie Oliver should make this his next crusade.

In fact, I wonder who's campaigning on this? Sustain? I might have a look at their site later. Fking govt whinge on abotu obesity blah blah but doesn't occur to them that teaching children about normal, proper, food and cooking, you know, that stuff that keeps them ALIVE, might fking help. It really makes me see red this. Right, have to go now but will be back later!

my ds(12) learnt to make quite a few things, an apple pie was the best - he had quite a good he teacher

If anyone wants 'Bad Food Britain' I have a decent second hand copy I could send you. I didn't enjoy it that much, in truth, and found it rather depressing without enough positive suggestions of how things could improve. The books I really liked were "The Food Our Children Eat" and "Not on the Label", both of which I would recommend.

Ds has only visited high school so far, but he made a cake that day, and they seem to do plenty of actual cooking looking at the syllabus. This is Scotland though, so may be different. I have to say that all I learnt in domestic science was how to try and avoid humiliation because the teacher was such a total cow it put me off for life (really) but with the right teacher it would be invaluable, I think.

Ds can cook wonderfully he is 12.
He cooks 1-2 meals a week
This week he has made flapjacks, pancakes, spaghetti carbonara (from sracth proper like) and handmade spinach and ricota ravioli
He really loves cooking
I know they do some food at school, but not sure what as yet.. Food groups thus far...
But from a schooll who took pineapple juice (too high in sugar...)out of the vending machine but left irn bru, powerade and waters with artifical sweeteners in...

DS1 (12) and DS2(10) make a meal between them each weekend - one does main course and the other does dessert and then they swap the next weekend. Am starting DS3 (8) but according to MIL I am only teaching the boys so that I can have an even greater life of luxury than I do now [despair]. Her son lived on M&S ready meals and yoghurts before I met him and even he now can cook reasonable meals.

It is so important that children learn not only to cook but also what is healthy and nutritious. I don't think food technology touches either of these goals.

I should add that DH can now cook reasonable meals because I taught him. And I am trying to teach my boys to enjoy food and its preparation.

yes, Franny, I would be interested in your copy of the book. If you are ok with that, what do I need to do? Complete stranger to this CAT thing

Agree with FandA - the book reads like a long newspaper article that was written in a hurry - and if anyone wants my copy, they can have that too! Shame, because her book Shopped is pure genius on what's wrong with supermarkets - and really well researched. It worked me up into a steaming fury, and made me change my shopping habits.

But couldn't agree more with the article - it's not only insane that children aren't taught to cook healthy food (they're all pretty much going to have to do it at some stage) but insidiously telling them that all food is manufactured and processed is even worse...

I got an A* in Food technology , I CANNOT cook!

I've read a couple of similar threads like this but these reports still amaze me.

I learned the basics of cookery at school until the 3rd form and at home after that. WHich is not to say I am a good cook, far from it, but I do know some of the basic principles. I know what a roux is, I know how to make a cake; whether or not it is edible is a whole different matter but you know waht I mean.

Having said that at dd's school (primary) they are pretty strong on the food issue. Even at nursery level they were making fruit salad, biscuits etc

I did food tech at school (left about 6 years ago). In the 3 years most of us did it (assuming we didn't take it for gcse) we cooked (and I use the term loosely) cheese and oat burgers (1st year - we still puzzle as to why as they were inedible), and over the next 2 years - a salad (no dressing or anything) and a pizza (bought base). What else we learnt I can't remember as it was mostly projects on food preparation (including a 'fascinating' one on knives - not that we actually used any knives)

SUrely a better stratergy would be actually to teach kids to cook, to plan budgets for meals, to plan weekly menus, learn about healthy diets etc? Wouldn't it be more useful?

It's good to teach children about how the food industry works, though, isn't it? So they have an idea how much processing goes into processed food? Only I'd guess it would be best to combine that with actual cooking from proper ingredients so they can see the difference.