Defren said:
Cooking is still taught in schools here, but the wrong kind of recipe's. My daughters came home with cookies, cupcakes, flapjacks etc, all high carb, high sugar snacks. If schools are teaching these recipe's then what hope do kids have especially if socio/economic reasons dictate the family live mainly on fast or processed foods? I was taught family staples in 'domestic science', shepherds/cottage pie, mince and dumplings, soups and broths. Ok, not good as we understand healthy now, but certainly then good home cooked comfort stodge. Still better than cookies and cupcakes - just!
I started my secondary education in Cheshire and continued it in Glasgow after the family relocated to Scotland. Domestic Science was one of my favourite subjects and the English school had a Nissen hut that had been converted into a 'house' and in there the girls learned all sorts of things about housekeeping; we learned to cook basic recipes and also how to feed children, invalids and cater for special diets and occasions. After moving to Glasgow I thought this was a terribly old fashioned way to do things; girls in Scotland did everything the boys did and vice versa. However, I did learn from those domestic science lessons, and from my mother, just how to provide good healthy (well 1980s healthy....) meals for my future family. Maybe these old fashioned classes should be reinstated for all school children.
Conversely to what SG was saying, when we moved to Glasgow, I took Food Sciences for my O Grade and Higher choices. It was an amazing course to take then; we even learned basic butchery. My mother, a talented cook herself, used to ask me to cook for dinner parties. I know that these courses varied slightly throughout different schools, but they were taught at all schools in Strathclyde then. Pupils from deprived backgrounds hardly ever chose to take them as the money wasn't there for the cookery ingredients you needed twice weekly and also, they wouldn't have eaten the finished dishes as they were anathema to them. So the education was there, but SG is quite right in saying that bad diets are a habit.
So, going by my own experiences, I've encouraged all of my children to cook and to take cookery at school. The eldest also did the majority of his secondary education in Scotland and cooks well. My daughter took 'Food Technology' at school in England and didn't cook once, not even cakes! She cooks well now but only because she cooks at home and learns from us. The two younger boys faired better as they had improved the course by that time, but it's still very lacking in proper nutritional knowledge and basic cookery technique, and they cooked much the same as Defren's girls. There were even occasions when the ingredients called for included bought cake mixes.
Their school has fully embraced the Jamie Oliver ethics in the dining hall but not the cookery department! The attitude is that every child will be so successful they'll be too busy to eat home cooked food, they'll all eat ready meals or out at posh restaurants!
I also think Sid is right, but you need to know what to do with cheap wholesome ingredients in order to turn out an edible meal. On a limited budget you are just not going to take the risk of ruining ingredients if you've no idea. If you're working, and most homes these days have to have both parents working, then you're going to be too tired to start from scratch so you go for convenience foods. It's a vicious circle.
Ju
