One Small Elective For Student… One Giant Possibility For the Future. Food For Thought
Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. I have been really busy with my online classes, so my blog sat on the back burner for a little while. I am still a fully “remote only” online student. I can’t go back to school until it is safe for my family. For those tiny few who read my blog, you know why… I have an older brother who has had three organ transplants.
With a myriad of online classes, and each one having its challenging demands of learning new platforms such as Wevideo, Book-creator, Canva, Adobe Spark, Google slides, Flip grid, etc. I’ve spent a few weekends cursing at my Chromebook. But hey, if anyone needs help on any of these platforms (and they may become obsolete in another week or two), I’m your man.
The one class that really stood out for me was my elective. For anyone who thinks students no longer need electives, I’m here to state otherwise. Electives are so important! And here’s why: they help us find ourselves as young, soon to be adults. They help us discover what we truly want to be. And, until we try different things, we may not able to figure that out. I find that my electives can take what I have learned from other classes and expand on those things.
Take for instance, my culinary class! I got so much more out of this class than expected. Way more than just learning how to Mise en place, or how to Julienne. Not that these things are not important in a culinary class. I’ve learned something so much more valuable. I learned how to make mistakes on my own, and learn from those mistakes. What a delicious thing to learn! For instance, if I added a little too much salt, I learned not to do that the next go around. Life isn’t perfect, and we may not alway get it right. But, things can still turn out okay, or we can try again, and it will improve.
For me, this is a valuable life lesson. I have autism, and I can’t stand to make a mistake. It really eats at me when I do, so learning that I can make a mistake (in the comfort of my own kitchen), learn from that, and do it again, better than before… gives me a gift of calmness, clarity and confidence.
So does a culinary class make one a better student? I would say, “Yes!” For me, it does! Autism has presented many challenges for myself especially when it comes to communicating and writing. There are a lot of writing assignments in this class. I am sure some of the students signing up for this class think they are just going to cook a little something and that’s it. But, no… you have to write! I found that the writing in this class really helped me find my voice. I had a task. I completed the task, and then I had to write about it. Let’s face it, having experienced something makes it all the easier to write. Don’t you think?
No prompting necessary, and total recall of what I did. For instance, I wrote about incorporating three different meats together to make meatballs. It’s hard to forget having your hands in three different meats and mushing them together! It’s especially hard to forget how utterly delicious it tastes, and the expression of amazement from my family who consumed it. And, when it was all said and done, I had completed a cookbook! Pretty cool!
This class taught me valuable life lessons, like budgeting, comparison shopping, measuring, what happens when you don’t measure out something correctly (it happens), having to budget time, knife skills (not cutting myself… I’m a musician), not leaving a mess, storing food properly, and of course, cooking. It taught me all that, but I never expected for this class to give me confidence in writing.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot to learn, but for that, I am truly grateful because that also ended up helping me in my English class, Modern Global Studies class, and other classes that involve writing.
So, if you want to improve your writing, organizational skills, math skills, or learn how to make a killer roux and impress the heck out of your family… which will build your confidence. Take a culinary class! It wont be as easy as you think, but you might turn into a better student, and ultimately a better person knowing how to cook something the right way. You will have a better appreciation for food. The only downfall is that your taste buds will be spoiled, and so will your family, because they will expect you to cook something awesome every weekend.
So, will taking a culinary class turn me into a chef? I don’t know. It has certainly inspired me. I am now more interested in that path, and I am less afraid of burning myself on the oven. Most of all, I am more confident and can allow myself dream about the future.
Therefore, in my humble opinion, online or not… students still need electives! Especially culinary class! Will that turn a student into the next Chef Jacques Pépin or Bobby Flay? Maybe not, but at least it gives someone like me a chance to try. And in this crazy world we are living in right now, students like myself need all the chances we can get. Even if we start in our very own kitchens. Maybe when the world opens back up, many restaurants will too, giving us a chance to socialize, eat fine food, and dream.
Thank you teachers!
Yours truly… Possible future chef…
Mason
