During my first year working with my students, I quickly realized just how sheltered their knowledge of the world actually was. Being from a small, impoverished town, these students face a dramatic isolated view of the world around them. This is due to unstable home environments, homelessness, drug and alcohol addictions or a combination of many different at-risk circumstances.
Learning how to cook is one of the most important skills a person can have. Not only for learning the health benefits regarding cooking, students are also learning math, history, geography, an assortment of different sciences and even art. Through the process of teaching a cooking class, I have been able to open my students' exposure to different cultures around the world and food related customs they never knew existed. I have been able to get them excited to learn history and even math! Food is one of the biggest aspects of a culture. For the Chinese, for example, their food represents strong ties among the community. They also always dine together and eat from the same communal dish. For the Italians, food conveys warmth, love, pleasure, nutrition and history. This means that Italians hold their food in great esteem and they often talk about food.
My students can benefit from cooking supplies such as a canning system, a wok, and bakeware to help expand their knowledge of culture around the world, as well as gain personal skills to improve their quality of living. These items will also prove beneficial in helping us execute more ways we can give back to our community through the art of cooking.
About my class
During my first year working with my students, I quickly realized just how sheltered their knowledge of the world actually was. Being from a small, impoverished town, these students face a dramatic isolated view of the world around them. This is due to unstable home environments, homelessness, drug and alcohol addictions or a combination of many different at-risk circumstances.
Learning how to cook is one of the most important skills a person can have. Not only for learning the health benefits regarding cooking, students are also learning math, history, geography, an assortment of different sciences and even art. Through the process of teaching a cooking class, I have been able to open my students' exposure to different cultures around the world and food related customs they never knew existed. I have been able to get them excited to learn history and even math! Food is one of the biggest aspects of a culture. For the Chinese, for example, their food represents strong ties among the community. They also always dine together and eat from the same communal dish. For the Italians, food conveys warmth, love, pleasure, nutrition and history. This means that Italians hold their food in great esteem and they often talk about food.
My students can benefit from cooking supplies such as a canning system, a wok, and bakeware to help expand their knowledge of culture around the world, as well as gain personal skills to improve their quality of living. These items will also prove beneficial in helping us execute more ways we can give back to our community through the art of cooking.
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