School experiences of learning to cook (and other things)

rascal said:
High school at 13 I had home economics I.e cooking classes. That defo set me on the way.

Russ
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You reminded me! Yes - in my second year of middle school in London, we started Home Economics as well. It included sewing and cooking. I can remember the first thing we made was called 'toast snacks' which was basically cheese on toast! This was one of the earliest times I was shown how to cook.

In primary school on a rotating basis, someone would come into the classroom and 3 or 4 of the kids would be called out to follow that teacher to the baking room to make cakes. We were shown how to make rock cakes one time and another, scones.

Just to keep this on topic - I can remember a period of time when Dad went curry mad. He bought lots of Patak's curry paste - big containers of pre-made Madras type and spent what I reckon was a couple of years making curry every few days. There wasn't a lot to it - you brown the meats (usually chicken) with some onion then add in the paste, water then stew for a bit and I had a go at it as well.

ig_pataks-preparato-per-curry-indiano-madras-283-g.jpg
 
vernplum said:
You reminded me! Yes - in my second year of middle school in London, we started Home Economics as well. It included sewing and cooking. I can remember the first thing we made was called 'toast snacks' which was basically cheese on toast! This was one of the earliest times I was shown how to cook.

In primary school on a rotating basis, someone would come into the classroom and 3 or 4 of the kids would be called out to follow that teacher to the baking room to make cakes. We were shown how to make rock cakes one time and another, scones.

Just to keep this on topic - I can remember a period of time when Dad went curry mad. He bought lots of Patak's curry paste - big containers of pre-made Madras type and spent what I reckon was a couple of years making curry every few days. There wasn't a lot to it - you brown the meats (usually chicken) with some onion then add in the paste, water then stew for a bit and I had a go at it as well.

View attachment 85425
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No sewing here just cooking. Pineapple upside down cake, and yummy it was too.
Russ
 
vernplum said:
You reminded me! Yes - in my second year of middle school in London, we started Home Economics as well. It included sewing and cooking. I can remember the first thing we made was called 'toast snacks' which was basically cheese on toast! This was one of the earliest times I was shown how to cook.

In primary school on a rotating basis, someone would come into the classroom and 3 or 4 of the kids would be called out to follow that teacher to the baking room to make cakes. We were shown how to make rock cakes one time and another, scones.

Just to keep this on topic - I can remember a period of time when Dad went curry mad. He bought lots of Patak's curry paste - big containers of pre-made Madras type and spent what I reckon was a couple of years making curry every few days. There wasn't a lot to it - you brown the meats (usually chicken) with some onion then add in the paste, water then stew for a bit and I had a go at it as well.
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Back when growing up, Home Ec was for girls and Shop was for boys. Although it might have been good for me to learn sewing, since I couldn't take Shop, I certainly didn't want Home Ec. I probably learned how to cook better at home (and manage finances) by watching my mother and my father. Dad was not good at anything mechanical (he "fixed" things by jamming them together with brute strength), but both were great at cooking. Mother might have taught me sewing - she hemmed things, let out hems, and repaired things - but the tomboy I was then, I had no interest in clothing other than such things would keep me covered and warm. Probably best in the long term for me that both parents loved to cook - and on weekends they had immense fun collaborating, especially if company were coming. I didn't get to cook with them, but watched - and had to do the dishes after. LOL.
 
Home ecc was mandatory at the girls school I went to, but it also included non-standard stuff, so as well as learning to cook, and supposedly something about nutrition (and dodging the temper of the shriveled old home ec teacher), there was also needlework and using a sewing machine, plus making clothes from a paper pattern.

And we also swapped out with the boys on the "sister" site, so we also learnt woodwork and metalwork learning to make items from scratch and using hand tools as well as electric drills and belt driven saws and so on... even the basics of using a screwdriver had to be taught because frankly some of the class didn't really know which way up to hold it! With 2 uncles and a grandfather who renovated old cars from scratch in the garage, that side of life I was already familiar with.

In physics we are all taught to rewire plugs and change fuses (and expected to match the fuse to what was needed, not necessarily what if anything was in there) not exactly needed much nowadays but fitted plugs were not normal back them.

I guess I was lucky.
 
Our school offered Home Ec for girls and Industrial Arts for boys. I think anyone could have taken either class, but back then, you went with the flow.
 
TastyReuben said:
Our school offered Home Ec for girls and Industrial Arts for boys. I think anyone could have taken either class, but back then, you went with the flow.
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We had both boys and girls in our home ec class, but there was a shop class for anyone who wanted to do it as well. Both were electives and not mandatory.
 
TastyReuben said:
Our school offered Home Ec for girls and Industrial Arts for boys. I think anyone could have taken either class, but back then, you went with the flow.
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Before starting high school we did tests to work out our iqs. I had no choice of subjects which included home ec, french, german and metal work.
No choice whatsoever. Apparently I was in the highest group as we did languages .

Russ
 
JAS_OH1 said:
We had both boys and girls in our home ec class, but there was a shop class for anyone who wanted to do it as well. Both were electives and not mandatory.
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Lots of things were mandatory at the school I went to that were not elsewhere, such as 3 years of Latin, 3 years music, 3 years arts, 3 years home ecc/ woodwork/ metalwork, 7 years French, and in addition to that you had to take another foreign language. The others that were also mandatory were English language, English literature, maths & I'm certain something else was but can't quite remember now (sports, swimming which wasn't on the sports category, go without saying). Over half of my 6th form year (so last exams before university) went to either Oxford or Cambridge and sitting 4 A levels was the standard, with 5 not uncommon. I studied for 5. It was common to take 9 or 10 GCSEs (so exams at 16 years old) or 9 GCSEs and additional Maths which is what I did, so you'd take Maths GCSE a year early and then go on to take a further maths exam the following year. That was the only route available you take a further Maths A level and to do maths at university. It was also expected of you if you wanted to study any of the sciences at A level and then degree (which is my background, a chemistry degree, totally and utterly unused! )
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Lots of things were mandatory at the school I went to that were not elsewhere, such as 3 years of Latin, 3 years music, 3 years arts, 3 years home ecc/ woodwork/ metalwork, 7 years French, and in addition to that you had to take another foreign language. The others that were also mandatory were English language, English literature, maths & I'm certain something else was but can't quite remember now (sports, swimming which wasn't on the sports category, go without saying). Over half of my 6th form year (so last exams before university) went to either Oxford or Cambridge and sitting 4 A levels was the standard, with 5 not uncommon. I studied for 5. It was common to take 9 or 10 GCSEs (so exams at 16 years old) or 9 GCSEs and additional Maths which is what I did, so you'd take Maths GCSE a year early and then go on to take a further maths exam the following year. That was the only route available you take a further Maths A level and to do maths at university. It was also expected of you if you wanted to study any of the sciences at A level and then degree (which is my background, a chemistry degree, totally and utterly unused! )
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That would have been impossible for me as I never attended the same school for more than 2 years except 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, at which time I was 8, 9, 10, and 11 years old. That type of curriculum was not offered to my age group 8-11.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
That would have been impossible for me as I never attended the same school for more than 2 years except 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, at which time I was 8, 9, 10, and 11 years old. That type of curriculum was not offered to my age group 8-11.
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And I thought I was smart:

85473
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Lots of things were mandatory at the school I went to that were not elsewhere, such as 3 years of Latin, 3 years music, 3 years arts, 3 years home ecc/ woodwork/ metalwork, 7 years French, and in addition to that you had to take another foreign language. The others that were also mandatory were English language, English literature, maths & I'm certain something else was but can't quite remember now (sports, swimming which wasn't on the sports category, go without saying). Over half of my 6th form year (so last exams before university) went to either Oxford or Cambridge and sitting 4 A levels was the standard, with 5 not uncommon. I studied for 5. It was common to take 9 or 10 GCSEs (so exams at 16 years old) or 9 GCSEs and additional Maths which is what I did, so you'd take Maths GCSE a year early and then go on to take a further maths exam the following year. That was the only route available you take a further Maths A level and to do maths at university. It was also expected of you if you wanted to study any of the sciences at A level and then degree (which is my background, a chemistry degree, totally and utterly unused! )
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I left school end of fourth form. The principal told me it was best for everyone.

Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
And I thought I was smart:

View attachment 85473
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I lived in Maryland for a year when I was in kindergarten, shortly before moving to Okinawa, Japan, where I attended 1st grade and 2nd grade, then we moved back to our house in Florida which is where I went to elementary school. In the 7th grade I went to a Jr. high school in the same town (7-9), but my mom moved to Tallahassee (the capital of Florida) when I was in the 9th grade. We lived on one side of town for a year and then I had to start 10th grade at another school. Before my senior year of high school I was back in Destin living with my dad, so that's where I graduated. I just didn't have the opportunity to attend one school for any prolonged period of time.

It wasn't easy being an Air Force brat and the child of parents who divorced when I was in the 3rd grade.
 
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