Things Noticeable this week

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

It wasn't like she was going to order udon or hamburger and fries.

She could have said Taco, Taco, Taco, burrito, burrito, burrito or whatever else the menu said. Wouldn't take a Brainiac to get the order message across.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45C16tToen8

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I think the fault lies in ourselves as the older generation. Do we teach our children how to cook? More than once I have been served in supermarkets by teenagers who do not recognise the vegetable they are supposed to enter as a sale in the till - they don't know what a leek is. I gather that "home economics" (i.e. cookery and kitchen skills) are no longer taught in schools, haven't been for decades. The parents do not teach the children at home because everything is a ready meal or straight from a tin. How can they be expected to learn? And should we criticise them for not learning the things we are too lazy to teach them?

I don't have any kids, but from what I have seen in some parents these days your observations are very true. Both parents often work, and the kids get slopped with takeout, or if the mother cooks, she just puts together whatever without taking the time to involve her kids in the process.

Ditto other life skills. When I was young I was taught all sorts of things, and expected to use those skills, to help keep the family going. That doesn't seem to be the case these days.

I did some googling on Home Ec, and was surprised to find out that you are right - apparently they DON'T teach it in most places anymore.

When I was a boy, in 7th grade we had to take a semester in Home Ec - the boys HAD to take it along with the girls, it was not elective. The school had a big room full of sewing machines and other stuff and another big room full of kitchen gear - multiple stoves, sinks and what-not. I remember learning how to sew on buttons, apply a patch, and sewing together a stuffed animal. Plus cooking up various treats and a few meals. You can imagine the faggot jokes that went around in that class - if you were a boy you didn't want to get praised by the teacher for your sewing or your cookies.

After that it was elective, in higher grades Home Ec was all girls. Us boys gratefully retreated to the woodworking classes and the machine shop.

It's a pity they are not teaching practical classes like that anymore. No doubt they have been replaced by courses like "Political Correctness 101" and "Know Your Nationalities - Celebrating Third World Immigrants".

[Rogerbh]

Looters of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=7qIn3u74W6A

Must be racist newscasters as they show nonwhites.

Low income housing right across the street from a store in a major weather incident.

Big surprise.

Another example of why no one wants low income housing anywhere around them.

[charliels531]

Originally Posted by bowlinggreen

I did some googling on Home Ec, and was surprised to find out that you are right - apparently they DON'T teach it in most places anymore.

***

It's a pity they are not teaching practical classes like that anymore. No doubt they have been replaced by courses like "Political Correctness 101" and "Know Your Nationalities - Celebrating Third World Immigrants".

You are letting your politics block your thought processes again.

I do have a child who went through public schools, and I was in regular and close contact with her teachers, and watched as this process unrolled. There are at least two reasons, and they grow from your politics: Testing and prescribed curricula.

1) Testing. Beginning with the Reagan Administration a right-wing drumbeat required "standardized testing" of all students. By the time my daughter entered elementary school in 1992 that "testing" took 1 day per year. By the time she graduated from high school the process took an entire week plus two weeks of preparation.

2) Prescribed curricula. Every time some legislative asshole gets an idea, he tries to make it a law. By the time my daughter graduated my state law had 150+ requirements by the legislature of what was to be taught. Home Ec was not one.

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I think the fault lies in ourselves as the older generation..........And should we criticise them for not learning the things we are too lazy to teach them?

I taught my sons how to play the guitar - I don't think they can cook, one of them managed to burn water in the microwave the other day

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by charliels531

You are letting your politics block your thought processes again.

I do have a child who went through public schools, and I was in regular and close contact with her teachers, and watched as this process unrolled. There are at least two reasons, and they grow from your politics: Testing and prescribed curricula.

1) Testing. Beginning with the Reagan Administration a right-wing drumbeat required "standardized testing" of all students. By the time my daughter entered elementary school in 1992 that "testing" took 1 day per year. By the time she graduated from high school the process took an entire week plus two weeks of preparation.

2) Prescribed curricula. Every time some legislative asshole gets an idea, he tries to make it a law. By the time my daughter graduated my state law had 150+ requirements by the legislature of what was to be taught. Home Ec was not one.

Not so much my politics as cynicism.

Could you post a course roster of exactly what your child was taught? I'm curious.

Looking back at my dim memories of 7th grade, a typical day went like this:

1st hour English class. Emphasis on grammar.
A brief home room.
2nd Hour, math. Pre-algebra and other stuff I don't really remember.
3rd Hour, History class.
4th hour, Home Ec (second semester was a shop class).
Lunch.
5th hour, study hall.
6th hour, gym class.
7th hour, science class.

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

I taught my sons how to play the guitar - I don't think they can cook, one of them managed to burn water in the microwave the other day

My dad taught me about man-cooking, early in the mornings I learned how to scramble eggs and fry bacon and mix up batter for pancakes out of a box. Plus grilling - you aren't a real man unless you can serve up a steak or a hamburger to order off a charcoal grill.

I'm proud to say I have never once cooked a wussy casserole in my entire life.

[Greenman]

Why do Americans add 101 to subjects?

Most noticeable,this morning going out apart from getting the wrong newspaper delivered was the fact it's warm-unusual for mid September but I doubt it will last and hit the bigger 20's. I would estimate it is around 22-24c which is 72-75f. It's been warm before a few times when we've gone to synagogue for the New Year and had to open the windows in the hall because it got very warm with all those people in there, but normally it gets cooler in time for Yom Kippur(Day of Atonement-which always made me think of The Terminator). I hope it is cooler by that this Wednesday.

I cook for my parents and my sister and brother-in-law occasionally in fact I am due to cook my signature dish -chicken pan fried next month for my mother's birthday.

[Mal Hombre]

I may be wrong (It is possible) butt I think 101 means that it's the beginners level of a subject just covering the basics..

[vinceprince]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

I may be wrong (It is possible) butt I think 101 means that it's the beginners level of a subject just covering the basics..

If only GM had something like the internet or google where you could look up such things.

[Mal Hombre]

That's covered in Internet 101...