This evening I discovered a flood of responses to the Caitlin Flanagan essay I wrote about yesterday, and I’ll tell you what – if you trash talk the food movement, there is hell to pay!
Since last night’s post was an epic journey into the beast of Flanagan’s critique of the food movement, I’ll keep today’s entry short and sweet.
If you read Flanagan’s article I hope you will post your thoughts and/or comments to my ideas on this blog. If you want to read more criticism of her ideas, check out this piece that was published today on CivilEats. I don’t know how interested I am in writing a critique of a critique, but I will say that different arguments (from mine) are posited in the exciting writing of author Kurt Michael Friese. Since Friese is first and foremost a chef and food writer, his perspective is clearly from that of the food movement.
I, on the other hand, hold an allegiance to education as much as I do to food. And so for me the main issue is whether or not we want to reform our mass-produced, robotic curriculums; or, should we press-on and further the inane momentum of the test-taking culture of today?
As you might guess, I vote for the former. Let’s reform education. Let’s mandate interdisciplinary study and experiential learning. That way, we’ll create students who fulfill hopes and dreams rather than succumb to idealizing consumption and wealth.
Who’s with me?!
Related posts:
- Critical Food Literacy and a Sustainable Food Movement
- School Gardens are All the Rage – Resources to Join the Movement
- The 100-Mile Diet vs. World Hunger (part 3)
- Pro-Food Anti-Foodie
- Blogger’s Block (or) Why I Have Not Posted Lately
Tags: Food Politics, local food movement
Ms. Flanagan’s response (to the school garden movement) is reductionist, at best.
Through our program, Healthy Lunch & Lifestyle Project, we use the Garden Classroom for break-out sessions for students who are ALREADY performing below the standard in math and science. The Garden Classroom supplements, it does not replace, traditional classroom curricula. It provides another opportunity to teach children who may not (for a variety of reasons) be “traditional learners.”
Additionally, we use the Garden Classroom for nutrition education; the middle school students who are engaged in the garden and in garden-based nutrition education (which includes cooking classes) are participating in the school lunch program in greater numbers. This is significant because our school meal program focuses on whole fruits, whole vegetables, and whole grains which are prepared from scratch daily. Improved nutrition is positively correlated to improved classroom performance and behavior; surely Ms. Flanagan would not refute the evidenced-based, peer-reviewed research which supports this finding.
Last, and certainly not least, hands-on learning develops critical thinking skills (which “teaching to the test” does not.) We are a nation of entrepreneurs and I have seen the work of some of our nation’s future great minds at work in the garden.
Education reform is necessary; we are no longer a nation of factory workers and we need an education system (or systems) that acknowledges this shift.