Cityvisitor blog

Are lessons in cooking and finance key to a healthy, wealthy young generation?

Shakespeare and Latin are being brought more…

…into focus by changes in the national curriculum, but many parents argue that life skills such as cooking and finances should come before Capulets and facultas.  The previous government were all set to put cooking on the national curriculum for everyone claiming that it was a great way to tackle obesity. Their reasoning was simple, if someone knows how to cook fresh ingredients for themselves they are less likely to eat factory prepared junk food. The link between financial knowledge and financial health is similar to the link between culinary knowledge and physical health and both have been proven. If you give young people a financial boost or a bag of food they will be okay for a while, but if you give them a good grounding in finances and food, they will be okay for a long time. The old “give a man a fish” argument works well in favour of the proposed practical new lessons

Parents seeing their teenagers off to university for the first time are signing their children up to tailor made cookery classes. These classes teach basic store cupboard ingredients that can be turned into nutritious and appetising meals. This is undoubtedly a positive example of entrepreneurial spirit and a useful service to confused students as well as frustrated parents, but isn’t it also a worrying reflection on Britain’s young people?

The argument against these proposed additions to the curriculum is as simple as the one for it: This is just the sort of thing that children should be taught at home. While a Bunsen Burner or a copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be hard to come by, an account statement or a cooker are pretty widespread. Though both sides of the argument are compelling, there are no plans to extend coverage of cooking or finances in the national curriculum.

 

This entry was posted in Current Affairs. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.