As part of their ADST (Applied Design, Skills and Technologies) unit in baking, the grade 6/7 students spent a few days in the kitchen to practice what they have learned. What the curriculum required, was that students will learn about basic food handling and simple preparation techniques and equipment. Judging by the satisfied looks of parents at the November Society Meeting who got to devour the baked goods, the class met their learning targets admirably.
But there are things we learn that can’t be dictated in a curriculum or measured on a report card, and these are the lessons that we most treasure at CCS. A child may say “I learned to bake cookies, cupcakes and loafs”, but this is what they actually learned:
- Math is important, but not more so than problem solving, creativity and collaboration.
- There is much joy in making something wonderful and then giving it away.
- Art is more than drawing – it can be frosting a lemon loaf, decorating a cupcake or arranging donuts in just the right way.
- In a kitchen, there are no male jobs and female jobs. Just jobs.
- Some kids excel at thinking, some at talking, some at doing – the world needs them all to work together.
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