In my (high school) advanced cooking class, I had them make cupcakes and do a LITTLE bit of decorating.  It was very basic.  Top the cupcake with an icing glaze, then turn it into a ladybug by piping a straight line down the center, add some dots on each side, add a chocolate wafer for the head (here's what they were supposed to look like:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/55969028@N00/3211247161/in/photolist-5TLtUn-52s7VM 

One girl was trying to pipe the dots and said to me, "You can shove this decorating part!" I laughed and said, "So you're saying it's worth it to pay someone else to do that part?"  Yes, that is exactly what she meant!  I told her, "Now you can appreciate the price you pay for a good decorated cake!"  :-)

I am getting so many funny remarks from the kids in my classes.  On "Big Breakfast Day", a few came up and said, "Where's the can of biscuits?"  I said, "You're going to make the biscuits."  They asked how.  I said in the mixer.  They said, "You can do that?" 

WHen we made chocolate chip cookies, they were shocked (1) because they thought all they had to do was add chocolate chips to the store-purchased dough and (2) the cookies weren't "brown" like the commercial cookie dough.  A white cookie with chocolate chips looked foreign to them.

Just some fun remarks I'd thought I'd share with a group who would really appreciate the humor!!

P.S.  Let me say again how much I just love my job!!

Sounds like you are having fun @indydebi.  It's nice that you are passing on your knowledge to another generation.

Between grandma, mom, & 4-H it was lucky that I also had some good teachers as a kid.

Yes, my 28 year old niece had NO idea you could "make" icing. She thought the stuff in the can was it. After "crashing" my Wilton course 1, class 1, she was going to make her friend's wedding cake....lol....;)   Gotta love spirit!

head>desk

Doesn't that just break your heart a little bit?

If it doesn't come loaded as an app or pop up on a screen, it's not valued much.  Lots of overblown frustration if something takes time and effort, and too little pride in doing it right. 

If anyone can get through to them, its' you, Debi!  Keep up the good fight.

Teaching them to make bisquits is a good start.

It's all probably in the same vein as.........can they boil a pot of white rice properly to feed themselves, or cook a plain pan of oatmeal, or fry a hamburger, or bake a meatloaf, or  bake simple pan rolls, 

Do they realize that you can buy a can of coffee grounds and make 100 cups of coffee at home, for the same cost as 2 cups downtown.

Or a can of Kool-Aid or LemonAide can make 20 quarts of sweet drink at home, for the cost of 2 bottles of commercial.

AI think a large part of the problem is that we don't teach home economics like we used to, and parents don't see the value in their children learning it. I think it is funny that as a society we said that ok, women should be in the workforce and that it is ***ist to expect them to be good at keeping a house clean and cooking meals. I think it is ***ist to ONLY expect women to do this. Men should do it too, and it should be taught. Here is the thing, I am a woman and I work full time, so does my husband, but we can't afford someone to come and clean, do our shopping, laundry etc. what is so wrong with teaching the economics of keeping up a house, how to be smart about what you buy, how to cook a home made meal for less? Boggles my mind,

To give you all a little ray of hope, my kids love to bake with both myself and their mum. I bake a lot now and Mum has baked for years, albeit not as adventurous as I do, but our kids have always baked with us.We're determined that all four of our kids will be able to cook at least basic foods, even our two boys who are autistic! :)

Here's a shot of our boys helping mum to bake and.......erm...testing the frosting for some cupcakes. ;)

It's not all bad out there, honest! :D

AYou are so right canacake! Everyone should have the knowledge we learned way back when. They should call it Life Skills so there is no gender association. Everyone should know how to cook for themselves, do their laundry, sew a button back on, balance their checkbook, pay their bills, as well as basic fixes around the house.

AIt's so funny - I made marmalade with my daughter's kindergarten class - i had parents coming up to me for WEEKS afterwards saying that they didn't know you could MAKE marmalade (did they think it comes out of a lab??) and they didn't know it was made from oranges. Ok.....

My girls have specific roles when we cook at home - one loves to cook, the other believes her role in life is to be official taste tester. I just hope there's a guy out there who loves to cook, because he'd better be around when she moves out of home!

That's really funny...It all depends what you teach them. Even with me being a baker, there are things that I don't buy, or don't like so I don't make them. My daughter started making her own hardboiled eggs because she likes them and I don't, so I just never make them. I remember when one of my friends came over with her kids when they were all little, and my kids were staring at the hardboiled eggs she had brought for her kids' snack like they were form another planet. She couldn't figure out why my kids were so fascinated with the eggs until I told her that they'd probably never seen a hardboiled egg before!

My daughter swore she'd end up on a psychologist's couch because I "deprived" her of sour cream as a child (I don't like it ... I don't buy it.)

As an update to some of the comments above about costs and making things,  I decided that every class has to do a semester project of planning a meal.  That means figuring the number of guests, creating a menu, a shopping list, an estimated cost (you have to know how much money to take to the store!), ACTUAL pricing, a narrative about their shopping trip, a LONG narrative about making the meal and what they learned.  In my first semester, I was excited to get feedback such as "I learned how hard my mom works to make dinner every day!" and "I learned how much I've been taking my mom for granted" and "I had no idea food cost that much!"

In the first semester, most of them helped mom plan thanksgiving, which is a lot of food and a lot of work.  It's a real eye opener to most of them, let me tell you!  I am so looking forward to the next batch of projects!

making the world a better place one student/ingredient at a time -- way to go, indy

I wish all schools had to do this; its projects like this that truly prepare kids for life as a grown up!

Lol

On our first day that the class cooked something, afterward I asked them "What did you do today that you've never done before?"  One young man said, "Dishes!"  I said, "You've never washed dishes?"  He said, "That's what sisters are for!"  The ladies in the class went after him ..... and I just stepped back and let them!  :-) 

I am usually busy working when my 9 year old daughter is home, but she has taken it upon herself to learn how to cook... youtube videos, online recipes, online tutorials etc. Which btw is EXACTLY how I learned to do what I do. anyway, It's spring break where we are, which is also Easter Week and it is INSANELY busy... I came upstairs to have breakfast, not thinking she was up yet... and she had French Toast almost completely finished for us and it looked and tasted GREAT! She had her ipad propped up and was listening to music in the background reading the recipe. Be still my beating heart <3 she takes after me! That is exactly how I learned. It was such a fabulous thing to see:) And she does that quite often... and prefers NOT to have my help:)

There is hope, and these kids are so smart, just have to find what it is they are really into. 

I most certainly wasn't referencing the option to actually LEARN how to do something using online resources.  I was referring to the tendency to devalue in-person teaching and to prefer to interact with screens for frivolous pursuits, i.e. video games, FB, Twitter, etc.

Of course people learn a lot when they research things like recipes and techniques.  Those types of people will [usually] appreciate having a face to face interaction with a teacher, too.  Sadly, many classroom students often act as though the teacher is a hideous inconvenience or just there to make their lives hard.   Some resent being held to a standard and having to show that they're learning something. 

indy -- i can't find the right post* but there's a ka 8 qt for $587.26 w/free shipping on amazon right now

*and while i was looking they were deleting spam so i kept searching through the same pages - omg such efficiency hahaha

I teach Family and Consumer Science...what used to be called Home Ec., but now with many more areas of study.  My favorite part is teaching cooking, and, I have to say, the students absolutely love it.  We even make yeast bread, which doesn't intimidate them at all.  All the eighth graders take the class.  Unfortunately, our school population has decreased a lot over the past eight years I've been teaching and our program is being trimmed.  That means I'm out of a job and now FACS will be an elective.  Classes will also be larger, though there is an OSHA class size restriction, which I'm not sure the administration is aware of.  

It's so sad because the kids learn so much in these classes, not only about cooking, but about nutrition, too, not to mention reading and following directions.  Recipes, of course, and the consequences of not following the steps exactly in baking.  It's a tragedy for them and for me.

It is sad that it's these types of programs get the axe first. 

I have vivid memories of my "Home Ec" classes in 8th & 9th grade.  I learned sooo much in those classes---40 years ago.

We take away these real-life experience classes and wonder why people can't boil water or do anything but reheat in a microwave.

Hope something great comes up for you!

i'm sorry you're out of a job facslady -- i too hope you get something awesome and can enjoy some r&r if possible --

best to you

I loved HomeEc, but never got good grades in it.  Go figure.

The digital age is shortening attention spans, yet we still have brilliant young people graduating from college.  Each generation is different.

My little one loves electronics, I wish I could get her to want to learn to do the programming end of computing.

Hah, this is great!

My parents always made everything homemade when I was a kid.  Unfortunately, I never had any inclination to learn.  It wasn't until about 6 years ago that I gained an interest in cooking and started teaching myself.  Luckily, I'm able to match many flavor profiles and methods to those I grew up enjoying.  I hope my children will be interested in learning to cook.  My 3-year-old endeavored to make scrambled eggs about a week and a half ago, so I think we're off to a good start.