School doesn’t prepare us to be functional adults who are able to care for our basic life needs.
Consider the history of American pedagogy and what the intentions were behind creating public school systems and colleges.
Though the first public school in America was founded in 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts, it wasn’t until 1830 that Horace Mann, secretary of Massachusetts’ state board of education, began to call for state-funded public education. In 1830, only about 50% of children aged 5-14 attended school, according to a 2020 Graduate School of Education & Human Development study.
When public schooling as a concept was introduced to the nation, it was done with the intention of creating a populace that was more educated in the “Three R’s” of “reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
Though this benefited the nation enormously, it still did not address the burden placed on parents and families to educate children into adulthood, and the systemic inequities that were purposefully built into the school system to prevent certain people from achieving education.
Children of color didn’t receive public schooling in many areas until the early 20th century, and still schools were segregated. Disabled students weren’t guaranteed access to education until the passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act webpage.
The Amercians With Disabilities Act is a civil rights law built on the idea that people physical and mental disabilities should be able to participate fully in society, according to ada.gov. After it passed, businesses and schools were required to provide reasonable accommodation to people with disabilities.
Equity problems in education persist to this day.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, public schools addressed some deficits in home education and assumed responsibility for graduating students’ ability to read, write, understand math and apply critical thinking, sex education and home economics, according to the American Educational History webpage.
Now, schools prepare students for the workplace and give little consideration to important aspects of life including the acquisition, preparation, preservation and consumption of food.
Public education officials assume our parents have taught us how to shop for groceries, plan a menu, or create meals that are nutritious and affordable. This knowledge is assumed to be generational, culturally-specific knowledge.
But what happens when students who grow up in food deserts, in poverty, or with parents who are unable to provide quality food, enter adulthood? What about students who grow up in foster care?
Until public schools acknowledge the need to educate students as human beings and not just as potential future employees, students will continue to struggle to feed themselves adequately even after they graduate and find jobs.
Even in public schools and colleges, the role of fulfilling students’ nutritional needs has fallen upon the people who have been tasked with passing on culinary skills since the dawn of humanity: mothers and grandmothers.
Crystal Calhoun, a San Jose activist, mother, and grandmother received a grant from SJSU’s office of diversity in November to teach a virtual class on healthy cooking using greens and vegetables from her garden as part of the office’s “Transforming Communities” event. This was done in a concerted effort to combat the lack of nutritional education that affects many students, particularly students of color, even in college.
How are students going to succeed in school without fueling their bodies with proper nutrition?
I grew up with food insecurity and a parent who cooked whatever we could afford on food stamps, which usually meant boxed, frozen, or canned ingredients. I didn’t get to eat raspberries until I was 10 and picked them off of a bush in my aunt’s swampy Minnesota backyard. I didn’t eat real butter until I was 17 and had my first nannying job. I gained a much-needed ten pounds in that first year of working, and spent my money buying strawberries from corner fruit vendors.
My current boss taught me most of what I know about food. She taught me how to make brussels sprouts, swiss chard, and green beans in ways I’d never thought of before because I grew up only with canned, boiled beans and frozen peas. She taught me how to turn one whole chicken into three different meals that can feed a family of six for over a week. She taught me how to buy food on a budget that is nutritious, easy to cook, and easy to store for quick, college friendly meals on the go.
This knowledge, passed on to me by a woman who learned it from her mother and grandmother, is foundational to my success in school.
One of my favorite recipes I put together myself using tricks she taught me to alter an internet recipe, but the meal is something I’d never tried until my boss made it for me one rainy day. It’s a comfort-food staple in their home: a classic tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich.
For the grilled cheese, take any two slices of bread and any cheese, and gently fry in a pan- just make sure you use real butter.
