Readers respond to recent articles in the Health Supplement
Re: Food Writer John McKenna's column, HealthSupplement, October 2nd
Dear Sir,
I read with interest the first column by food writer John McKenna. While he raises several important issues regarding the increasing complexity of food messages, he is incorrect in his assertion that we teach the science of cooking, but not the art.
In second-level home economics, the art of food preparation and cooking is taught as a major part of the subject core at both Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate levels. What Mr McKenna should be highlighting is the fact that in Ireland, home economics is an optional subject at Junior Cert level and, consequently, is not provided to all students.
It is offered in about 79 per cent of all schools at present, but due to its optional status it is taken by just fewer than 40 per cent of students.
Policymakers in this country have consistently failed to recognise the existence of home economics as a subject on the curriculum, never mind the vast contribution it plays in developing a comprehensive array of know-how in the areas of nutrition, food hygiene and budgeting as well as practical food skills.
Incredibly, a key recommendation of the report of the National Taskforce on Obesity in 2005 was a call for the "introduction into schools of skills programmes which teach and develop training in basic food preparation and budgeting" when such a programme was already in existence!
The demise of home economics as a subject on the National Curriculum in the UK in the early 1990s and the optional nature of the food element within design and technology, which replaced it, is now being widely lamented by education and health authorities there. A plethora of initiatives costing millions have been introduced to combat the cooking skill shortage and healthy eating knowledge that is lacking because of the absence of a compulsory course on the curriculum.
Let us learn from the mistakes of others. Given that the mechanism for the provision of practical food education is already in place in the form of home economics, we need to call for the mandatory provision of this subject for all pupils. This will ensure that all our children will benefit from "the creativity of cooking and the joy of the table" as indicated by Mr McKenna.
Yours, etc
Eileen Kelly-Blakeney
Enniscrone,
Co Sligo
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