Dealing with the Home Ec teacher.

EileenG

I've got two girls at secondary school doing Home Economics, and both of them come home with problems with things they are told by the Home Ec teacher and are expected to repeat in exam.

The food pyramid is a given, of course, but one daughter has just been told that women can't breastfeed if they lift weights, and shouldn't breastfeed past six months, it stops having value at that point. Presumably the milk then turns to poison. And of course, they can't breastfeed if they exercise, drink coffee, wine or eat cabbage or curry.

The Home Ec teacher has also told them to eat margarine, not butter, that cholesterol in BAD and that they should tell their parents to eat Benecol.

Frankly some of the advice these teachers are handing out is not just bad, it's dangerous. Both daughters have told me they know it's wrong, but they are not going to argue in case she fails them.

Is there any point making a fuss? Should I send them into school armed with extracts from the most recent studies?

sandra06

i ask to meet teacher and then give her info you have ,see what she says to that ;if your not happy about her reply go to the ed board and complain esp if the info she teaching is wrong:D

Amtmann

EileenG wrote: »

Should I send them into school armed with extracts from the most recent studies?

If their teacher is dogmatic or potentially vindictive, I would say not. I would supply the latest studies to the teacher yourself, however, and/or arrange a face-to-face meeting with her. Also, on this subject, perhaps it's time to get the Dept. of Education involved, not vis-a-vis this particular teacher, but in terms of having their shoddy course material updated.

foobi

EileenG wrote: »

I've got two girls at secondary school doing Home Economics, and both of them come home with problems with things they are told by the Home Ec teacher and are expected to repeat in exam.

The food pyramid is a given, of course, but one daughter has just been told that women can't breastfeed if they lift weights, and shouldn't breastfeed past six months, it stops having value at that point. Presumably the milk then turns to poison. And of course, they can't breastfeed if they exercise, drink coffee, wine or eat cabbage or curry.

The Home Ec teacher has also told them to eat margarine, not butter, that cholesterol in BAD and that they should tell their parents to eat Benecol.

Frankly some of the advice these teachers are handing out is not just bad, it's dangerous. Both daughters have told me they know it's wrong, but they are not going to argue in case she fails them.

Is there any point making a fuss? Should I send them into school armed with extracts from the most recent studies?

My god, and i wanted to become a Home Ec teacher. Send that teacher to me. Ive completed a food bus degree and completeing a food marketing degree and i'll set her straight on whats good/bad cholesterol and the true facts, i know these from MY home ec days as well as bits learned in college from a marketing perspective. I don't remember being told facts like that in Home ec by the way, i only did my LC in 2006 and i'm sure we wer the 'new' course. I'd check your daughters home ec books and follow those instructions with regards to answering q's for the exams as this home ec teacher sounds loo laa.

EileenG

EileenG wrote: »

Frankly some of the advice these teachers are handing out is not just bad, it's dangerous. Both daughters have told me they know it's wrong, but they are not going to argue in case she fails them.

Is there any point making a fuss? Should I send them into school armed with extracts from the most recent studies?

This isn't the teacher's fault. This is the curriculum. Most of what's taught in secondary school is wrong. The point isn't really education, it's preparation for the Leaving Cert. If the teacher starts teaching contrary to the curriculum, whether it's right or not, your daughters will fail their leaving cert. Don't make a fuss to the teacher or the school, this honestly isn't something they've done, this is something they HAVE to do. If I were you I'd write a letter of complaint to the department of education, or if you're lucky, try to get an appointment to speak to someone there.

I did chemistry for Junior cert. When I went into Leaving cert Chemistry, the very first thing we were told, by the very same teacher that taught us the year before, was to forget everything we learnt, that it wasn't correct, and that if we used it for the LC we'd be marked as wrong. When I went into college, and had my first Chemistry lecture, the first thing we were told is that the stuff we learnt for the Leaving Cert was wrong, that it should never be used in any college work as it would be marked not only as incorrect but seen as incredibly stupid (not his exact words obviously).

Until your girls get to college (if they're so inclined) they can't really take anything they learn as the gospel truth, because very often in secondary school it's not. You should just be thankful that they know better, and hopefully will know to just write what the teacher says in the exam, without really believing it. My only worry is that other people in the class might take such information from the teacher as being a good way to deal with their own nutrition, in which case, you need to speak to the Dept. of Education.

Bottle_of_Smoke

EileenG wrote: »

The food pyramid is a given, of course, but one daughter has just been told that women can't breastfeed if they lift weights, and shouldn't breastfeed past six months, it stops having value at that point. Presumably the milk then turns to poison.

Is it possible the teacher is giving her own opinion instead of the ciriculum? Like you get the "Breastapo" on one side who heavily push breastfeeding(and are right) there appears to be a very defensive anti-breastfeeding element out there. Did she definitely say "shouldn't after 6months"? - as the wHO recommends it for at least a year

And of course, they can't breastfeed if they exercise, drink coffee, wine or eat cabbage or curry.

It probably is best to reduce coffee as it can cause irritability in babies. Also important to ensure sufficient time has passed for alcohol to leave the system before feeding again

The Home Ec teacher has also told them to eat margarine, not butter, that cholesterol in BAD and that they should tell their parents to eat Benecol.

Frankly some of the advice these teachers are handing out is not just bad, it's dangerous. Both daughters have told me they know it's wrong, but they are not going to argue in case she fails them.

not as surprised with this to be honest. depressing as that is

Is there any point making a fuss? Should I send them into school armed with extracts from the most recent studies?

no. she's not going to change her teaching she'll at best ignore them and at worst belittle your child in front of the class.

I might end up teaching that subject in a few years. Are the exam papers online anywhere?

Blatter

true-or-false wrote: »

This isn't the teacher's fault. This is the curriculum. Most of what's taught in secondary school is wrong. The point isn't really education, it's preparation for the Leaving Cert. If the teacher starts teaching contrary to the curriculum, whether it's right or not, your daughters will fail their leaving cert. Don't make a fuss to the teacher or the school, this honestly isn't something they've done, this is something they HAVE to do. If I were you I'd write a letter of complaint to the department of education, or if you're lucky, try to get an appointment to speak to someone there.

I did chemistry for Junior cert. When I went into Leaving cert Chemistry, the very first thing we were told, by the very same teacher that taught us the year before, was to forget everything we learnt, that it wasn't correct, and that if we used it for the LC we'd be marked as wrong. When I went into college, and had my first Chemistry lecture, the first thing we were told is that the stuff we learnt for the Leaving Cert was wrong, that it should never be used in any college work as it would be marked not only as incorrect but seen as incredibly stupid (not his exact words obviously).

Until your girls get to college (if they're so inclined) they can't really take anything they learn as the gospel truth, because very often in secondary school it's not. You should just be thankful that they know better, and hopefully will know to just write what the teacher says in the exam, without really believing it. My only worry is that other people in the class might take such information from the teacher as being a good way to deal with their own nutrition, in which case, you need to speak to the Dept. of Education.

+1 to this.

It's not the teacher's fault, the problem lies with the curriculum. If you give an answer in the LC that is factually correct but contradicts the marking scheme(which is formed using the curriculum) you will lose marks.

It's fundamentally wrong but that's the leaving cert for you.

smiles302

:eek:

Link to past exam papers: http://www.examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=en&sc=ep&ty=e

Curriculum for home ec for the Junior Cert: http://www.curriculumonline.ie/en/Post-Primary_Curriculum/Junior_Cycle_Curriculum/Junior_Certificate_Subjects/Home_Economics/Home_Economics.html

Cirriculum for home ec for the Leaving Cert:http://www.curriculumonline.ie/en/Post-Primary_Curriculum/Senior_Cycle_Curriculum/Leaving_Certificate_Established/Home_Economics/

Check that what your daughters are being taught is actually the curriculum.

I'm only out of secondary school three years, majority of the girls I knew who did home ec also did biology and were generally interested in health. Half of them went on to become nurses.

If there were stuff that was this crazy I would really be surprised if it wasn't ever mentioned when complaining about generally having to study.

We had an English teacher for the first year of leaving cert who taught us the wrong course. He did the wrong poetry.
Parents complained he was fried when they looked into what he was teaching to his other classes.

You get ridiculous teachers sometimes. Best not to let your daughters suffer for it.