Eating Education

© Thom Boulton, 2009

When we look at Education we can break it down and compare it to a meal.

Through this model analogy education can be simplified and understood. I’ll use the meal of a roast dinner as the example…

Firstly we have the food, our contents of the meal. This in education terms is our Subject Knowledge, as educators we are the chefs preparing this meal for consumption.

To prepare the meal, cook it and present it we must draw on our creativity. There are many different methods for this and each varies depending on the chef.

Children are our dinner guests, they have come for one thing and that is the meal. To consume and enjoy the meal they must have the skills and appropriate tools, again there are many forms. There are several things we must remember however when we prepare the meal (knowledge) for the guest (child) to digest (learn).

1) Every child has a different appetite

2) Every child has dietary requirements

…and we must also remember variety. Just like when we eat a meal, we have different environments to eat that meal, around the table, in front of the TV or on the go takeaway. With the advancement in technology we can provide this for the learner, by having a school/centre for learning, home learning and on the go learning using the Internet and Mobile Phones.

When we take care to provide a good meal, with healthy food, cook properly and time to digest it we are more satisfied however when we take poor ingredients, microwave it and then rush out to do the next thing we can often feel unsatisfied or even sick.

We as educators must ensure we do the first thing mentioned and provide good and accurate subject knowledge, present it in a creative way and allow children/learners time to process what they have absorbed.