Random thoughts and Jamie's kitchen
Oct. 15th, 2003 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenActually slept last night. What a concept.
Have all sorts of Pet ideas going through my head. I'm currently trying to tease them out into something that at least represents a coherent part. Sometimes I regret not writing it in the present-tense, sketchbook style that I did with Strategy because boy did the ability to basically write "stuff happens, and now we're going to talk about the good bits" get me past a lot of gaps, but by the same token Pet just didn't want to be written in present tense. It felt wrong. So past tense it is, with me kicking it and poking it and demanding that it make at least a vague linear sense with itself.
In other news,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zortified sent me a Halloween card. Thanks Zort! Happy new year to you too! =)
Argh. I so feel for Jamie in this one. You see, I used to do what Jamie's doing right now. I worked as a computer instructor for people that normal computer schools wouldn't touch, which meant I dealt with a lot of homeless, elderly, battered women and youth at risk. I can see so much of my youth at risk kids in the kids Jamie is teaching. Granted, I don't know the full background on Jamie's kids, but I remember what it was like trying to get the kids to settle down and dedicate themselves to a class, and trying to get them into a class when they had problems at home, or problems with the cops, or absolutely no support from friends and/or family who were more interested in drugs and gangbanging to encourage them to go to school.
I had students - adults and kids both - like Michael, too, who wanted to learn so bad you could almost feel the deep-seated urge vibrating off of them, but who had the frustration of ADD or learning disabilities that just wouldn't let their brains work in the way that they needed.
So it can be frustrating, and even heartbreaking. Of course the flip side is that the rewards can be astounding. I used to love the moment when my students - adults and kids both - would turn from these terrified "I can't do it" shrinking violents to stronger, more confident people who would happily stop their own lessons to help one of their newer classmates, promising them that it could be done. And there's that moment, too, when they actually hear you. When they realize that you're looking at them for who they are, and not as "that problem". It always gets me to remember the time one of our teenage students told us that being at our school was the first time anybody had ever given him a compliment or said anything nice about him.
And really in truth I can't claim any credit for that, because the program wouldn't have worked if the kids didn't dedicate themselves to it. They put the effort in, the school just gave them the tools to do something about it.
Anyway, I so see all of this when I'm watching these kids. The same attitudes, the same problems, the same realization that I think Jamie went through that it was going to take more than just giving lessons in cooking, but rather providing an environment which would hook in to the kids' desire to learn and provide them with a way to pull themselves up.
I feel for Jamie too because in a way I think he's smack up against the problem of having these grand altruistic ideas and the reality of putting them forth. It's one thing to say "teach a man to fish" but actually doing it can be a kick in the pants. In the end it's much easier to write a check for a can of tuna. And you've got to give Jamie credit for going through with it all, especially in a hands-on manner and not "Oh yeah I'll open some restaurant and I'll pop my head in there maybe once a year tops."
In random thoughts:
I liked Jamie's teaching style. He's got a good approach, where he automatically assumes the kids have opinions and are smart enough to share them. It gives the kids a reason to pay attention to him beyond his fame.
I got a giggle when that one girl asked Jamie to talk to her mom, because you know that was only being done so the mom could have the thrill of talking to Jamie Oliver. I kind of imagine, though, that Jamie got a tiny bit of revenge when he used that conversation to immediately bust the girl for not showing up to class.
I want to smack Food Network's promo department. Why are they showing me promos for tomorrow's show 10 minutes into today's? Way to give away plot points. And way to be misleading, too, since Michael didn't have his blow-up in today's episode even though they advertised it as such.
I still don't understand why they don't play up the charity aspect of it more. Possibly this is a language difference so that when they occasionally mention that the kids are unemployed a British audience would know what it meant, but over here all I can think is "So? Most 17 year olds are unemployed. That's because they go to school." Again I wonder what it's like for people over here who didn't read about what Jamie was doing and who are now left thinking that Jamie's really into underaged labor ;)
I so hope Jools later smacked Jamie over the head for stopping to talk to the cameras instead of bringing her her bags. Ditto the grandparents who apparently got told after the documentary crew. Speaking of which - is it just me or did Jamie keep saying mothers-in-law? As in plural? Does Jools have two mommies or was that one of Jamie's weird ways of simply meaning his mom and hers?
Have all sorts of Pet ideas going through my head. I'm currently trying to tease them out into something that at least represents a coherent part. Sometimes I regret not writing it in the present-tense, sketchbook style that I did with Strategy because boy did the ability to basically write "stuff happens, and now we're going to talk about the good bits" get me past a lot of gaps, but by the same token Pet just didn't want to be written in present tense. It felt wrong. So past tense it is, with me kicking it and poking it and demanding that it make at least a vague linear sense with itself.
In other news,
zortified sent me a Halloween card. Thanks Zort! Happy new year to you too! =)Argh. I so feel for Jamie in this one. You see, I used to do what Jamie's doing right now. I worked as a computer instructor for people that normal computer schools wouldn't touch, which meant I dealt with a lot of homeless, elderly, battered women and youth at risk. I can see so much of my youth at risk kids in the kids Jamie is teaching. Granted, I don't know the full background on Jamie's kids, but I remember what it was like trying to get the kids to settle down and dedicate themselves to a class, and trying to get them into a class when they had problems at home, or problems with the cops, or absolutely no support from friends and/or family who were more interested in drugs and gangbanging to encourage them to go to school.
I had students - adults and kids both - like Michael, too, who wanted to learn so bad you could almost feel the deep-seated urge vibrating off of them, but who had the frustration of ADD or learning disabilities that just wouldn't let their brains work in the way that they needed.
So it can be frustrating, and even heartbreaking. Of course the flip side is that the rewards can be astounding. I used to love the moment when my students - adults and kids both - would turn from these terrified "I can't do it" shrinking violents to stronger, more confident people who would happily stop their own lessons to help one of their newer classmates, promising them that it could be done. And there's that moment, too, when they actually hear you. When they realize that you're looking at them for who they are, and not as "that problem". It always gets me to remember the time one of our teenage students told us that being at our school was the first time anybody had ever given him a compliment or said anything nice about him.
And really in truth I can't claim any credit for that, because the program wouldn't have worked if the kids didn't dedicate themselves to it. They put the effort in, the school just gave them the tools to do something about it.
Anyway, I so see all of this when I'm watching these kids. The same attitudes, the same problems, the same realization that I think Jamie went through that it was going to take more than just giving lessons in cooking, but rather providing an environment which would hook in to the kids' desire to learn and provide them with a way to pull themselves up.
I feel for Jamie too because in a way I think he's smack up against the problem of having these grand altruistic ideas and the reality of putting them forth. It's one thing to say "teach a man to fish" but actually doing it can be a kick in the pants. In the end it's much easier to write a check for a can of tuna. And you've got to give Jamie credit for going through with it all, especially in a hands-on manner and not "Oh yeah I'll open some restaurant and I'll pop my head in there maybe once a year tops."
In random thoughts:
I liked Jamie's teaching style. He's got a good approach, where he automatically assumes the kids have opinions and are smart enough to share them. It gives the kids a reason to pay attention to him beyond his fame.
I got a giggle when that one girl asked Jamie to talk to her mom, because you know that was only being done so the mom could have the thrill of talking to Jamie Oliver. I kind of imagine, though, that Jamie got a tiny bit of revenge when he used that conversation to immediately bust the girl for not showing up to class.
I want to smack Food Network's promo department. Why are they showing me promos for tomorrow's show 10 minutes into today's? Way to give away plot points. And way to be misleading, too, since Michael didn't have his blow-up in today's episode even though they advertised it as such.
I still don't understand why they don't play up the charity aspect of it more. Possibly this is a language difference so that when they occasionally mention that the kids are unemployed a British audience would know what it meant, but over here all I can think is "So? Most 17 year olds are unemployed. That's because they go to school." Again I wonder what it's like for people over here who didn't read about what Jamie was doing and who are now left thinking that Jamie's really into underaged labor ;)
I so hope Jools later smacked Jamie over the head for stopping to talk to the cameras instead of bringing her her bags. Ditto the grandparents who apparently got told after the documentary crew. Speaking of which - is it just me or did Jamie keep saying mothers-in-law? As in plural? Does Jools have two mommies or was that one of Jamie's weird ways of simply meaning his mom and hers?
