And now... Tip #1...

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif....is this a cunning ambush?

 

Haha I feel your pain my fellow culinarian. Over here it's free education if under 19 but when in the kitchen constantly there is a student interjecting the Head Chef or making some really sarky comment that really is not constructive or needed to be said. Just follow your order, get on with it and shut up!! If you don't understand say "No chef/ I don't understand chef" but I agree with you and feel your pain. To add salt to the wound, of our group of 14.. half of them don't turn up or late and some people don't even have all their correct uniform for f*cks sake!! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/mad.gif

Oh well, thank goodness I am doing day release from September and will work in a job with people who give a damn about the food and doing a good service

 

 

Found exactly the same thing in my classes...and that was 27 years ago. Some things never change.

 

If I may interject.... from a Culinary Instructor's perspective:

"Please - in class - just shut up..." says it exactly the way I am thinking it. You are here to learn; I am here to help remove hurdles. I simply can not help you if you lack self-control. The students that get it wrong over and over and over, big surprise, are the ones that simply do not care to be quiet long enough to hear AND process the information. Sure, there are many ways to disseminate information, differentiated instruction is fundamental in a kitchen, however, communication begins with listening.

 

Old wise  Chinese proverb

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If you talk, you repeat what you already know. If you listen, you learn.!!

 

i do have to agree to a point, although in any class i have ever been in the smart ass comments hinder learning far less than that one person who stops the chef and want every little detail mapped out for them... i mean really do you have to ask what exact size a "rough chop" is or what exactly is in a chutney and make them explain to you one hundred times that they are not always the same everywhere and when you get you little chef merit badge you can make yours your way

 

even worse... I have a kid that talks MORE than the instructor. The chef requires us to take an art class that is basic drawing, phtograpy, and ice carving. This dipus had more to say to the instructor than the instructor had to teach... SOOOOOOOO Annnoying!!!!

 

I agree with everything stated above. As for asking questions, there is certainly inquiring to reinforce comprehension. There is also the, usually detectable, questioning to prove how much the quesitoner knows when, clearly, they know the answer. Questioning is a very valuable learning tool and should be dispensed like very expensive wine - when appreciated and with careful consideration.

 

Can't really speak to cooking school, as I never went to one or any other school that practical.  But my feeling after many years of other schooling including some teaching of this, that and the other and even a little bit of cooking thrown in, is the only really bad questions are ones which go unasked.

There's some sort of balance obviously.  No one wants one student to monopolize the class -- especially for reasons which have little to do with education.  But if you have a question, go ahead and ask it.  If you're afraid you might be that student, go ahead and ask that too, but after class.

If the question requires more than a one or two sentence answer, and is not of general benefit to the class, and if the teacher's worth a darn, (s)he'll table what's best answered individually after class and deal with it later.  We all want students who have a handle on the educational process as it applies to class; but it's really more the teacher's responsibility to manage the class as a whole than the students.  It's part of teaching, and something good teachers do without much apparent effort.

It was/is my policy to only do a demonstration once.  For instance, if I were teaching a knife skills class and someone wanted to see what "fine julienne" should look like (again), they would be invited to stay after class and show me what their idea was -- if and only if necessary I'd correct it.  Students and apprentices seem to learn better by doing and screwing (up) than by being shown.

In my experience, good teachers encourage questions.  Me too.

Talking and screwing around are different kettles of fish then sincere questions.  Those students with something better to do than pay attention should do it.  Elsewhere.

2 cents,

BDL

 

I dunno....blame it all on money, I guess.

Never went to "Culinary school", but I did a 3 yr apprenticeship--4 days work, one day school. 

Everyone was focused on "the final" in yr 3.  Sure there were 3 days of tests on 12 different subjects, but the kicker was the practical:  Cooking for 10 people a 5 course meal in 4 hours.  Fail that and the whole 3 years are a total waste--nothing to salvage or rescue, pass or do over again.

No smart-azzes in class, sure at lunchtime we went over every detail about our private lives, but not in class.

At work?  A smartazz never lasted long at work, either he changed or got sent out.  Sometimes they got pranked to death, tossed in 8o qt steam kettles filled with sour tomato soup, shoes fillled with  glucose or gum arabic, and sometimes they just dissapeared a week later

Then again, no one paid 30 or 40 g's worth of tuition. Mommy or Daddy never paid a dime; you just had to know that either you passed at the end of 3 years or you had to do it all over again. 

Perhaps too much reality?