Gourmet Chefs

My wife is an excellent cook.  Actually, she is an excellent “everything”.  I cannot recall a single meal made by her that I have disliked in 36 years. She can make some “gourmet” meals. Well, at least they are gourmet to me. I, on the other hand, am an awful cook.  On the nights that I cook, we pray after we eat.  Last week, the flies chipped in and fixed the screen door.  What makes a “cook” different from “gourmet cook”?  I looked it up.  A gourmet chef uses complex cooking skills and techniques to create dishes. They are  known for their discriminating palates.  They may specialize in ethnic or regional cuisine.  My conclusion is that I do not qualify. Gourmet chefs and cooks are not one in the same.  The difference lies in the ability to move away from the recipe dependent upon the needs of the person doing the eating. Here’s something that I found in my research – gourmet chefs taste test their first batch by making the dish EXACTLY by the recipe.  Then, they make adjustments until it tastes “just right”. 

Teachers should be much the same. A good portion of teachers use the plan that the textbook calls to use.  That is the “educational recipe” for success.  That produces the “meal” that you serve your students. You followed a “recipe” designed by someone that you don’t’ know and created for kids that they don’t know.  There is no one better to provide the lesson “meal” than the teacher who is teaching the class.  No one knows better about the strengths and weaknesses of their students than they do.  Why leave this to someone else who thinks that on Monday you do Section 1.1 and you better be to section 1.5 on Friday?  That is not making gourmet meals.  That is just making something to put on plates. They are just following the recipe EXACTLY how the textbook says to.  Wrong approach.  A “Gourmet Teacher” would use informal and formative data to prepare for the next day’s lesson.  The recipe needs to be adjusted based on the needs of your students.  Just like gourmet chefs, teachers need to make adjustments until the learning is “just right”. You may have to use complex strategies and techniques and yes, go off the beaten path.  You have to be able to move away from the recipe depending on the academic needs of your students.  The difference lies in the ability of the teacher to move away from the “textbook” recipe and instruct based upon the needs of the student.