Week 5: Steven Wheeler – Response to Viewings

“naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.”

–         William S. Burroughs

 

Moving from Brooke Singer and her Undesigning Platform to the Lunch Love Community makes for an almost seamless transition.  Both encourage their participants to confront the situation described by the abovementioned Burrough’s quote and consider the implications it might have for their everyday practices and habits.  While Singer’s projects are certainly commendable, I can’t help but attach more importance to the actions of the parents and teachers in Berkeley.  By linking science, chemistry, and economics to their children’s lifestyles, these children learn how they engage with and relate to their environment, instead of how they can blindly act upon it.  As one teacher in Flamin’ Hot observes, they might not make better choices as a result of the process, but at the very least the choices they do make are informed ones.

 

This lesson is one that transcends mere questions of diet, so I would argue that it is the approach, not the agenda, that should be transplanted first.  Education (if you’ll pardon my climbing onto a soapbox) should mirror real life — it should be messy, hands-on, and ultimately raise as many questions as it answers.  Done properly, it pushes kids to alter or re-engineer their own lifestyle which, after all, is how lasting change is achieved anyway.

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5 comments to Week 5: Steven Wheeler – Response to Viewings

  • delyser@uoregon.edu

    Well said, Steven. First of all, I like the idea of giving teenagers information (in the form of a flaming Cheeto) and then accepting the fact that they will make their own choices. Too often, I think education fails because we try to cram it down kids’ throats and, predictably, they reject the message.

    As for education being hands-on, as Rivka Mason said, “…if they actually get in their bodies, in their hands and in their senses, they absorb it.” We all need to be a part of our learning experiences, regardless of our age. Like the dinner plates in If They Cook It, They Will Eat It, if “learning” is just placed in front of us, we are disassociated from the whole process of enjoyment.”

  • Grace

    Melissa — At least three people (including me) had cited that quote about kinesthetic learning (“…if they actually get it in their bodies hands and in their senses, they absorb it.”) In a way, that defines what this project is all about.

    Steven is right. It’s not just a question of changing diets. It’s about getting off the couch and re-examining how the system has basically framed our terms of reference for everything — how we learn, how we consume, even the options we think we have when we decide on anything at all. It’s like going to a grocery and being confronted by so many brands of something that are basically just differences in labeling.

  • kpokrass@uoregon.edu

    Hi – I agree with all three of you. Nothing replaces the experience of hands-on learning as well as making it accessible to the audience involved. We need leaders in education to continue to care enough about educating the youth about nutrition. If it doesn’t happen in the home, it has to start somewhere.

  • epriebe@uoregon.edu

    Love the quote you started with, and also agree with everyone about how beneficial hands-on learning is. When you’re a kid, you are often just forced into accepting the food choices put in front of you. Children don’t have a lot of agency in their own nutrition choices. By arming the kids with hands-on and exciting knowledge, we’re empowering them to ask for better choices and spread the message.

  • Daniel Oxtav

    wow your positive and encourage comment effectively communicates your appreciation for Lunch Love Community’s approach to education, emphasizing its real-life, hands-on, and transformative qualities. Thanks!

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