Knees

There is simply no point in having knees unless you jerk them - frequently. The latest balls from Balls is that schools should teach cooking - and it's compulsory.

Of course making up education policy on the hoof isn't a new idea so this has famous antecedents but this one is pretty special for all sorts of reasons. First up the hardware - rather like teaching IT or metalwork cooking needs some capital investment and space. you can't simply go into a general classroom and teach cookery because sooner or later you'll need knives and sinks and wash basins and cutting boards and cookers and microwaves and all that good stuff. You also need people able to teach cookery. While there are some wonderfully skilled teachers out there and many can teach maths as well as English or geography and history but cooking isn't something that can be "crammed" the night before a lesson. and where is the time coming from? The school curriculum is already crowded with all the other compulsory subjects so what will be pulled to slot this in? and how will it be assessed? I've got cooking qualifications and i promise they aren't easy to test.

Of course I'm not the only one flagging this up - the link I've given rehearses the same arguments - but I really think this deserves a wider audience. Further evidence that education is too important to be left to politicians?