In the kitchen, there were times when I had to substitute ingredients. Having no ground almonds and
Mexican chocolate, I used peanut butter and unsweetened cocoa to turn my sauce for chicken into a
respectable mole. Having no tart apples, | made an outstanding Dutch pie from green tomatoes. Likewise,
in the classroom, | used jars of M&M’s in a sampling distribution experiment when I could not afford a
standard set of colored marbles. (And, the students were able to consume the data at the end of the
exercise!)

For a leng time | pondered about my associating food with teaching, two things which do not seem to
have a natural relationship. Finally, it dawned on me one morning at breakfast: teaching and food are the
two primary things that provide sustenance for a teacher. From food we get energy and satisfaction. No
less do we draw energy and satisfaction from teaching. What teacher has not experienced that vibrancy of
joy and energy at the end of a class that has gone particularly well? It’s what keeps us striving toward
excellence.

Furthermore, producing a good meal involves blending ingredients, contrasting sweet and sour, attending
to the arrangements of elements and timing. All of these considerations are part of the creative process of
teaching, too.

Well, the analogies between the kitchen and the classroom kept coming to mind, many more than I report
here. Once I got started on it, I couldn’t seem to think of anything else. Then one day I got to talking over
the fence to my neighbor about it. He looked up from his gardening with a perverse twinkle in his eye.

"Now that you’ve mastered the art of how to cook students, do you suppose you could turn things
around and think about how to teach vegetables?" he asked, in deadpan seriousness.

That broke the spell. I am no longer so obsessed with the cooking-teaching metaphor. But, I’m still
willing to share a few academic recipes with my friends so that they, too, may savor the results of creative
efforts in both kitchen and classroom.

Linc. Fisch
Department of Mathematics
Lexington Community College

For further information or recipes, contact the author at Lexington Community College, Cooper Drive,
Lexington, KY 40506-0235. :

es

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
November 7, 1986, Vol. VIII. No. 26

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS Is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512)471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding In
part by the W. K, Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring
terms and once during the summer.

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1986 .
Further duplication Is permitted only by MEMBER Institutions for their own personnel, ISSN 0199-106