Obesity.

My 13 yr old DGD has made some very tasty things in food tech . She mastered a Swiss roll last week!

Agreed Fennel but you have to start somewhere - we have already lost several generations to the 'not taught' situation so let's start to rectify it. this lost art of cooking is self-perpetuating the longer it goes on.

I went to a Grammar School in the late 1950s and we had cookery lessons, though I think it was termed Domestic Science. I remember a lesson on washing up - doing the glasses first, then the cutlery, china and lastly cooking pans.I remember only too well doing soused herrings and the awful smell!
No electric mixers then - we had to cream the butter and sugar until it was white and our wrists were aching.
I took the subject at GCE Olevel - but failed.

Very interesting thread.
Although we did some cookery at school I learnt much more from my mother and grandmother. especially to make do with what ingredients are available.
Maybe it's young mothers who need to to go back to school, as well as young children.

I was at a grammar school and only did a year of cookery. I wasn't very good at it and my teacher was very sarcastic about my efforts so, although I could have opted to continue, I chose other options. Many of you seem to remember, as I do, being taught to make buns and cakes, puddings and pies- not great nutrition!

I did a year (?) of DS at school aged 14. I never understood food groups until my 9yr old daughter explained it to me 30yrs later. Her 29yr old self still has to explain which are carbs even now! So much for my grammar school education.
I don't remember anything about healthy eating.

I don't see why cooking should be taught at school.

It's a life skill surely? Any one can learn how to do it.

We are overweight because we eat too much.

There are exceptions, but these are few and far between.

Most people can lose weight if they really want to.

I love the way so many remember their healthy cookery lessons with such fondness and then say they made the Christmas Cake with all its marzipan and icing. Fruit cake may be lovely but healthy? ?
Just because some people had the energy to work and cook meals from scratch, it doesn't mean everybody does. We made casseroles too but there are only so many we could enjoy. I had kids with food intolerances too so one meal often didn't fit all.
Most of the time, I didn't find the cooking hard, I just got fed up with trying to think up a week's menus at a time.

I was trying to remember what we had when husband and I were both working full time.
When our 4 were teenagers they got home before us, famished. They took turns to make their 'tea' and I had to make sure they knew what to make and the ingredients were there. Nothing complicated. It usually worked out, sometimes complaints about not enough, so and so burnt it. They also took turns to get the coal fire going.
I can't remember what husband and I had, but like M0nica I often made large casseroles.

Like jacq10, I have no time for the too tired to cook argument. I worked for most of my children's childhood and in their teens I worked an hours journey away, but we had home prepared meals every night.

You will note that I did not say I cooked every night, because I didn't, but we liked casseroles and stews and I cooked in bulk and froze meals. I also ignored all the rules about how to cook a casserole or stew. First thing in the morning I would put a large lump of diced meat, straight from the freezer in a casserole with chopped, tinned or frozen vegetables, put herbs and seasonings on top and put it in the oven using the delayed start timer and that was it. It took less than 10 minutes to prepare and I came home to the smell of the family evening meal, cooked and ready to eat plus enough to freeze for two more meals. Potatoes could be in the casserole or baked beside it, rice can be cooked in advance and chilled, Chops and fish can be grilled or poached in the time it takes to reheat a ready meal. All it needs is organisation and planning.

Like Jacq my children both cook and DS is the main family cook. DGC gave him a cook book for his birthday. Their idea, they knew he would use it. DGD, 11, is already a competent cook and has cooked family meals from scratch.

We used to have a single and double lesson each week. The single was to produce a detailed list of ingredients for a dish and a time plan. The double lesson was to cook it. Served me very well over the years.

humptydumpty's comment that her DD said that most folks are too tired to start cooking when they got home brought back memories of DH coming home after 10.00pm to me doing my "back shift" and that was when I was working. After I got kids off to bed and had a wee break to myself I would start preparing meals - stews, soup, etc. Most were frozen away - Mary Berry's Home & Freezer cookbooks were my guide. If I wasn't too tired I would also do a baking. We don't have Grammar Schools in Scotland but I was in a High School and the top three classes did not include domestic lessons. I used to be very envious of my friends when they came out for home carrying their meals but luckily my Mum was a great cook and I was always at her side. My DD and DS have followed this pattern and have alway cooked. When DD went to Uni she asked if we could get a wee freezer for her so she could do her meals the same way.

My foster son was excited because he was going to do cooking at school and make pizza. He came home quite upset because the cookery teacher had bought pre made pizzas and all he got to do was spread on tomato topping and grate some cheese to go on top and add a few pieces of Pepperoni. He told teacher this is not making pizza you have to mix flour with an egg and squish it on the work surface and then cook it in over before it comes out and then do toppings and cook. His teacher had a word with me and told me she was most impressed as he told her we made proper pizzas at home.

Domestic science was not taught at my grammar school during the 1930s but my mother always made us help her in the kitchen. I was married in 1946 when rationing was in force and continued until 1954. Had to make nourishing meals out of few ingredients but we were healthy.
Nowadays people have got used to foreign food with more ingredients making it more complicated and taking more time. Watching Tv programmes (of which there are too many) doesn’t encourage people to cook for themselves. Sometimes it takes just as long to heat up a ready meal as to cook from scratch.
Even though I am disabled I still do cook but decided last week to try a ready made supermarket steak pie. The pastry was thick and just a few bits of chewy beef. When I read the ingredients list there were so many preservativesi etc. That I won’t do that again. I don’t think anyone bothers to read the list.
The media doesn’t help. In dramas etc. people are shown having pizzas and takeaways and drinking glasses of wine or cans of beer.

Wildswan16.
I think what we learned from our domestic science lessons was nutrition and associated skills that were really everyday type foods that were the norm for those times. Plus a big factor then was that we all used far more energy in general than we do now.
Going to the gym unless it was at school, was unheard of then. People,s everyday lives were so full of physical tasks, housework, shopping, cleaning, laundry, not to mention no central heating and having to clean out the ashes of the fire before laying it again, burned up lots of calories.
More people cycled, walked or used the bus in the city I was brought up in,as opposed to owning a car. That also made a lot of difference to weight gain or loss.
I was brought up in a family were we had 3 meals a day. No snacking between. I think this may have been because there was still rationing until 1954 and our family continued to eat this way. Little treats like a packet of crisps, or ice creams etc were kept for when we had family days out and not everyday things like people have now.
However I still think that knowing how to cook properly as we were shown at school, understanding nutrition as well, is better for overall health than some of the additives that appear in a lot of ready made foods. They don,t always satisfy your appetite and more is needed to fill you up, adding to weight and waistlines.

Well done Sluttygran, I was rubbish at cookery both at school and not shown by my mum. Bit by bit and advice from late mother in law plus a great interest in tastes has changed all that. Am not obese, some of the off spring are, probably the added calories from wine or beer do this, but they all can and do cook fantastic food. What I do observe is that to cook well you have to be interested. Have seen the glazed look in friends eyes when you attempt, at their request, to share a recipe, but have wished I was elsewhere when given a packet mix dish at theirs. Shared a table with four WI members and four artists, the WI members all said they did not cook, had no interest and you guessed it all the Arties love cooking. No do not think it is about Domestic Science lessons, although Nutrition needs teaching.

I think it is a good idea to teach cookery and especially nutrition in schools. But the OP asked whether it would help to combat obesity and I am doubtful whether it will do much to reduce the amount of obesity we now see.

We are, on this forum, a generation which mainly did have domestic science lessons, and yet it is full of people who admit to being overweight. Did learning to cook really stop you getting fat? I think it is a lot more about lifestyle and personal responsibility. Knowing is not always the same as doing.

I had wonderful cookery lessons at school. It was the only subject I got an A for in O levels.
I have loved cooking all my life having also benifited from having a mum & gran who were great cooks.
I now teach my DGC to make all sorts of things starting at about 2 years old when they just like putting decorations on cupcakes up to eldest at 14 who cooks a mean Chinese dinner. I told him he would have loads of girlfriends when he goes to Uni. if he could cook!
Cooking is a joy if you can turn out a meal that makes people smile.
Bring back proper cookery classes in schools!

P.S. If I had been left to learn from my mother I would have been doomed. She did not teach me anything. She did not like me being anywhere near her.

pixie601 I wholeheartedly agree! I was not very good at Domestic Science as I was so slow at it at school, but I loved it so much! I still make the vegetable soup, the bread rolls and the non-meat balls. It definitely gave me great start in cooking and inspired me to do enjoy trying all sorts of different ideas from fresh ingredients once I had my own kitchen.

I was thrown out of domestic science lessons at school because I blew up a gas cooker.
We were making fairy cakes, and I turned on the cooker. Nothing happened, so I asked another pupil what to do. She told me I need a match to light it.
Off I went to look for matches, and by the time I returned the oven was full of gas. I struck the match, and there was an almighty ‘BOOM’, and all the fittings on the cooker rattled.
No damage was done, but the mistresss was furious. She marched me down to the Headmaster’s Office and said she was having nothing more to do with such a foolish girl ( I was 11 at the time)
I think he was quite sympathetic, as he removed me from domestic science and placed me in an extra art lesson, which he knew I would enjoy. He didn’t punish me.
My mother hadn’t time to teach me to cook, so I left school not knowing much.
When I got married, I bought a basic cookery book and taught myself to make simple dishes like stew and cottage pie. Salads weren’t a problem of course, and it didn’t take me long to become a competent cook.
I love cooking and over the years became good enough to work as a professional - it made an occasional change from my nursing career!
I would love to teach others who need the skills, but I’m too old and doddery now. I do occasionally show people how to make cakes if they wish to know.
Cooking is such fun, besides being essential!

I hope I'm not repeating an earlier comment, but my DD pointed out to me earlier this week that couples these days are generally both working, and are simply too tired when they get home to cook from scratch. Which doesn't mean they need to eat too many calories, but need to keep an eye on the content of ready-meals.

We also had to make our aprons and embroider our names on our cookery caps the trem before we started DS at our school.
We had the most brillient teacher who showed us all types of veg and when they where in season and teaching us all the different cuts of meat from the cheapest cuts to the most expensive lessons which have served me well over the years.
My DD has followed my way and buys what is in season and freezes any excess,she did offer a couple of years ago to help at the Church Young wives group giving the younger mums at the School attached help with their budgets and from scratch cooking but after 5/6 weeks the classes had to be cancelled as the young mums couldn't be bothered to attend.

Before we could start doing domestic science lessons we had to make our own gingham cookery aprons and headbands, the headbands were shaped like a waitresses headband and tied at the back. We also had to embroider our initials on both in the colours of our house team.

Why is sitting down to eat as a family described as 'old fashioned'. Its language like this that suggests to some of today's young parents that it is a thing of the past and they don't need to do it.