As a freshman at Skyline, my first feeling was that this school seemed big enough to cater to all of our ideas and creations. When I got the paper to choose my 10th grade classes and cooking wasn’t there on the list, it sparked something in me: why doesn’t a school so big have culinary classes?
“Cooking classes would be very helpful for students that don’t have parents to teach them how to cook in the future,” expressed Alaina Craiger (‘26). “Sometimes students only have school to help them.“
Cooking used to be taught in Home Economics (“home ec”), a class most of your parents or grandparents probably took in high school, involving cooking, budgeting skills, sewing, and other human development guidance. Home Ec offered basic human teachings we will all need throughout life, high school being the perfect time to teach them as our brains have adapted almost fully.
According to tctimes.com, “Home Ec A” stopped receiving funding in Michigan around 2003. But why have modern schools pushed this class away to make room for classes designed for other audiences of people?. Our school caters to students interested in technology in our district, but what happened to these life lessons people were taught in the past? .
Every building in AAPS includes a plan, or blue-print. Skyline’s blue-print was built around our four magnet programs. Skyline was designed to be a magnet school. With other schools in the district already catering to culinary and other programs, our school skipped that.
“Huron and Pioneer both have an automotive and a culinary program so you’ll find a lot of the automotive equipment that you wouldn’t find here over here,” says counselor Dave Almassy. “In the same way that we have our 3D printers for DTEP and we have our multimedia production equipment for CMPP. So that’s why we don’t have some of the equipment here, ‘cause our specialty is kinda our magnet programs.”
Our [Career Technical Education] CTE courses are only available for upperclassmen: juniors and seniors. But why do we have a grade limit on these basic human teachings?
“Not having cooking classes personally affects the students,” says Craiger. “I believe that having cooking classes at school would be very therapeutic for a lot of students.”
Logistically, with such a big school district not every school will be able to have the same classes as the other. “None of our 5 High Schools can offer all of our CTE Courses, mostly because of Lab Space and Teacher Certification,” says Thomas Pachera, director of AAPS CTE programs. There are not enough resources and people involved to provide these classes for every school in our district.
But, if you’re a rising junior or senior at Skyline and this is something that intrigues you, go see your counselor for more information. Skyline students can cross-register and get involved.
Click here to let Ann Arbor Public Schools know you are interested in exploring the Culinary Arts or any of our Career and Technical Education programs.
