Character education – Appreciate our food

in #steemiteducation6 years ago (edited)

I had recently visited Ministry of Education Heritage Centre located at Commonwealth Drive in Singapore.

It was a learning journey to learn about the history of education in Singapore.

During this visit, I realised that farming was part of school curriculum in the past.

The following will be information that I gain during this learning journey about the importance of food by learning from the past.

Lack of basic need for survival

From 1942 to 1945, Singapore was under the rule of the Japanese. There was limited amount of food. People had to live on a very limited supply of rice and whatever they could find. Life was difficult as they were constantly in hunger.


Each family could only collect a limited amount of rice, flour, sugar and salt.

People then had to make use of the little that they had received through careful planning of every meal.

These essential food items were in shortage and they were very expensive in the black market.

Grow More Food Campaign

The Japanese started the Grow More Food campaign where land became vegetable plots including school field.

It was easy to recognise that food was a powerful physical and psychological force and without food there could be no victory even in a war.

Farming became part of the school curriculum where teachers and students had to make furrows and grow crops. The fact that it was a survival skill to cope with the basic need.

Office workers were also given time for farming during office hours. The importance of farming to meet the basic need was the greatest extrinsic motivation for everyone in Singapore then.

The growing of food was part of self-sufficiency during war times. It was really a fact that food did not come easily then.

During my primary school years, I could still remember that the culture of farming led to the forming of a gardening club when farming was no longer part of the curriculum.

During the harvest season, students went around the school to sell the vegetables at a very cheap price.

Harvesting and selling vegetables were really lifeskills to teacg how their hardwork could reap benefit through proper marketing in selling the vegetables.

Our school children may not value food that much nowadays since food comes easily to them and they can eat as much as they want.

Wasting food is already a common thing in any country regardless of young or old. By learning from the past, we may raise the awareness of the importance of food.

Yam, tapioca, sweet potatoes and other crops were grown as substitute for rice during war times.

I took the below photographs at the Heritage Centre where they have a vegetable garden to introduce the different vegetables and fruits that were grown in the past for survival.


Vegetables like spinach, kangkong, Chinese cabbage and many other plants were grown. They also planted fruits that were used in their cooking.

They cooked from whatever they could have from the nature.




Generally, people were going through hunger and difficulty times but they became creative in the way they cooked by substituting unavailable ingredients.

Creativity became a need to create new ideas to cook new dishes for their psychological needs. Isn't creativity part of what we want to inculcate in our students for the 21st century skills?

By making effort to maintain normalcy during wartime, it gave the people a sense of hope. By getting our students to learn about the past and how creativity had helped the people then, it gives a new meaning to the need to nurture creativity.


Image Source

At the Heritage Centre

Singapore schools can make arrangement to visit the heritage centre where they get to learn about the development of Singapore education.

I took the chance to ask whether there was any copyright issue with the photographs taken and I am glad that I can use them without copyright issues.

You would get to see some of the vegetable photographs above that I had taken during this trip.

Heritage Centre provides visitors with the opportunity to see the crops and plants that they had to plant in the early days for the outdoor experience.

At the Heritage Centre, we also get to learn about teachers who had to travel to islands to teach as well as the development of Singapore education from the past to this modern age in the different rooms within the building.

We were told by the guide that there were learning trips for beginning teachers organised by the teacher institute.

Learning from the past to educate the present is really a reality lesson.

Admission to visit the Heritage Centre is free and the place is opened to public during weekends and school holidays.

Value of food

Farming is no longer part of Singapore curriculum but pupils do learn about plants in their Science lessons.

 


Photograph above was taken by @fun2learn at MOE Heritage Centre

 

The fact is food that our children have on their plates really takes time to grow.

There is so much hard work that our children do not get to see until they go through the process of planting and cultivating their own food items.

As educators, we should find every opportunity for our students to have a taste of farming.

Learn to value what they have through learning about the importance of food.

The time and energy that their parents put in to bring back the income to support the family.


Image Source

Even though most modern parents are not farmers but money does not drop from the sky.

Their parents have to work from morning til night to supply the family needs.

Make use of food as an opportunity to learn how to value the things they have.

In conclusion

Learning from the past and appreciate the present is really one good way of character building in our modern education.

Getting our children to value and appreciate what they have can go a long way in nurturing the next generations.



Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that.


Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2018/08/09/character-education-appreciate-our-food/

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