[Ohiogift] Babette's Lunch

Fri Aug 21 14:10:15 EDT 2015

Will,

I am honored to have met you a few years ago in Boston. As they used to say,
keep those cards and letters coming.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lynn E. Elfner, CEO Emeritus

The Ohio Academy of Science

Co-Director, Believe in Ohio www.believeinohio.org/
<http://www.believeinohio.org/>  

1500 W. 3rd Avenue, Suite 227

Columbus, Ohio 43212-2817

CELL: 740.417.3579

614.914.5095

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 <http://www.ohiosci.org/> www.ohiosci.org

Curiosity? Discovery. Innovation!

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From: Ohiogift [mailto:ohiogift-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Will
Fitzhugh via Ohiogift
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:39 PM
To: Art Snyder <ArtSnyder44 at cs.com>
Cc: ohiogift at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
Subject: [Ohiogift] Babette's Lunch

Babette's Lunch

Will Fitzhugh

NEHTA Newsletter Fall 1999

          You may have seen the movie, Babette's Feast, about the
Frenchwoman in difficult financial circumstances who has to leave Paris and
seek lodging with two sisters in a small village, for whom she agrees to
cook. One of the sisters is patient enough to teach her how to soak the
dried fish which is the staple of their diet, explaining kindly, while
showing her the technique, "Soak, soak."

          And you know that at the end it becomes apparent, thanks to the
accident of Babette winning a lot of money in the lottery, that this boarder
who has been trying in little ways to vary the diet of the sisters, has in
fact been, in happier times, the head chef at one of the principal
restaurants in Paris, famous for her dishes among those who know fine dining
in that city of gourmands. 

          As she prepares one last elegant meal that none of them will ever
forget, we can't help but be reminded of those early days, in which, without
any comment, she accepted the instruction set: "Soak, soak..."

          I thought of this the other day when I read about students in
summer programs at the Johns Hopkins Institute for the Advancement of
Academic Youth in Baltimore. In The Boston Globe the article said: "Students
from 21 states and 15 foreign countries-some as young as seventh
grade-devour full-year high school courses in the arts, math, science and
languages in only three weeks. For a rare few, a normal nine-month
curriculum is absorbed in seven days."

          These students are our Babettes, perhaps, and when they return to
our regular classrooms, they will not be surprised to hear us say, in a nice
way, "Soak, soak," as we try to help them stand a two-semester curriculum
that some might be able to master fairly easily in a week. 

          If the most gifted students can finish a full year's high school
course in seven days, and the next brightest in three weeks, we might wonder
whether even some of our slower students are being restrained in their seats
by our need to fill 180 school days with something to keep them off of the
streets and generally out of trouble...

          We could stand to admit that the ways in which we dumb down and
slow down our curriculum in fact do a lot to cause the excess boredom,
tardiness, absences, and even dropping out that we see more frequently in
our schools, not to mention the students who decide that they want to stay
in school but, given the glacial mindlessness of the challenges presented to
them, they can easily work 40 hours a week, get paid, and waste their money
(and their time) on CDs, clothes, video games, cars, and shoes...

          How much are we doing to drive all of our students, not just the
gifted (unusually bright) ones, to distraction because we have done so much
to lower our expectations for them? The United States Marine Corps has, for
many years, working with some of these same teenagers, managed to convince
them that both the curriculum and the Drill Instructor merit their very
closest attention and their very best efforts, and many high school coaches
achieve a similar degree of focus among their charges.

          In our classrooms, however, most researchers now report finding
disaffection, anomie, boredom, napping, efforts to change the subject, and
other evidence of the absence of real challenge for our students. The
teachers often feel challenged, sometimes even overwhelmed, but that is not
really the point of the exercise. 

          Albert Shanker liked to tell the following story about Jaime
Escalante (The Best Teacher in America): It appears that after Mr. Escalante
moved to Sacramento from East Los Angeles where he made his name, the local
press was very interested in the success of this teacher about whom a movie
had been made. They were thrilled to find a ninth-grade girl who said he was
a bad teacher. "Tell us!" said the media. And she reported that when she had
a problem with something in algebra she went to him, and he kept her after
school for several days and brought her in on a Saturday morning. "And what
happened!?" said the media. "Well, I finally got how to do it," she said,
"but he didn't teach me anything. All he did was make me work!"

          How many Babettes do we face who would like us to make them work
and let them shine?

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