You know when things aren’t going well but you’re so determined to ignore it, by the time you actually deal with it you’re well past “not going well” and fully planted into “I am having a mental breakdown right now” territory?
Let’s talk about that.
The update I never wanted to make
I dropped my basic food prep class. A few days later, I sent the follow as part of an email to the director of the culinary arts program at Dallas College:
The Letter
While I have been extremely excited to learn more about culinary arts, I have encountered some problems in my Basic Food Preparation class, taught by [instructor]. I have included a summary of the problems I have had with this class. If you require more information regard what I have outlined, I can provide it. Please let me know.
First off, [instructor] never responded to my emails. Ever. Not even one, and I sent several over the course of the semester. Some, extremely important, including one about my participation grade being entered incorrectly. I spoke to her in person for that situation and it was never resolved, even after I sent a reminder email, as she requested.
Additionally, the course schedule was difficult, if not impossible, to follow. Recipes page numbers were consistently wrong. In some cases, she would list the names of recipes we weren’t even preparing in class.
The tests and quizzes veered into nonsensical. They would contain questions on material we never studied. One question in Quiz 3 asked us about “flavonoids.” I had never seen that word in my life. Never heard it mentioned in class. I looked it up later in my book and found it never appeared in our textbook at all. On the midterm there were answers written out with A., B., C., etc. in front of them, leading me to believe they were pulled off the internet with little consideration to what we were actually learning in class.
My biggest issue was that in class I was specifically put into groups with “low performing” (her words) students to improve their “experience” (her words). Which meant that I ended up managing (or trying to) these groups to attempt to get the multiple recipes together for class.
I routinely went home exhausted and frustrated because even with me attempting to keep everyone on task and focused, things would constantly go wrong. Mostly owing to the fact, I was a student and in no position to be doing this. At the end of the day, I didn’t sign up to improve anyone else’s experience at my own expense. I wanted the opportunity to learn just like all the other students. But since I was purposely placed into those groups, I didn’t feel as though there was much point in asking to be moved.
I went to class on Monday (April 7) because I wanted to finish out the semester despite my absolute dread at the idea of returning to the kitchen at this point. But when I got there, I ended up having a 2-hour panic attack before I just grabbed my things and just went home. I dropped the class the following day.
As an adult student who is paying out of pocket for classes, I am extremely disappointed at this outcome. I realize I should have spoken up sooner and not pushed myself to that point in some misguided attempt to see this through when it was clearly not working. However, I also did not feel that it was my place my tell another working adult how to do her job.
It is one thing for me to simply avoid taking another class with [instructor]. However I feel the need to bring this to someone’s attention. Especially as I noted that the class I was in started out with 15 students and my departure would have left eight, by my count. I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can recover from this situation (financially, mentally, etc.), but many of my classmates cannot.
The complaint
I was informed by the program director that this was in no way an acceptable experience for a student to have. He also said he would look further into the issues I raised. However, I remain skeptical that anything will actually happen as a result of it. Mainly because I can’t figure out a way where the college benefits from fixing this issue and I doubt one email from me is enough to do much of anything.
The impasse
This, however, puts me at an impasse. While I could accept that you get instructors you like and don’t like when you are a student in your undergrad, I’m now a grown ass adult and guess what? I’m not paying hundreds of dollars for another experience like this should absolutely nothing be done regarding what happened in the basic prep class.
Not to mention, I learned enough to be dangerous in the part of the class I completed and the safety and sanitization class I did complete. Also, one thing that cooking in a classroom taught me is that I really hate cooking in a classroom.
Beyond the fact that I have been a homecook for as long as I have been cooking, I have a hard time managing with the noise, chaos, and constant interruptions of some many other people in the kitchen with me.
It plays havoc on my ADHD and whatever sensory processing issues I have, making it extra difficult to stay focused. Moreover, I don’t need to learn how to cope with the previously mentioned distractions because I have no intention of cooking professionally.
Okay… So now what?
Right. So what now? I want to give the director a chance to do…. something. But I can’t say I have any faith that anything will actually be done. Perhaps Dallas College was not for me. And honestly, perhaps any culinary arts college program is not for me.
There are always cooking classes. I could find a chef who doesn’t find me completely annoying and see if they would want to work with me one-on-one. I could also just go it alone and use what I have learned thus far to discover more by myself. I still need to figure out crumb coating.
Don’t worry. My culinary adventures are far from over. Right now, I just need to regroup.
