It Seems Like A Normal Cafeteria, But These Cameras Reveal Something Shocking

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Let me guess, your favorite subjects in school were lunch and recess, right?  

In North America, for both students and teachers, we think of lunch and recess as the one time during the day that we can escape the classroom and avoid any responsibility whatsoever. I can clearly remember spending the full hour before lunch simply staring at the clock waiting to get my chance to run to the monkey bars to swing around mindlessly. Who didn't?

Classically, the lunch period isn't taken as a chance to teach children, but to allow both teachers and kids to get out of each other's hair. But perhaps this isn't the best way to treat this period of the day. Maybe there are some valuable life lessons that can be taught at lunch, ones that are arguably more important that those we learn during hours of reading Othello or The Grapes of Wrath. Sound too good to be true?

I can't keep track of the number of times students gripe and moan about how they will never use the stuff that is taught to them. But if anything, producing your own food, being able to prepare it, and doing so in a healthy, environmentally friendly way are all skills we need. But what would it look like if students and teachers spent the lunch period together and treated it as a lesson – and one as important as any other subject? This sounds like a dream world to most of us in North America where it isn't uncommon to have campuses offer fast food right on campus.  

Elementary schools in Japan are taking a different approach to lunch time and consider it a time for learning just like any other class period like Math, Social Studies, or Science. Honestly though, these children are making us in Western culture look horribly lazy. You REALLY need to check out this video of an Elementary school in Japan that uses lunch as a time to foster skills in growing, preparing, and recycling food all on their own! 

Main image via YouTube / CafCu Media 

Collage image via YouTube / CafCu Media

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