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IMO, as a 11 year classroom teacher now online, students have a kind of freedom to chat or speak without much judgment online. Today, we talked about lunch bc someone was having lasagna & said & #39;We& #39;re Chinese but my mom makes us lasagna for lunch.& #39; We then had /1
a long conversation about food, cultural stereotypes, & racism. Food-culture is so important to identity & acceptance. The kids discussed their history of negative reactions around food & that, in younger grades, they asked to take & #39;white food& #39; for lunch. /2
& #39;Kevin& #39;s& #39; mom makes lasagna because her 4 kids once begged her to not send Chinese food to school. I could see all the students of colour nod their heads immediately. All. South Asian, South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern, African, Russian, & South American, Caribbean culture. /3
All nodding at having their lunches laughed at or worse. I asked what "white food" was requested & some answers were "cheese and crackers" & "sandwich" & a "granola bar" all said in a very formal way. Someone said "white people love their cheese strings" to much laughter. /4
But then students started to share favourite foods from home - dosa, sameer, bolani, carrot halwa, goat curry, roti, gaifan, jianbing. We looked up pictures & recipes for everything. Because they& #39;re kids, we looked up a lot of desserts but they were lively & happy about it all./5
I got some new recipes to try but I think the students found some peace & acceptance about their families and cultures. As we were winding down, one girl said "I& #39;m kinda embarrassed I had a grilled cheese for lunch." And every one cheered "NAH we LOVE GRILLED CHEESE TOO!" /6
We laughed & looked up fancy grilled cheeses with add-ins like apple & onion. It was so fun & it was great to hear kids say & #39;that Afghan flatbread looks delish. I& #39;m going to make that& #39; & "I& #39;m going to try jerk chicken. I like spicy.& #39; (look out, kids, you have no idea)/7
& #39;Kevin& #39; said "when I have some Chinese food for lunch, I& #39;ll show you guys" & everyone said "ok cool!" There was no judgment. No one turned up their nose at the mention of anything. They were accepting & kind & really excited about food. It was good for them, I think. #equity /8
I hope we address food insecurity too because I was also aware that there are kids online whose families are out of work due to #COVID19 . I hope they feel included & welcome too. The sense of inclusion & belonging is a start. I was proud of them today. /n
//thank you for the kind words and responses/retweets. It does matter. Also, here are some of the foods we talked about trying: masala dosa; Afghan bolani with egg, potato, and green onion; chicken gaifan.
We also discovered that some kind of crepe/pancake/thin-fried-bread is common across continents as a "food holder." Makes sense.
Oh & shout out to my gr8 girls who said "hot sauce is life" and also convinced me that I need to get a travel size to take with me everywhere. Lol. 
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Correction: not *sameer* but samber/sambar; a south Indian lentil stew that is served with idli, dosa, or rice. In fact, I kept calling these & #39;rice puffs& #39; until several kids said & #39;Geez, Mme, that& #39;s idli.& #39; (idli - fluffy steamed fermented rice/lentil cake). #learningthroughfood
//ALSO, a big reflection that #INDIGENOUS https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> food was not represented in the conversation; SO important too along with acceptance, food security, diversity, & truth. I& #39;ll make this a weekly thing (having lunch together) where we can also discuss/find out about #INDIGENOUS https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> foods.
