To continue what I was talking about in this post, I reckon that part of the reasons why kids drop out of school is to do with the way adults 'motivate' them. In this TV programme that I was talking about in the post, Jamie Oliver and most of the celebrity teachers kept on telling the kids, "You are very bright", "You are smart", or "You are brilliant". They are saying these things for little things the kids did with not much effort. These kids are from age 16 to 18, and each has just about one GCSE grade. English system seems to praise the kids first to make them feel good about themselves and expect them to work hard. Uh uh.
I was brought up in Japan and got all my education done in Japan, and my son has been brought up partly by me and been educated in French system. Both culture, in terms of educating kids, still have the approach based on old-fashioned discipline. Any misbehaviour and lack of effort have been punished and criticised, like teachers asking you "Why are you here?". I have never been praised that easily as a child and I don't praise my son on daily or weekly basis. Oh, no. In my son's school there was one teacher who used to throw pens and chalks at kids. My son, who's used to being harassed at home, used to collect those pens after the lesson and used them...
If you praise kids who haven't made any particular effort, they think that they are bright and clever and won't bother make any effort. Why would they? Of course there are people who are genetically brilliant. I'm talking about average people here. To teach something important such as school curriculum or simple things like discipline it's important to teach them to make an effort first and then praise the effort (and possibly the results), not the other way round. I think the kids have to be taught that the more effort they make the better they would be at it and the more they would be praised.
Am I a tiger mother? Not at all. Ask my son ;)
Now food. British lamb is really very good and it's even better now in May and June. I hope you make the most of it. Curry is very easy to make if you have basic spice in your store cupboards. I suggest you buy them in seeds, not ground, and get a cheap pepper grinder to grind them yourself. The smell is amazing.
Ingredients (for 3-4 people):
(for spices)
2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of butter
10 black peppercorns
10 cardamon pods
5cm piece of cinnamon stick
2 teaspoon of coriander seeds
2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
2 teaspoon of fennel seeds
2 teaspoon of red chilli flakes
(for sauce)
7 cloves of garlic (really!), roughly chopped
2cm chunk of ginger, roughly chopped
1 onion
1 tablespoon of water
5-6 tomatoes, chopped small
3 tablespoon of yoghurt
a handful of coriander leaves, chopped small
200g spinach, cooked and chopped small
(meat)
500g lamb shoulder, cut into 3-4cm dice
Preheat oven to 160C.
Heat the oil in a large pan (which has a lid and can go into the oven later). Put all the spice in a pepper mill and grind the seeds onto a small plate. Put all the ground spice into the pan and stir around on a low heat.
Put the garlic, ginger, onion, and water into a blender and blend into a runny paste. If you don't have a blender, I'm afraid you will have to chop them all finely. Add this to the pan and fry on a medium heat for about 3 minutes.
Add the lamb, and add the chopped tomatoes when the meat changes colour. Add enough water to barely cover the meat. Season with salt and check the taste. Cut a large piece of greaseproof paper to fit inside the pan on top of the meat. Push out any air. Clamp the lid on and put it in the oven for about an hour. Check the pan halfway through.
Take the pan out of the oven and put it on a low heat on a cooker. Stir through the yoghurt, spinach, and coriander and warm through. Enjoy with some rice.