Bread is a Teaching Tool

"A baguette,

few days old,

2 tiny green mold spots,

and 2 more even tinier.

I scraped off the mold,

stuck the whole thing in the oven,

400 degrees, 10 minutes.

I think I should eat it.

Do you?" 

(Facebook question posed by a rhetoric professor to a biology professor)

The francophone in me who claims France as her second home is shocked at the idea that a baguette could linger, unfinished, for days. A real, quality, French baguette would be better suited for building construction or self-defense after a few hours, let alone a few days. But what a brilliant teaching opportunity.

ACTFL recommends teaching culture through the lens of 3Ps-products, practices and perspectives. Here we have the same product, baguettes, consumed by two different cultures. In one culture the practice is to consume the baguette within the day, leaving it for one additional day at the absolute most (and only then with the understanding that it still might be dreadful after that short amount of time). In this culture, quality bread is regularly consumed, best eaten fresh, and easily procured. In this culture, the perspective is that artisan bread-baking is an art that does not include preservatives and access to this type of bread should be widespread so it can be the staple that it is.

In the other culture, most groceries are purchased in large quantities once or twice per week, making preservatives a necessity (practice). There are far fewer artisan bakeries so replenishing the bread supply is a greater challenge (practice). Dietitians, athletes, bloggers and the like debate the appropriateness of carbs at all, let alone daily and at most meals (perspective). If people believed more strongly in the cultural and nutritional value of high quality bread (perspective), there would be more bakeries (practice).

From the consumption of a simple baguette we could have a whole conversation about urban planning, transportation, small business ownership, waste, and environmentalism. Studying a language is a powerful thing.