Teaching

I started teaching at a young age.  First it was with my friends, playing school,and I  was ALWAYS the teacher. Then as a teenager I tutored after school elementary kids through Big Brother/Big Sister.  Then I took a class in high school that was T.A. work...one semester is was mostly grading papers, organizing, filing - secretarial work.  The following semester it was actually teaching alongside a first grade teacher.  Not only did I realize that I LOVE teaching, but I love the interaction between student and pupil FAR more than the subject material.  I now knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. 

So, I followed the usual path - graduation, college, certification, and degree.  I moved out here to Arizona to pursue a career, since they were taking a little too long for my liking on hiring me on the Northeast Coast. I taught middle school Language Arts for two years until my daughter was born.  I've nannied and tutored since then.  Now I find myself teaching in an entirely new field. I love the fact that I'm still doing what the Lord called me and designed me to do, yet the subject and pupils are radically different. I'm teaching adults, younger and older than I am. I like to say that I'm simply showing people how to make recipes that I enjoy myself. 

But it's more than that, really.  I am teaching people about all things raw.  Just like I used to teach about literature, revealing that books can be fun to read, a way to escape your present reality and see things from a new perspective....I now reveal that there is another another path to health out there, that is hidden from our view. Fruits and vegetables?  Sure, they have been around since the beginning of time! But...then why don't we eat more of them then? Because we are pushed, prodded, and programmed to eat packaged foods.  Don't believe me?  Watch an hour of television and count all the commercials with prepacked food in them.  Then, count how many times during your SHOW you find references to food.  Even if you don't watch television, you have billboards, newspapers, magazines, and much more.  Even if you couldn't read, there is the family factor.  You know...when every time you get together with your family, you eat.   Every time. In my family it was foods bought at certain locations: Dominoes, Marie Calendars, Boston Market, etc. Again - prepackaged, processed foods.

Well, there is another way and I'd love to introduce you to it.  It's healthy, but it's also quick and easy.  You don't have to spend an hour in the kitchen to eat your dish in ninety seconds. It's just as fast (and often faster!) as opening a can and putting it into a bowl and popping it in the microwave for ten minutes.  I just made some brownie bites in five minutes, ate a handful and still have more for the next few days. :)  I made a dip for tonight's bible study in under five minutes and was making it up as I went along.  I don't expect you to do that, that's why I write my recipes down and put them into books.  That way you can enjoy them and make them often!

So why am I blogging about all this?!  Well, I've had multiple conversations lately about teaching larger classes, teaching different groups of people.  I have to say, for the first time in my life, I am hesitant to venture forth.  You see, I have no "credentials".  I didn't go to Raw Teacher College, culinary school, and don't even have a degree in Nutrition.  My recipes are not gourmet...they are simple.  They are designed for anyone out there that has heard little to nothing regarding raw and would like to simply add more healthy meals to their repertoire.  When it comes to teaching people who are already raw in one capacity or another, I'm hesitant.  I've been all raw for two years now, which isn't very impressive to those who have been dabbling in raw for a decade.  I simply began teaching raw to girls I met at raw potlucks who were new to raw and needed help with recipes.

I am using my current income from the UnCookBook, Raw Recipe Nights and Parties to fund a certification course in Nutrition, so that I have some paper in hand for the future.  But, it's not Raw Nutrition, or a Raw school.  You see, I was an English major.  I'm a teacher.  I'm VERY good at researching.  I have done EXTENSIVE research in the past two years, especially when I started teaching others, in order to learn all I could about the Raw Lifestyle so as to share with others.  I'm still learning and will learn the rest of my life.  Most raw recipe books I have seen and purchased have very impressive yet ridiculously difficult and consuming recipes. I don't wish to learn any more recipes that I won't use because they aren't practical enough for me. I am also not touting a particular raw lifestyle as the only way.  I tell people what has worked for me and others, but will never be a medical professional.  I'd love to someday get a masters in Nutrition, but simply don't have the income to finance that yet.

So, I would love your ideas, thoughts, encouragment, support, or constructive critisism. Constructive, I said! :) What do you think about all of this? Are there any raw foodist out