McAllister's Restaurant Study Celebration

So the rule at P.S. 234, a.k.a 'The Independence School' (that's it's real name) is that the only reason to have a class party is when the class is wrapping up their Study. McAllister did a Snake Study last semester, learning everything in the world about snakes, including writing and math skills with Snakes as the theme, and 5 field trips to various zoos regarding Snakes. This semester he had a Restaurant Study: 12 field trips to TriBeCa's restaurants, learning all it takes to run a restaurant, from how many people work there, to the jobs it takes. They did surveys (to improve writing skills) about Restaurant names. They did math problems to study who eats what. And all of the local restaurants (who happen to be written up in People magazine for a random celebrity eating there- this is NYC, after all) were very generous with their time showing a group of 24 students the kitchen, the pantry, etc. One restaurant even fed them chicken fingers and french fries! Another restaurant I asked McAllister what he learned, he said, "they have the best beer in New York City. The owner said so." 

To wrap all this up, they opened their own restaurant in the classroom and had the parents come. The detail surrounding it was amazing. A month's worth of preparation! They all had matching T-shirts designed by one of the students, they all had a very specific job that all of the kids took very seriously. And they even charged us, for example, 10 cents for a salad. McAllister's job for the restaurant, named 'CCMC Rock', was 'Sous Chef'. He explained what that job entailed, and blew me away with his knowledge. Basically he prepared pizzas for well over an hour. He didn't leave his post, took it very seriously. When it was done they even went on a field trip to the bank to 'deposit' the money. 

What a privilege to be in walking distance to 4-star restaurants, banks, and grocery stores for the ingredients. The parent involvement was over the top; these kids learned a lot about Social Studies in general, learning a respect for every person's job: Food doesn't just appear before you, there's a lot that goes into it. Garbage doesn't just disappear, people work to remove it. How wonderful it is for my children to have the opportunity to learn how we all live together in this world.