Each semester the high school student(s) in my house come home with tales of “The Flour Baby Project.” In New York State, high school students must take a half credit of health to graduate. This course is offered every semester at our high school and includes such topics as STDs, alcoholism, CPR – each student is certified by the end of the course, and many more.
“The Flour Baby Project” is an attempt to teach parental responsibility. I have heard tales of total lack of regard for the project and also tales of students that take the project very seriously.
Yesterday was the first day of this school year’s first round of “The Flour Baby Project.” My 15 year old son was full of chatter on this topic this morning. Boy X had his flour baby dressed in a sailor suit that had been his as a baby. Girl Y had made Styrofoam arms for her flour baby. Boy Z had made two faces on his flour baby, one awake and one asleep. The stories went on and took me back to when four of my five older children had been involved in the flour baby project.
Previously, flour baby tales included tales of pens ripping through the bags of flour and entire rolls of duct tape being used to protect the “baby.” These were not, at least yet, the tales from my youngest’s friends. In my mind, these young adults are taking the assignment slightly more seriously. They are dressing their “babies.” They are making faces for their “babies.”
Now, the end question on effectiveness will come with the report that is due at the end of the project. Did the “babies” actually get treated like a child? Were they ever left unsupervised?
Do you recall parenting exercises in school? Did your children take part in any such learning experiences?
On a slightly good note, all flour is donated to a food pantry at the end of the project providing the bag is undamaged.