Learning @ Restaurant

Two kids took the responsibility of managing food at the restaurants – they analyzed the needs of all, decided the order and re-order, minimum food was wasted – they managed with very tight look at the quantity of the food ordered. Last KAA, one child took all the responsibility and managed with everyone’s need.

In both the cases I as an observer was happy that these three kids are working on very different aspects and also benefiting………………talking to strangers, coordinating with all in the team, understanding quantities and so on, Somewhere back of my mind, I was still thinking more, looking for more……but what?

My reflection told me that it is only three kids how are getting benefited, what about others – they are just being served and have no need to think – what to order, how much to order, how to take responsibility of my hunger and food………………………I was carefree and became jobless and enjoyed my meals and actually did not do much.

After few meals, I reshuffled – different kids took different responsibilities and now all of us were in challenging zone

  • For me the challenge was to understand each child and their working and be ready for many dynamics.

  • For above three kids more challenge was added like accounting, hence I had to work harder to understand their needs also.

  • For rest of the kids of the same team, I began with involving in different task – and this was an interesting exploration for me as a faculty. For one child it became difficult to trace matrix of who ordered what? For another child it became overwhelming to estimate the quantity, for one it became a point of anxiety “what if all do not like it”, one was concerned “If I order for others, when will I eat”.

My work as faculty increased with this change in approach – but it allowed ALL kids to think. There was discussion on each table “who wants what and why and how to save food and how to share and……………………..what went wrong,, what next …………..Some analyzed that food was extra because they underestimated based on previous experience. some blamed the chef, some did not like the taste and had different expectations…………….each table had a lot of different dynamics – it took two hours for lunch, but it was worth to create that learning opportunity. And If any learning opportunity is not making you and me think, then it does not add value (I think).


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