Like many, I've hopped on the No Knead Bread band wagon. It is brilliant, tasty, and I love making it. I won't go into how each loaf is different in neat ways, or how it crackles as it cools, or how the crust explodes when you cut into it. Give it a go on your own. You will not be disappointed. What's interesting, is that I've started to bake more and more bread even as I read and teach a book on the dangers of carbohydrates. It's been an interesting experience, to say the least. And one day two weeks ago, I brought in a loaf and some of my sister's awesome strawberry jam, and the class and I made peace with the carbohydrate.
I wasn't sure how teaching Gary Taubes's excellent Good Calories, Bad Calories would go. Some of my friends were skeptical, and my younger sister, a dietician, won't even talk about it with me. And going into class, I expected a lot of resistance, at least as much resistance as they showed to Postman's Technopoly. But by the end of the book, the majority of the class seems to buy Taubes's argument (in brief: Taubes's argument is that the carbohydrate hypothesis is at least viable enough to warrant scientific experiments; they're haven't been any, and at the end of the book I think most people will be convinced, not that they should give up bread, but that some degree of scientific due dilligance is in order.) Surprisingly, some of my students seemed to agree even more strongly with Taubes after we read a harsh review of the book by an expert in the journal Obesity.
It's been an interesting journey with this text, and a longer discussion of it in my class is probably in order. On the last day, however, I did tell them what I think are the major points to remember, and they aren't that they should stop eating bread. Instead, they had to do with writing, research, argument, tone, style, and the effectiveness of treating a scientific topic in a sophisticated way. Taubes's book is an exemplar for showing the public how science really works, and I hope that my students walk away with a sharper eye for how people can and should write effectively about issues in science and technology. If they paid attention as they read, these lessons could not have missed them.
And the bread? I plan on baking it for a long time to come. Here's what you're missing:
hi greg! i haven't seen you around much, but i still remember your blog. i just wanted to say that i *might* be extremely jealous of your students. it sounds like you have been teaching in a really engaging and interesting way, and i hope your students can appreciate that not all of their instructors will be as involved. lucky them!
see you around nicholson?
ps-i'm also jealous of that bread.
Posted by: meher | December 13, 2008 at 10:17 PM