The Gold Rush To Conclusions

Because of certain laws, some states must teach using a program that many people find unpopular for several reasons. One reason is that the program expects students to read and understand language that is too difficult for them.

This particular unit I’m doing is on the Gold Rush, and we were reading letters people sent to each other. Obviously, people spoke differently than they do today, so I have to almost translate what they mean. This led to this mildly funny misunderstanding.

I’m translating the sentence: “The human avalanche coalesced into the epitome of culinary ignorance.”

We go over most of the sentence and then get to the last part.

Student: “What does culinary mean?”

Me: “Food, cooking, and stuff like that.”

The Whole Class: “What? They were all racist against… food?”

I then went on to explain what the word “Ignorant” means and how meaning can change over time.