ALLENTOWN, Pa. - On the third floor of Harrison Morton Middle School, students recently learned how to make eggs in a basket and pizza bagels.
Students in the Allentown School District are receiving more arts instruction, educators say, thanks to an 8% increase in base education funding for the 2023-24 school year.
That means more classes in cooking, choir, gym and library.
Teachers who used to have to split their time between two buildings are able to stay in one building all day, increasing instruction time.
Melissa Baer, the family consumer science teacher at Harrison Morton, approves.
“It's a great course for all students to take because it really is life skills,” she said. “They get to really learn what it's like to be on their own.”
She said because of the district’s expansion of arts, she now teaches six classes a day at the school instead of three at Harrison Morton and three at South Mountain.
The growth of arts education in city schools is focused on kindergarten through eighth grade. Elementary school students now get related arts classes once a week instead of every eight days. Middle school students take the classes every quarter — there are four quarters in an academic year — and have two 45-minute periods a day in their schedule.
“I do literacy, I do reading, I do math, I do the history. It's all incorporated."
ASD Family Consumer Science Teacher Melissa Baer
Baer said each of the middle school grade levels learns different skills. Sixth-graders learn kitchen safety and measuring ingredients. Seventh-graders learn about nutrition and eighth-graders are taught financial literacy and job skills.
“I do literacy, I do reading, I do math, I do the history,” she said. “It's all incorporated. So it's just fun to be able to connect everything to real life.”
Seventh-grader Winston Trevino said eggs in a basket was his favorite dish to cook.
“It tastes really good, yeah,” he said.
Trevino said he helps make dinner at home for himself and his siblings.
“I cook like rice, beans, chicken, pork chops, that kind of stuff, Trevino said.
Baer also hosts an after-school cooking club for interested students.