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The shame of it is, they did this to themselves. Student reviews of chef instructors that were submitted at the end of each class were given a ridiculous weighting advantage in terms of faculty retention. To avoid annoying the students (and getting a negative review), all too many instructors bent the rules.
For example, the student handbook said that students had to arrive on time for class properly attired with all tools and textbooks. In theory, students who arrived late were supposed to be locked out. In reality, many students arrived late, improperly attired and often without their tools or textbooks. Instead of being locked out, they were quietly admitted to class and the end result was that all too many students developed some really bad habits. Not only did they arrive late but they sat in the back of the class talking, playing with their cell phones, or napping. Since hands-on production grades were often given to cooperative learning groups, a lot of these students blew off taking notes, secure in the knowledge that they could "coast" simply by joining a group in which the other 3 students would do all of the work.
Instructors who were tough were hated ... and got bad reviews from all of the slackers in their respective classes. The popular instructors were the ones who held the students to low accountability standards.
When the time came for students to do their externships, think about the bad habits that all too many had developed.
1) They were consistently late to work.
2) They were improperly attired.
3) They didn't have their tools
4) Since they had goofed off in school, many of them did't even have basic culinary skills.As appalling as this sounds, some of them didn't know how to hold their knives and many had only a minimum understanding of basic knife cuts.
It didn't take long for the Le Cordon Bleu name to become MUD. Nobody wanted a Le Cordon Bleu graduate let alone one of their externs.
By keeping their students happy and going for short term profits, the American division of Le Cordon Bleu ruined their credibility to the point where no one was even willing to buy them out.
For example, the student handbook said that students had to arrive on time for class properly attired with all tools and textbooks. In theory, students who arrived late were supposed to be locked out. In reality, many students arrived late, improperly attired and often without their tools or textbooks. Instead of being locked out, they were quietly admitted to class and the end result was that all too many students developed some really bad habits. Not only did they arrive late but they sat in the back of the class talking, playing with their cell phones, or napping. Since hands-on production grades were often given to cooperative learning groups, a lot of these students blew off taking notes, secure in the knowledge that they could "coast" simply by joining a group in which the other 3 students would do all of the work.
Instructors who were tough were hated ... and got bad reviews from all of the slackers in their respective classes. The popular instructors were the ones who held the students to low accountability standards.
When the time came for students to do their externships, think about the bad habits that all too many had developed.
1) They were consistently late to work.
2) They were improperly attired.
3) They didn't have their tools
4) Since they had goofed off in school, many of them did't even have basic culinary skills.As appalling as this sounds, some of them didn't know how to hold their knives and many had only a minimum understanding of basic knife cuts.
It didn't take long for the Le Cordon Bleu name to become MUD. Nobody wanted a Le Cordon Bleu graduate let alone one of their externs.
By keeping their students happy and going for short term profits, the American division of Le Cordon Bleu ruined their credibility to the point where no one was even willing to buy them out.
