diamonds and why bread is better

i’ve been baking bread for about three years now – i started with pita, continued to challah, and now, i can make some of the best rolls in the tri-state area. they’re fluffy, buttery, soft, and the perfect base to fill with cheese and pepperoni to make pizza rolls. here’s the kicker: they take 4 hours to make. an hour in total to prepare the dough, an hour rising, 30 minutes to shape, another hour to rise, then 30 minutes to bake.

learning to maintain the patience in baking bread is not an easy skill to learn, and if you don’t have the self-control, can produce subpar results. you have to let it rise and rest, or the gluten won’t develop, and the bread can become flat, flavorless, or just inedible. rising time is how bread develops and grows.

diamonds are formed under pressure. carbon is compressed and crystallized until a clear, shiny, pristine crystal appears.

diamonds cannot be made without pressure, and bread cannot be made without rest.

many high school students are sharing their experience of “gifted kid burnout,” explaining how the American school system has failed them. they try their best, but experiences and educational opportunities have been overtaken by standardized measurements of who someone else wants us to be, and arguably? indoctrinating us to become political pawns in their crooked game of chess, capitalism, and greed.

students learn differently. some need stress, others need rest. to treat a student like their intelligence and worth is determined out of a percentage is inhumane and unreal. where did we go wrong? when did we standardize children? and how to we go back in time to make sure students feel able to become the person they want to be, without fear of failing the system they were raised in?

Author: Sara Hebert

welcome :) my name is sara, and i hope you enjoy reading along with me in this little corner of the internet.