Tuesday, November 7, 2017

REMEMBER HOME ECONOMICS?

The other day I was reading Dave's blog Riding On, where at his job, they have a monthly kids workshop where the kiddies learn to handle tools and make things. It got me to thinking that I never hear my few friends who have kids, and it is few, because let's face it, I'm highly allergic to kids and baby dander, but I digress. They never mention anything about kids taking art, industrial arts, or home economics. Their like Maddie, "they don't have those classes anymore". "They don't even teach cursive writing anymore." Hence my perplexed look. Which brings me to my point. Is home economics still relevant? 
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “home economics”? Perhaps the image of a perfectly attired Stepford wife criticizing the texture of the first pound cake you attempted to make or memories of the flyby course you took when you wanted to put in minimal effort and come out with a passing grade at the end of the term. For many people, the class has a reputation for being an outdated course where the most you learn is how to make cheese biscuits and maybe a cake from a mix, and use uni-tasker kitchen appliances, during a perfectly useless semester in seventh grade. I was made aware of the wonders of an electric sandwich press, but it’s not something I would ever include in my kitchen arsenal. But with a little retooling and updating, home economics classes could be a valuable tool in the fight against obesity today. I am amazed how many calls I get from friends on recipes on "how to", or don't know how to cook... period. But along the way home ec. attained the reputation of being a relic, a gender-stereotyped course meant to confine women to domestic roles. Some schools have managed to breathe new life into the course by divvying it up into more specialized classes—like courses that specifically address food preparation, to prospective students in the age when Food Network-style programs inject fun and excitement into life in the kitchen. However, because home ec is typically classified as an elective course, if at all, like art and music classes—is prone to being eliminated, or already has, from a school’s course offerings. A big mistake in my opinion
The five things I took from these classes were 1- Cooking, sewing and how to shop. I don't sew like a professional, but at least I know how to at least stich a hem and sew on a button to my fly!!! 2- Household management and cleaning. 3- Nutrition.4- Dress and etiquette. 5- Small chapter of child development, but I blocked that out.
Furthermore girls and boys should be taught the basic principles they will need to feed themselves and their families within the current food environment: As kids and teens transition into young adulthood, they should be provided with knowledge to harness modern conveniences and avoid pitfalls in the marketplace ,such as prepared foods with a high ratio of calories to nutrients to prepare meals that are quick, nutritious, and tasty. 

Personally, I enjoyed my home ec classes, along with my industrial arts and art and music classes. I learned my way around a kitchen because I had a mom, grandmother and aunt who cooked all the family’s meals. That’s the standard of living I want to maintain because I prefer the taste of “from scratch” food over the prefab stuff. If I didn’t have that kind of a model at home to follow, along with those classes, I might have ended up trying to sustain myself predominantly on convenience food and living in a unkempt abode. Wouldn’t giving home ec a much-needed facelift—and maybe even making it a graduation requirement—potentially turn out more savvy, self-efficient and healthy, well rounded young adults?

32 comments:

  1. I haven't heard of Home Economics since I was in high school, and back then only girls enrolled in that class.

    Of course, that was during the George Washington Administration.....

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  2. I took Home Economics in Jr. High (before the dawn of middle school). Cooking first semester, sewing second. I'm so glad I did. I learned to read recipes and how to measure. Now after almost fifty years, I can still whip up a cake from scratch and tweak recipes. Can't sew worth crap, though. Young folks (yes, I went to school with Wilma Flintstone) should all learn how to cook. Fast and frozen microwavable stuff gets tedious.
    My high school class had mainly girls, but, jock type boys took the class to get an easy grade. WRONG!
    Everyone should know how to cook and at least sew on a button or two (I still hate that).
    Uh, what was the question?

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    1. Yes dear, you answered the question. It sounds like we all agree this should still be revenant in school. With the way society is all rush , rush , rush, if not learned in school, the way parents are these days...I fear these kids will be helpless.

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  3. I took Home Ec until a pyromaniac burned down our school...
    For the kids - two of them took it as an elective in jr. high. Eldest Son was very attentive to my food safety actions during that Thanksgiving. :-)

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  4. I love your new header.. I had a turkey just like him......he was called Boris

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    1. I think you should do a post on Boris!

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  5. like deedles, I can bake and cook from scratch and I tweak recipes all the time. I can also sew buttons back on clothing. never took a home ec class though; I learned from my maternal grandmother.

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    1. My maternal grandmother taught me how to clean and cook chitlins and how to drink oneself into a stupor. One was hands on, the other was observation. I don't do either to this very day.
      My father taught me to cook by ear. That was messy so I used my hands instead. I liked home ec, because I learned the technicalities (also food!). They probably taught a whole lot of other stuff, but it didn't stick.

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    2. I love you grandmother already!!!!!! There is a certain method to a classy way of drinking ones self into a stupor!!!!!1

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    3. I know, right? It's almost a lost art. My grandmother was a stealth drinker extraordinaire. She'd come to visit us in the morning, quiet and sober. By evening she was out on the couch, waking every so often to yell out words that would make Anne Marie blush! Funny, no one ever saw her take a drink.

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    4. Another post.... Lost Art of Drinking....Nice and Neat! Except in my case, I'm rarely photographed out without a glass in my clutches.

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  6. I know I'm probably younger than yourself, but when I was in middle and then high school, there was no IA classes or Home Ec. Music was pretty much a extra circular. Very few art classes. Your post does make you think. I barley know the basics to cooking.

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  7. Excellent post Mistress. My mother is a "Home Ec" teacher, and she says it has been updated in her school anyhow. It is now called Family & Consumer Sciences, which emphasizes life as a whole. I have a textbook from the 70s - cooking is only 1 chapter. It did and still does include the topics of careers, home interiors and designing, clothing and fashion, parenting, child development, food and nutrition, health and wellness, relationships, and money management. Interesting ... all those topics are completely relevant to today's kids! Sadly, too many schools are eliminating the program to save money. They'd rather have new uniforms and equipment for sports (yes, I understand that's a main contributor to the income of the school) for students who, for the most part, will not be playing sports for the rest of their lives. But please tell me how many of them will not be using at least 1 of the topics I listed above? The statistics show that all of them will be in a relationship, and will need a job, food, clothing, and a place to live. Statistics also show that a majority of them will be parents. It's not about learning how to cook or sew; rather how to be an educated productive contributing citizen to society, and that is totally relevant :) And if these courses are not offered, and these kids don't have parents to show and teach them, I have no idea where there going to learn these things.

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    1. Nice to know some schools still have a updated classes. I know I was grateful for the classes I had.

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  8. I was required to take the following home ec courses: wood and metal shop, sewing, cooking. Since my mom was a housewife, I already knew a bit about cooking so I didn't mind the cooking part. But I feel this class and all the "arts" made me more well rounded and at least some knowledge when I went out on my own.

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  9. I, too, fully agree. I'm a product of that era (the '80s) when Home Ec was required for all girls and boys. Strangely enough, I do not feel like a victim! In fact, I feel privileged, part of a shrinking elite who learned about basic nutrition, elementary cooking skills and how to alter my own clothes. That education allowed me to prepare a simple but tasty meal without resorting to a freezer and a microwave or a list of take-out places by the phone.

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  10. isn't that what the houseboys are for???

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  11. When I was in high school, when Lincoln was president, I had to take wood shop, but wanted to bake cakes. The lines of gender demarkation were bold and inflexible. So was my posture.

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    1. I figured you must have had a class on handling wood dear. But I'm sure your cakes are moist and delicious.

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  12. Today's young adults need those skills more than ever, since most move away from home immediately after college and don't have Mom nearby to give immediate help. They are indeed BASIC skills for everyone.

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  13. 1 semester of home ec should be required. I have a sister & had an uncle who would starve with bread in the pantry and cold cuts in the fridge, because they were too ignorant to make a sandwich. Everyone should be taught a little basic cooking & how to do laundry, at the very least.

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  14. We had some home ec classes but only as electives. All the jocks would take one for a easy passing grade, and acted like they didn't like the class. I now see some of them out in weho as prancing queens. I liked the class because it was like another lunch in the day, but free food!

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  15. Never took a Home Ec course, but a lot of those things I learned from my parents because they wanted their children to know how to take care of themselves by themselves if need be.

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  16. When I was in school in the 60s, home ec was only for girls! It went co-ed in the 70s. That’s why I don’t cook.

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  17. At my high school (in the mid 1970's) home Ec was for women, and they wouldn't let me in. A basic core education should include the basics of life, how to buy real food, how to cook, how to change a light bulb and other basic home repairs. I have hire college graduates who couldn't change a light bulb, or sweep a sidewalk.

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    1. Pretty bad when one doesn't even know how to sweep. I agree a basic course should be offered.

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  18. Home-Ec... You know, it used to be that boys were not allowed to take the course - that was for the girls, so they could learn to cook, dress, keep house, and do simple financial tasks like balancing a checkbook. And, conversely, girls weren't allowed to take shop classes.
    I started cooking at age 13 - when the chore fell to me because I was home before the rest of the family (of 5).
    Tools, on the other hand, well...forget it. The only tool I know how to wield is my cock! LOL.
    It's great things are turning around a bit in the way of cooking - though I do know people who eat out every meal because they can't (or don't want to) cook.
    Hugs!!

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    1. I was kicked out of wood shop. When the teacher said grab your tool, I grabbed the cute boys junk next to me.

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  19. I remember Home Ec classes back in the day. I didn't take them. I migrated towards drafting and art classes for my junior high school electives.

    I can't imagine there's still Home Ec classes today. I don't think you need a class to show people how to use a microwave, find ramen on sale for 10 for $1, or how to order off the value menu at Mickey D's.

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  20. Well its clear the majority think a class like home ec to some degree should still be offered. I dont know how these little kids now will learn anything. One school here has even cut art classes.

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  21. In the 1990's in my middle school, we were required to take both shop and home ec. among other six week courses that offered a range of interests to our regular curicculum. I enjoyed the experience of both classes, and home ec. helped spur my respect and love for the art of cooking. These days even music is in jeopardy.

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  22. When I went to school there were life classes but only for the girls. What an interesting post! I do think and agree with everybody here. There should be these and other classes still in school. These kids growing up will not be well rounded and will be helpless. Sports and gym should be elective. How many go on to use sports on a daily basis? The school near us cut all classes with art. shop, and life classes. Music is only extra circular. Our country will soon be most ignorant, and culturally retarded.

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