When I got married, I knew how to cook pretty much one thing: Hamburger Helper. My mom was a single parent, working full-time so most of our dinners were easy convenience foods. We owned an antique sewing machine (a beautiful Singer piece from the 4os) that I remember her using to sew my Brownie Patches and her Military Patches on, but I never learned how to use it. And with my mom being military, the house was kept pretty spic and span, with military precision, and we were expected to hold the same standards.
And thus is the extent of my domestic life. And I happened to marry a man whose mother was a Home Ec teacher.
If you are in your 30s and reading this blog, there is a good chance your school did not have Home Ec, or if it did, it was not the Home Ec that our parents took! I remember in Middle School there being a class called FACE (Family and Consumer Ed) and the only kids who took it were the ne’erdowells, burnouts, the kids who just wanted an easy “A,” or the kids who were interested in the Hospitality Industry. That was the class that carried about the chicken egg to simulate parenting, and made Pillow People every so often. Basically, it was a joke class. And there was no way I was going to take it. After all, I was going to be a scientist, working in a lab for the rest of my life.
And then things change. I got married and decide that I really don’t want to eat Hamburger Helper or Top Ramen for the rest of my life. Suddenly, we have a budget to keep track of and checkbooks to balance. Then I decide that I want to be a stay-at-home-mom and I’d really like to minimize the number of harsh chemicals in my cleaning arseanal and fell in love with cooking fresh. I sew, I knit, I’m domestic.
Classic/ Traditional Home Ec may be gone and it’s now an elective class at best, but I can’t help but think of the number of kids (both male and female) who miss out on the basic skills that may not get passed down through the generations.
Why is it, when school budgets are cut, it’s the little things like art, music and to an extent, home ec that have to go? Is it the thought that kids will learn these skills in the elusive somewhere? Through the years we have seen education change, and being on both sides of the desk (as a student and as a teacher) it’s not going in the right direction, IMO. We are focusing so much on arbitrary scores and numbers that kids are not getting (or even being offered) a chance at a well-rounded education. But who is to say what a well-rounded education even looks like? I don’t know.
What I do know is, I graduated high school knowing how mitosis and meiosis worked, but I couldn’t bake a loaf of bread. I could work differential equations, but couldn’t balance a checkbook. All of those domestic lessons were learned by fire and because I wanted to. Maybe that’s how it should be?
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Did you take Home Ec in high school or middle school? Can you make the perfect soufflé? Tell me your thoughts!
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I had an amazing home ec. program and teacher. There were yearly electives (“Social and Cultural Aspects of Food”), we learned to make balanced meals, to clean a kitchen, we ran a week-long day care program (which required several weeks of planning and prep) in order to gain experience interacting with different age groups/child life stages, and there was an annual “Culinary Olympics” in which we competed with other schools by creating elaborate dishes (I remember someone making a cake with a gorgeous bow made of chocolate that she crafted using a hand-cranked pasta machine). And I learned to make a quilt.
Home Ec. was a high school elective, but required of Jr. High students (as was our “industrial arts” course). I took it through high school and served as a teaching assistant for the department my senior year. I think about my Home Ec. teacher (Karen Sullivan) at least once a week. She taught me to cook…and she taught me to eat. She introduced us to food, often by bringing in guest chefs, that we might not have experienced at home. We did have to pay a “lab fee” and hold fund-raisers to cover the cost of materials (food) as I moved through high school.
that sounds like an amazing Home Ec class!! That’s awesome! I think a big point that kids could get from Home Ec is an introduction to “real” foods.
This reminds me of a conversation that the Man and I were having recently. What skills could we bring to the table in the event of a zombie apocalypse? (We aren’t survivalists by any means–but we were watching The Walking Dead!) I joked that I was completely useless for anything except meat, and even then not much. Who needs an editor when no one’s writing anything? But then he pointed out that I do know how to cook and sew, even if I don’t do it much anymore. Yeah, basic skills aren’t hot commodities in a tech-driven society, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less necessary.
I think that everyone should know how to do basic cooking, mending, cleaning, etc.–male AND female. (Learning to balance a checkbook should also be required, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)
Well, I’m only 23, but I took home ec in school (mandatory) from grades 5 to 8. Not sure if it’s still that way in my school district. We did some cooking, sewing, basic life skills, etc. I enjoyed it. (Thankfully I’m a much better cook now than then.)
However, in general, I think many of these things are subjects parents *can* teach, and should. It doesn’t have to be a class – simply having your kids constantly helping with basic functions of the household works. I assimilated tons of cooking knowledge just from helping and watching.
I didn’t have home ec, and I really, really wish I had!! I feel like I’ve spent the first year of marriage learning how to do so many different things around our apartment. I especially wish I had learned sewing back then as I am just now learning how to sew!
I wish home ec was offered when I was in school, I think I would have loved it. My mom is a fabulous cook, she knows how to crochet, knit, sew and manage a household but when I was growing up she was a single mother with four kids and a full time job. She just didn’t have the time to actually teach me all that stuff. Now, she has the time but unfortunately, she doesn’t live close by.
My 5 year old daughter is in kindergarten at a Waldorf inspired school and she is already learning how to sew by hand, cut fruits and veggies, make soup and bake bread. Her school has inspired me to learn some basic “home ec” skills.