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Opening Arguments

Bring back home ec

A sensible thought expressed in a New York Times op-ed piece and echoed by a blogging mom:

If home ec was re-introduced to American curriculum and taught kids about the dangers of a diet filled with highly processed cheap food while teaching them how to make delicious food from healthy ingredients, do you think it would make a difference? Helen Zoe Veit, the author of the op-ed piece, concludes that “the idea of reviving home economics as part of a broad offensive against obesity might sound outlandish. But teaching cooking — real cooking — in public schools could help address a host of problems facing Americans today. The history of home economics shows it's possible.”

The Helen Zoe Viet piece starts off by noting what a bad reputation home ec had when it was still around (or at least more prevalent) -- bland food, bad sewing "and self-righteous fussiness." She suggested that a reintroduction of home ec, better named of course, would be useful for kids today who seem to be lacking a whole range of life skills, everything from cooking to yard maintenance to balancing a checkbook. I heard an interview with her on NPR, and one intriguing suggestion they talked about was a class on simple gardening, which could be used as a springboard for everything from climate to economics to nutrition.

I have no idea how good or bad the home ec classes in my high school were. That was back in the era when strict segregation was an undebated given -- shop class for the boys and home ec for the girls. And mothers back then just naturally passed along their food prepararion secrets to the girls alone; it wouldn't have occurred to them to include the boys. So I didn't learn how much I love to cook until I took a baking class at Ivy Tech well into adulthood.

Comments

Doug
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 12:15pm

When I was in middle school and high school (mid-80s), the home ec and shop classes were co-ed. I don't recall getting much out of either, but maybe there were somethings that helped that I took for granted.

littlejohn
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 12:26pm

I wish my wife had taken home ec. I probably shouldn't say any more.

Tim Zank
Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:56am

Public schools are way too busy teaching the new "basics" these days like "Johnny's Two Mommies" and "Condoms Are Cool" and "Lorenzo Is Too An American" etc.

Students don't need to know how to cook, sew, add & subtract, they have the government to do those silly things for them.

What's important is how they "feel" about all the bad things we've done as a nation (all discrimination and bad behavior began when this country was founded of course) and how to better admire "freedom fighters" like Che & Fidel.

Andrew J.
Fri, 09/09/2011 - 12:56pm

I thought vocational training was for cooking, sewing and shop. And we have those schools for those who want to learn those skills.
AJ

Bob G.
Fri, 09/09/2011 - 1:17pm

Tim:
How right you are...
And when they did away with Home Ec...they opened the flood gates for fast food hell and litter in our streets.
Not to mention, no dinner at a table with the "family".

The only time you hear about a STOVE being used is when some HUD rental burns the frack down on the SE side, because some government-sponsored "ward of the state" tried to use it for an auxiliary heating source or clothes dryer.

Teach the kids to be more responsible, so when they get older...
(well, you know the rest)

;)

Harl Delos
Mon, 09/12/2011 - 8:24am

These days, when they teach cooking, they tell you to start recipes by chopping up onions and garlic and tossing them in a hot skillet with olive oil - which is a TERRIBLE start when you're trying to make a peach pie.

Home ec used to be reserved for girls who "weren't college material." It oughta be for everyone.

High school kids complain, "I'm never gonna use this" but a saavy home ec teacher would conspire with kids, showing them how to make fresh gravy that tastes great for 3c instead of paying $1.69/pint for bad gravy in a jar, showing them how easy it is to make pie crust for pennies instead of buying the $1.50 crust that's made from vegetable shortening that's full of trans fats that cause cancer and heart disease.

Giving kids hands-on experience in gardening, in making pickles and kraut, in canning peaches, could make school fun for kids as well as giving them important life skills that will reduce the burden on the taxpayer in the long run. Should schools be fun? Well, kids that enjoy school aren't attendance problems nor are they disciplinary problems.

And if you are learning to cook, algebra classes suddenly look like something that gives you something you'll use once you're out of school....

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