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.
