Kitchen

[debic]

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@Sooner wrote:

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I have always felt schools should have life skills classes for kids in high school.  They should teach financial skills, how loans work, facts about home ownership--like taxes and things associated with having a home, keeping clothing clean and organized, basic income tax, talk about charities and how they work--how to help in your community, citizen responsibility, things like that.  

Some kids are totally unaware of these things and at least they would have a place to start. These should be offered through high schools AND VO-Tech schools for those who have graduated and may need to know some of these things. 

I HATED sewing.  Mother loved it, was wonderful at it and even had me take lessons outside home ec.  But I hated it, HATED wearing home-made clothing (although my mom was very skilled and considered the best around), and hated the mess it made most of all.  

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Why should schools teach life skills?   Shouldn't that be another thing parents should do?   Too many parents expect schools to raise their kids.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Home Ec.  I took it every year in high school, and maintained a relationship with my teacher after.  But it was an elective class, not something one needed to graduate.   I also took R.O.T.C., another elective and remained friendly with the teacher.   

Foreign language was a requirement, which I thought was ridiculous.  I took German as it was my heritage, but the only people I could talk to were long gone.  

It's not bad to have these kinds of classes, many high schoolers have an idea what they want to do by the time they graduate, and can decide when they go to college or a trade school, even the service if they choose.

[CANDLEQUEEN]

I was in Jr. High in the early 70's, and we still had Home Ec, I had one semester of sewing, and we had to make a skirt(hated it). And one semester of cooking which I thought was really fun, I think we made a cake and learned just basic cooking skills, I enjoyed it, but sad that it is no longer. My daughters did not have it growing up and they laughed hearing about a sewing and cooking class......

[mac116]

At my high school in the late 60s, there were 2 "tracks" that you could choose.  The College Prep track or the Commercial track were the options.  If you were in College Prep, there were too many requirements for a Home Ec, typing, shop, etc. elective.  That was my choice.  My mother had me take those classes in summer school to keep me busy, LOL.  However, I am certainly glad that I did!

[beckyb1012]

Our start year for Jr. High was 7th grade and they were still offering it in 1974 that year I began at that campus.  I did not take or ever take the class.  My Mom was thrilled I did not want to do it since she was forced to take it back in the 50's and she wanted to take shop.  Mom never got over the disappointment of missing that class but she was all Tomboy.

It would probably be good to have a required home ex. class, shop class, and financial planning for all students to achieve their high school degree.

[jaxs mom]

I had Home Ec in the late 70s in Jr High. We had cooking and sewing from what I remember, I sewed a pair of pants. I also took Industrial Arts where we learned how to make jewelry using lost wax casting. I made a silver ring. 

I have no idea if it's still taught in schools. I homeschooled and we did lots of Home Ec/Industrial Arts type things. 

[jaxs mom]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

My home economics  experience was quite different from the OP's.   We had the sewing and cooking... no floor waxing or other silliness.   So the programs have been discontinued and we now have a generation who panic when a Denim &  Co pant is too long,  not knowing they can hem it in 30 minutes.   They're scared to death of pressure cookers and have no idea of what their advantages are.  Sad because this practical information is needed. 

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Sure some people are. But DIY, sewing, yarn arts, canning and preserving are very popular now days. I know tons of people doing it.  

[151949]

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@mac116 wrote:

At my high school in the late 60s, there were 2 "tracks" that you could choose.  The College Prep track or the Commercial track were the options.  If you were in College Prep, there were too many requirements for a Home Ec, typing, shop, etc. elective.  That was my choice.  My mother had me take those classes in summer school to keep me busy, LOL.  However, I am certainly glad that I did!

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I was in college prep in HS but everyone had opportunities to take electives like home ec. I took sewing every semester - it is still my hobby. If I had known then how important typing would become I would have taken typing at least one semester.

[suzyQ3]

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@bonnielu wrote:

Our schools no longer have home economics or shop.  I guess kids are too busy taking courses such as advanced mathematics and science that they will never use.  

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I'm not sure if you are serious here. I really don't think that you can compare home economics to advanced mathematics and science. The latter are crucial in this world today, while sewing and cooking can be self-taught if desired.

My sewing class was useless. I never utilized whatever I was taught. As for those who can't sew a button on? Seriously? Even I can do that, despite the class.

And cooking? Yikes, don't get me started. I think the only thing that I learned was how to measure. But I did later become a fairly decent cook. Neither class prepared me for a career or for a relationship.

In my day these were primarily to prepare young girls for one thing -- to be a homemaker. Fine, back then. But today young women are far more likely to have a profession, and that's what schools should prepare them for -- learning how to think logically, analyze information, write clearly, and most of all, read, read, read literature and history, which helps with all the aforementioned.

[Barbarainnc]

I taught Family and Consumer Sciences (formally Home Economics) for 32 years at the same school. At one time, we had the largest department in the state. We had 10 teachers in a school with about 2,000 students. We taught Housing, Home Ec I and II, Foods and Nutrition, Parenting, Clothing, Commercial Foods 1 and 2, Family Relations and had a Child Care Center. The Child Care I students learned how to run a day care center. Child Care II students ran the center. It was open to the public, 3 days a week from about 8 to 11:00. The students did all the planning and teaching with the guidance of the teacher of the program.

As the FACS teachers retired, they got rid of our classes. They did take 2 classrooms and made a Commercial Kitchen and Restaurant that seats 50 people. It is very successful. So only 3 teachers are left to teach FACS.  

[Toppers3]

When I was in high school, Home Ec. classes were offered as Electives. I went to a College Prep. school, too. 

We only had so many Electives that we could choose to take and pick from. In fact, as I recall, we were pretty limited in our choices. The required core classes took up most of our time.

I ended up taking a Typing class as one of my Electives, and an Accounting class as another during high school. I am glad that I learned to type back then.

I remember my Mom telling me that typing would be a skill that I would always be able to use. She was definitely right about that.

We were also required to take two years of a foreign language, too.

I didn't take any Home Ec. classes. I had thought about it, but decided against using them as Electives because I was already helping my Mom with the cooking and the baking at home, and my maternal Gramma had taught me the basics of hemming and hand sewing.

I thought it would be fun to learn how to machine sew, as we had classes for sewing then in high school, but with my class load/Electives I felt that it would have been difficult to try to keep up with a sewing class, time-wise.