Whatever became of home economics and workshop in school?

[magical thyme]

When I was a kid, my progressive school required both sexes to attend both classes. In home ec we learned, among other things, how to boil water and how to scramble an egg.

It seems to me that a lot of weight issues could be helped if the generations behind me had a clue how to cook their own food instead of being reliant on industrial food product cheeze-like stuff.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. It wasn't required when I went to school, but my kids had to take a "Life Skills" class

when they were in junior high and home ec was taught for one quarter. I am constantly surprised at the number of people I meet who can't cook beyond heating up a pre-cooked meal.

[zbdent]

2. Took home ec & shop in Jr. High ... liked both.

barely able to sew, but these days I cook dinner.

Follow the recipe.

I learned how to make lasagna from a chef boyardee box. Now my nearby relatives are happy when I say I'm making lasagna ...

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I gave all my kids a "mom version" of life skills. I taught them all how to cook simple meals,

do their own laundry (including ironing), sew on buttons, check oil and air pressure on a car, mow the yard etc. I considered it part of my job as a parent to teach them what they needed to know in order to manage living on their own. I used to tell them we were an equal opportunity household, so my sons and my daughter all got the same lessons. To this day, they and their spouses share household chores, cooking and child care.

[HappyMe]

3. My sons had a life skills type class.

It included cooking, basic sewing, balance checkbook, and minor home repairs - in middle school.

They both took a home ec and a shop class their senior year because they had all their requirement classes done. They liked it.

[frogmarch]

4. Schools don't often have

home-ec and shop classes these days?

I had too many study halls in my sophomore year of high school (1959), so I had to take home-ec.

I won the Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow award that year – I think because of my highly creative tomato/peanut butter soup recipe. (gack!)

I received a large bronze pin to wear that was shaped like a teapot.

My mom tried to make me wear it on dates.

[fizzgig]

5. we're doing our kids a disservice by not offering those

i had to take six weeks of both when i was in the seventh grade and had a lot of fun in shop class. i also learned how to make a passable pizza in home ec, but haven't put that knowledge to use in years.

[magical thyme]

6. I learned some basic woodworking in 7th grade...

I think I made a wooden ring, lol. Haven't used that skill since then, but I can see where naturals would have had entry to very useful skills.

The basic cooking, however, has lasted a lifetime and enables me to eat well at very low cost.

We should be teaching fundamental nutrition and basic cooking to help young people not become dependent on the junk-food industry.

[haele]

7. Too expensive to maintain kitchen and workshop classrooms.

They'll claim it's because of liability (allergies for cooking and sewing classes, safety for shop classes), but it's really because all that equipment requires maintenance and consumes a lot of energy. Like school nurses and their offices. Schools rely on corporate sponsorship or grants for special equipment, and it's not easy to get corporate sponsors that consider kids as a consumer base to subsidize a small home industry classroom or lab.
High school home economics was not just cooking, it traditionally includes sewing; minor furniture, fixture and appliance repairs; tactical shopping, home organization, cleaning and sanitary practices; internal and external home safety; basic child care; safety and first aid; home finances and the economics of home businesses - everything anyone, man or woman, would need to maintain a basic household. And it started in Jr. High School - in my day (1970's, not too long ago), if you were into that sort of field, you could plan all your electives to be home ec (and no, it wasn't an easy A) and would be able to not only run your own home efficiently and economically, you could set-up and run all sorts of small businesses from your home.
Our Jr. High School Home Ec classrooms were dedicated facilities that were part of the shop-and-crafts wing and were as large as two classrooms; one kitchen's worth of fixtures and appliances, a huge resturant refrigerator/freezer, all sorts of counters and cabinents, two industrial sewing machines and a small workshop to teach basic hand tool safety. There were always three or four classes of around 20 to 30 students each semester that used the facility - and it was co-ed (the last period was always left open for the teacher to clean up the room).

Our High School Home Ec. facility was even larger, and was part of a huge shop, and science lab complex (we also had a full auto shop, metal-work, welding, electrical/electronics, ceramics, and woodworking). It included furniture repair (and upholstry) and basic household fix-up and repair - painting, wall patching, minor handywork and carpentry, electrical and plumbing... Of course, my schools were huge - my JHS graduating class was around 400, HS graduating class was 900.

We didn't have trailer or store-front classrooms, or 50 kids crammed into a class that was built for 25. The schools where I grew up doubled as community centers; often times the local CC or adult education would subsidize maintinaing the facilities by renting out these shops for after hours or weekend classes.
But in those days, energy was cheap, facilities and equipment was not disposable (the kitchen appliances we used in JHS were built in the 1940's and were as reliable as the day they were manufactured thirty years later), and communities were willing to pay for a higher standard of education and not seek sponsors who were looking to sell products to kids in exchange for providing equipment.

Wilson, Fischer-Price, Dell, Microsoft, Mattel, Pepsico, Kraft, P&G or Monsanto might sponsor sports, school lunches and ge-dunk machines to keep kids fed during the school day, a computer lab, or will supply "realistic newborn dolls" for "life managment" training clases but they're not going to sponsor a hands-on Home Ec lab or a full-on Shop facility.

Corporate School Sponsors don't really care that much about education (but supporting it builds good will as well as being a tax write-off), and they certainly don't want competition for the disposable products they sell. They want consumers that depend on them to provide for needs, not people who might decide to fix it themselves with what they instead remaining consumers and throwing money into a cash register.
So good luck getting real hands-on Home Economics back in the schools. My experiance when the kidlet went to school is that for most "modern schools", Home Ec. is now "Life Management" - consisting of providing a standard classrom and requireing all tangible work assigned as "homework" - i.e. "The Bake a Pie Project": look up the recipe and sign up for it, make a list and "shop" for the ingredients (and make it if you had the money to actually buy the ingredients), write an essay on the experiance, and bring both in.
Toss in a few field trips to stores and kitchens, and give the students interactive video games for "problem solving".

The kidlet "refused to acknowledge me" for a good three months after the class was over and she got a "C" - I refused to make the pie or sew the apron for her. Took her a year to forgive me for making her do her own damn work and only agree to offer advice or at most, show her how to do something.

But dayem, I made some really dandy fruit pies that semester, and I had enough apron fabric left over to make myself a nice "pleasingly plump" Dorothy costume the next year for Halloween.

Haele

[magical thyme]

10. you got to the crux of what I was thinking right here:

"...they certainly don't want competition for the disposable products they sell. They want consumers that depend on them to provide for needs, not people who might decide to fix it themselves with what they instead remaining consumers and throwing money into a cash register. "

I was thinking about the recent GD threads about obesity and young people not knowing how to cook anything and the time frame the epidemic of obesity got going...which led me to wondering about the link between the loss of school home ec leading to dependence on processed foods and the resulting obesity.

And wondering what we can do about it at a community/local level.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Too expensive? Liability concerns?

oh, I thought you were talking about High School football.

but that's a sacred cow.

[sammytko]

26. We have both in our small poor school in south Texas plus a cosmetology course

They even have after school programs for kids that need to stay longer after school because no one is at home. The buses run after that too.

They have an ag program and the kids get to keep their livestock at the school instead of at home.

[OriginalGeek]

9. I WISH my school had had either of those classes

Actually, my high school might have had home-ec but boys weren't allowed in it. As I get older I notice more shit I've missed out on because of going to a fundamentalist religious school. (I graduated in '81)

I can cook some and usually do it at least once a week - last week I made a simple bechamel sauce and added cheese and made a big casserole dish of mac and cheese with kielbasa cut up in it. It was terrific if I do saw so myself. I'm pretty handy around the grill too.

But I really wish I could sew. My MIL was a seamstress and has a lot of professional-grade equipment in her sewing room that is just languishing under a film of dust as she's too old to manage it anymore. I'm thinking of asking her to teach me if she can. I've learned enough leather-working to make myself a sporran for my kilt and I think I could make a vest or, at the very least, a bow-tie lol. I downloaded a pattern and instructions and I'm waiting on some tartan fabric to arrive and I'll try it - the bow-tie is small enough I think I could hand sew it - no need to even try to learn her big fancy sewing machine just yet...

I wish we had gotten a woodshop class too. My step-father could make some beautiful furniture but I hate him and wanted nothing to do with anything he liked so I screwed myself out of some useful skills I could have learned much earlier. I'll just learn anyway and make something cool without him.

[politicat]

17. Not to direct your attention away from DU

but I highly recommend sewing.patternreview.com's message board. There are a lot of experienced and progressing sewists there, and an active subgroup of men who sew. Textiles is one of the areas where unfortunately, gender essentialism is still too alive, but that's changing slowly.

There's also craftsy.com, which is a video class site with a decent level of instructor interaction and a usually active electronic classroom system. Some classes are free, they often run sales.

I'm far more self-taught than classroom taught, so here's my big three points - always make a muslin (a test copy from a cheap fabric, like a thrifted sheet) before cutting into good fabric. Start with non-clothing, like towels, pillow cases, bags and toys, to learn technique and build skills before trying to do fitting. Take a fitting class, live if possible. Fitting is the hardest thing to learn, especially alone.

[OriginalGeek]

18. Awesome info

thank you very much!

[politicat]

20. Anytime! And if you need some help, PM me.

I made a decision a few years ago to sew as much as possible for myself and my partner because RTW and us don't fit together. (I'm short, I prefer tailored lines and specific colors, and I'm... Ahem... Endowed. Partner is very tall, long torso'ed with long arms, and has sensory issues with regards to seams and fabric textures.) The first year sucked; I thought I would NEVER get to a place where even something as basic as a tee or a polo looked acceptable, much less competent.

I still have wadders, especially when altering a new to me pattern, but I'm finally to competent. I'm always happy to answer questions.

[OriginalGeek]

21. lol, "wadders"?

Is that the ones you just wad up and throw away? I have a pile of leather like that lol. But at least I can sometimes put them to use testing a new stamp technique or using them as a strop to sharpen my swivel knife.

thanks again and future thanks for when I have dumb questions.

[politicat]

23. Exactly!

Mine generally end up sorted to a couple of bags -- cotton, linen & rayon goes to a program that recycles the scrap into bandages and diaper wadding, wool for felting, everything else into insulation. Thus do I use cheap, cotton sheets.

I saw your sporran -- if you put that attention to detail into textiles, you'll be golden. That's a lovely piece of work.

[OriginalGeek]

27. thank you!

I'm getting pretty stoked. Going over to MIL house tomorrow to take a look at her sewing room.

[vanlassie]

29. Excellent advice by politicat. My number one piece

of advice for new sewers is: accept and be prepared to rip stuff out. It's part of sewing well. We all have to do it.
Funny thing- my friend recently reminded me of my own mantra, after I was bemoaning the fact that I had laid some paving bricks too "high" and they would need to be relaid. It made it easier for me, pulling those bricks up again! And now it looks great- as will your sewing if you go ahead and rip out when it's not exactly right!

[OriginalGeek]

35. Man that's gonna be tough

lol, I'll work a thing to death rather than give up and start over. It rarely comes out right once it;s gone wonky though so I need to work on that for sure.

Had a look through MIL's sewing room - her machine is a Singer 500a in a gorgeous cabinet/desk thing. Looking online it looks like this baby does some good stuff.

[vanlassie]

36. Cool!! Sounds great! Keep us posted.

[MizzM]

11. Yuckiest classes I ever took

Took Home EC in high school many many years ago. I could get an A in every class I ever took - but not Home EC. It was also sadly prophetic as I never was able to cook or sew a damn.

[trof]

12. I remember when there was a Home Ec major program (for women) in college.

Bet that doesn't exist anymore.

[grilled onions]

13. In the late sixties ...

in our school girls were taught sewing basics,how to plan a menu and to cook on both gas and electric. The males were into shop and made some great looking lamps and some certainly could have gone into woodworking as a career.
Where are the sensible classes? First aid, mechanics,firefighting,designers,child care,plumbing,electrical? There simply are some skills still needed here that are sadly lacking as you can tell every time you call up a "skilled laborer". We will always need firefighters,law enforcement,skills to repair your washer,refrigerator or a/c. so why are so many still forcing kids to memorize sonnets or study the Roman Empire? For some those topics may be practical but many students are not anything but office or scholastic material. They want to get dirty,get out there in construction,take care of the water systems or make sure we have safe gas and sturdy electric. Kids don't even have a choice. In the late sixties kids got tired of classes they could not relate to. They dropped out and drove trucks or became basic mechanics. Later they took more intense classes of their specialty. Why can't we do that today?

[femmocrat]

14. They still exist, but have been updated:

"Home Ec" is now Consumer and Family Science.

"Shop" is now Technology.

[Ptah]

16. My parents taught us those skills.

I was born in 1950 and being farmers/ranchers we learned many
skills necessary to contribute to the home and farm.

Our parents wouldn't lets us take kitchen or shop classes.
They wanted us to be prepared for a college education
rather than working stiffs.

[DebJ]

19. It's more important that students either be taking a test, or preparing for a test, you know?

Dumbing people down, creating consumers for Hamburger Helper. Where is the puke smilie?

[OriginalGeek]

22. Whoa hey now

Cheeseburger Macaroni is great!


if you add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.



And replace the hamburger with steak.

and don't cook the noodles.

and throw out the sauce packet.


and just have steak.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. When I was in high school the girls had to take home ec

and the boys had to take shop. You couldn't switch - no girls in shop class, no boys in home ec (this was 1963-65). We learned how to put together a basic meal and sew an apron and a gathered skirt (that I wouldn't have worn to my own funeral). Big whoop. I would have liked to have learned some of the shop class stuff, but there was no chance of that in those days.

[winter is coming]

28. That was me in middle school. I actually took a year of nothing but sewing

and was glad I did -- it's still a useful skill to have -- but I would have loved to take shop, too.

[rug]

25. I learned how to boil eggs. It was an accelerated class.

[vanlassie]

30. I agree that we benefitted from those classes at the time.

Just want to mention that I often need to know how to fix something nowadays and it's all there on the Google.
First time I realized this, my son found me a YouTube to learn a computer skill, and it was by a twelve year old kid.
But this is not to say life skills are no longer needing to be offered in schools!

[Populist_Prole]

31. So many people are mechanical dunces these days

And watching youtube "how to" videos aren't going to help.

We had wood shop with very specific tasks to learn ( and the ability to make some neat projects ) and metal shop, which was very handy and interesting. They even made us guys take half a school year of home-ec, and we learned a lot and enjoyed it.

[Kali]

32. "Food" manufacturers and China

nothing is repairable, self-sufficiency is subversive, just watch the tee vee and buy some more crap.

[TBF]

33. I learned to make a great white sauce and still used it!

I managed to fit in quite a bit of college-prep along with old stand-bys. I drew the line at typing. My principal encouraged me to take it but I responded that if I learned how to type that is all folks would let me do. So he put me in his advanced math class instead. Typing would have been easier for sure but the math was better preparation for college

I was in a small school in a rural area so shop, ag, home ec - they were all popular. Our economics teacher taught us basics but really put time into practical things like balancing a checkbook and filling out a simple tax form as well. Overall they did a great job considering the area.

[alarimer]

34. Budget cuts and standardized tests

EVERYTHING is now about the tests. If it's not part of the test, they don't test it.

That said, I don't particularly care about learning those things myself. It's not that difficult to (now) google how to do it or find a YouTube video that tells you how.