Home Economics is Important for Our Children

A fellow AC contributor wrote an article about how the absence of Home Economics in schools is hurting society in that the new generations have no clue about how to cook or fix things.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I have 3 children, including 2 daughters and although I would love to teach them what I know, I rarely find the time. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cooking and have a very hard time holding myself back and allowing my children to add ingredients all on their own. Therefore I was hoping they would have a Home Economics class like I did in Junior High School. I was upset when I discovered our local schools did not offer the opportunity at all.

I do believe that Home Economics may have gradually grown a reputation of being too feminine and therefore, eventually weeded out. When Home Ec was a choice, the majority of boys who even signed up were only there to meet girls. I, however, grew up in an area where it was a requirement for both genders. You had one semester of Home Economics and the other semester was Industrial Arts - a.k.a. Woodworking. This arrangement was perfect.

In Home Economics everyone, boys and girls alike, were taught the basic skills of cooking and sewing with just a few touches on other skills such as cleaning and ironing. If it weren't for Home Economics, I'd have never learned how to cook a meal for my family or repair my kid's clothes.

Sewing is a skill that can be used throughout life. It not only helps save money on buying new clothes or paying a professional for simple repairs, it can also be handy in countless other situations. Camping, survival, business trips, artwork, and crafts all have times when a needle and thread could prove quite useful.

Cooking skills are taken for granted. I think it is generally thought that cooking can be learned on the fly. It can, but only to a certain extent. The simple things like preparing vegetables for cooking, making pancake batter from scratch, and using common kitchen utensils or appliances can prove to be large obstacles if not taught properly. So many things can go wrong in a kitchen - often with disastrous results, that you have to wonder why we would NOT want basic cooking skills taught to our kids.

To those people who say cooking and sewing is just for women, they really need to exit the Dark Ages. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man knowing how to cook a decent meal or being able to sew a button back on his shirt! Having these skills does not make a man gay or feminine. It makes a man "handy" and useful. He'd be a great catch!

It is very sad to see today's generations, men and women both, unable to cook a good meal, repair their own torn seams, or put a button back on properly. This lack of self-sufficiency is going to do more harm than good to society as a whole if we allow it to continue.

If I was more of an activist, I'd be petitioning my school district to instate a Home Economics program, at least in Junior High. In High School it could be an elective course. If your local schools do not have a Home Ec program, I'd advise fighting for it now. Even if it misses your own kids, at least it would benefit the upcoming generations.

Author's Note: I probably would not have taken much notice to the missing Home Economics program if weren't for the fact that the Junior High has an Industrial Arts class in the curriculum. When I saw that, and failed to see a complementary Home Ec program, that got my goat. How can you offer one side of the spectrum but not the other? I'm seriously considering spending some time researching on how to petition for the Home Ec agenda.