Home Economics: Your thoughts?

[SummerRain]

At my school we had Design Technology, which consisted of: Sewing, Cooking, Woodwork, Metal work and designing stuff (and making it using vacuum pack machines and stuff like that). All genders did them all, generally most people liked the subjects - especially cooking which was almost everybody's favourite. In cooking we also had some lessons where we tried new foods, and lots of the kids had never even tried some really basic stuff - I remember everybody thinking real butter was cheese having never seen it before.

Although I agree that those sort of skills should be taught at home, the fact is for most people, none are. Plus, that's been the case for a couple of generations now, so now a lot of parents don't know how to sew or cook or mend things, so unless they're taught at school, future generations wont either. As a child I helped my parents sew, cook, garden, do DIY, etc, at a really young age - but I was in a tiny minority. Now lots of people think it's amazing that I can do things that, two or three generations ago, everybody could do.

I also think that these skills are equally as valuable as traditional academic subjects. School should set everybody up for life, not just set up kids to go to university. In general I'd rather all subject focused on more practical aspects - cooking meals, mending clothes, doing DIY for around the house, etc, rather than abstract stuff like sewing hats and baking cakes and making CD cases (all of which we did).

 

[ledboots]

Great post, Summerrain, I agree with all of it.

 

[shyvas]

I'm pleased to know that I was attending Design Technolgy classes during all these years.

 

[Amy SF]

Great post, Summerrain, I agree with all of it.

Me too.

 

[AeryFairy]

At my school we had Design Technology, which consisted of: Sewing, Cooking, Woodwork, Metal work and designing stuff (and making it using vacuum pack machines and stuff like that). All genders did them all, generally most people liked the subjects - especially cooking which was almost everybody's favourite. In cooking we also had some lessons where we tried new foods, and lots of the kids had never even tried some really basic stuff - I remember everybody thinking real butter was cheese having never seen it before.

Although I agree that those sort of skills should be taught at home, the fact is for most people, none are. Plus, that's been the case for a couple of generations now, so now a lot of parents don't know how to sew or cook or mend things, so unless they're taught at school, future generations wont either. As a child I helped my parents sew, cook, garden, do DIY, etc, at a really young age - but I was in a tiny minority. Now lots of people think it's amazing that I can do things that, two or three generations ago, everybody could do.

I also think that these skills are equally as valuable as traditional academic subjects. School should set everybody up for life, not just set up kids to go to university. In general I'd rather all subject focused on more practical aspects - cooking meals, mending clothes, doing DIY for around the house, etc, rather than abstract stuff like sewing hats and baking cakes and making CD cases (all of which we did).

This is exactly the same for me. Out of everything I learned at school, the things that are useful to me now are mostly things taught in technology classes. Cooking is a fairly essential everyday skill for most people, the sewing stuff comes in handy for doing basic clothing repairs, and I've applied a lot of the resistant materials (wood and metalwork) knowledge to home DIY projects. I just wish they'd taught more of it - we only did about 6 weeks a year of each for three years.

 

[SummerRain]

I guess we were at school similar times, the systems sound similar. We did 2 hours of DT a week, each week, each year - but since it was split between 4 subjects that's about 10 weeks of each a year. We also had to do a DT for GCSE, which at the time I didn't like (it was my lowest mark, I always liked learning from books especially as a teenager) but it was probably a good thing, our school sort of forced you to have well-rounded GCSEs (i.e. a technology, a language, a humanity, plus science maths and english, plus a couple you could choose freely).

 

[AeryFairy]

I guess we were at school similar times, the systems sound similar. We did 2 hours of DT a week, each week, each year - but since it was split between 4 subjects that's about 10 weeks of each a year. We also had to do a DT for GCSE, which at the time I didn't like (it was my lowest mark, I always liked learning from books especially as a teenager) but it was probably a good thing, our school sort of forced you to have well-rounded GCSEs (i.e. a technology, a language, a humanity, plus science maths and english, plus a couple you could choose freely).

Yeah, that sounds incredibly similar. Two hours of tech a week, but we had five subjects not four (in addition to resistant materials, food, textiles, and graphics, we had something called systems and control which was to do with circuit boards and programming). We were supposed to do one at GCSE as well (mandatory stuff like maths and English plus extras for top sets, and then choose a subject out of each 'category' including a tech), but I complained about it and bugged the head teacher until I got to do what I wanted. I loved the subjects, and I knew they were useful, but I didn't feel like I'd test well in any of them except systems and control, which wasn't offered as a GCSE because the old teacher left.

I think it would have been a good idea to have them on as non-test, low-homework subjects, so we could learn more of the useful stuff. We had a couple of classes like that already on our schedule (politics stuff mostly, and some sex/drugs education), and they were super useful and didn't impact revision.

 

[SummerRain]

Oh yeah, okay it's exactly the same, I just forgot that I did systems and control! It's all coming back now.

 

[Mischief]

It's a sad reflection on our society that these types of things need to be taught in school. Apparently, they are not taught that successfully, judging from the number of people I know who can't even sew on a button or change a car tire.

Really, these are things that you can teach yourself very easily, with the help of a basic book and some fundamental reasoning skills, whether or not you had adults in your life to observe.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I guess we were at school similar times, the systems sound similar. We did 2 hours of DT a week, each week, each year - but since it was split between 4 subjects that's about 10 weeks of each a year. We also had to do a DT for GCSE, which at the time I didn't like (it was my lowest mark, I always liked learning from books especially as a teenager) but it was probably a good thing, our school sort of forced you to have well-rounded GCSEs (i.e. a technology, a language, a humanity, plus science maths and english, plus a couple you could choose freely).

This discussion is making me feel really ancient. I only did Home Economics when I was in my first two years of secondary school and then CDT for a year after that but then I chose to do purely academic subjects for GCSE. I think it is a good idea to have to do a practical subject even though I probably would have hated doing it at the time.

 

[AeryFairy]

It's a sad reflection on our society that these types of things need to be taught in school. Apparently, they are not taught that successfully, judging from the number of people I know who can't even sew on a button or change a car tire.

Really, these are things that you can teach yourself very easily, with the help of a basic book and some fundamental reasoning skills, whether or not you had adults in your life to observe.

You could make the same argument of just about any subject, though. If someone can read and can find the information, they could in theory teach themselves at least the basics of anything. Learning this stuff in school at least provides a safe environment to apply the knowledge, plus gives a lot of children access to the equipment they may not have at home.

 

[beancounter]

Life skills should be taught by parents.

Math, reading and writing are life skills as well. Should they be taught at home? Where do you draw the line.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

Today, you can learn how to sew and cook on YouTube, and not have to take any tests!

I learn tons of things on YouTube. Pretty much anything I need a how-to for, there's a youtube tutorial for it.

 

[Mischief]

You could make the same argument of just about any subject, though. If someone can read and can find the information, they could in theory teach themselves at least the basics of anything. Learning this stuff in school at least provides a safe environment to apply the knowledge, plus gives a lot of children access to the equipment they may not have at home.

Math, reading and writing are life skills as well. Should they be taught at home? Where do you draw the line.

I guess it depends on how you define "life skills."

I think of them as things that you need/should know, whether or not you're ever going to go to school or earn an income. Basically, the kinds of things that everyone needs to know, regardless of job or station in life, unless you happen to be born into enough wealth that you will always be able to pay someone else to do them for you. (And that's ignoring the very real sense of satisfaction most people get from knowing that they are capable of being self sufficient rather than helpless.) They include things like knowing how to go about buying and preparing your own food, even if it's something as basic as making sandwiches for yourself, if that's what you're content to eat; making basic repairs to your clothes and washing them; doing basic household repairs; etc. You don't have to be able to read or write to figure out how to do the very basics; many generations of humans managed to do this stuff without knowing how to read and write, much less being taught this stuff in school. Of course, once you know the basics, it's just a matter of practice and of some pretty basic reasoning skills to build from there and to gain more advanced skills. If you know how to read and write on top of that, there's no limit to what you can learn without taking a class in it.

And yes, that last sentence is true also for academic subjects. The difference is that employers want to see formal education in these subjects on your resume.

ETA: Most of us managed to figure out how to use personal computers, surf the internet, etc., without taking classes in that in school. That's kind of a life skill, in today's society, and a whole lot more complicated than sewing on a button or cooking spaghetti.

 

[Moll Flanders]

You could make the same argument of just about any subject, though. If someone can read and can find the information, they could in theory teach themselves at least the basics of anything. Learning this stuff in school at least provides a safe environment to apply the knowledge, plus gives a lot of children access to the equipment they may not have at home.

I agree. Some children are going to have parents who are too busy working or lone parents who are busy juggling work and raising children (or maybe in some cases parents who are just lazy and uninvolved) and the children should still have the chance to learn useful skills in school.

At uni I had to show some other students how to work a washing machine as they had never done their own washing, in that case I think they were spoiled rather than neglected.

 

[Mischief]

The problem is that school has become the default for teaching things that should be learned at home or just by living, and school is not an unlimited resource, either in terms of time or of money. Every hour that is spent in teaching "life skills" is an hour that cannot be spent teaching other things. It's no wonder that we have an undereducated society where so many lack basic reasoning, verbal and math skills, when so much of school time is spent in teaching remedial "life skills", and even those aren't absorbed by most. We are a society where so many expect to be spoonfed every morsel of knowledge.

I knew a middle aged woman who had to be specifically shown how to put gasoline in her gas tank after the last full service station in her area closed. She had always relied on her husband to fuel the car, or had stopped at the full service station when he wasn't around. There's no excuse for that kind of intentional helplessness, and it's all too prevalent.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I "learned" to do some general car stuff in Driver's Ed class. (I took it as an elective in high school, which is another class not taught in school anymore.) Things like changing a tire, checking oil level, etc. Tbh, I haven't done any of those things since that class, and I don't intend to start any time soon. (Yes, I own a car.)

I just don't care.

*shrug*

 

[thefadedone]

I "learned" to do some general car stuff in Driver's Ed class. (I took it as an elective in high school, which is another class not taught in school anymore.) Things like changing a tire, checking oil level, etc. Tbh, I haven't done any of those things since that class, and I don't intend to start any time soon. (Yes, I own a car.)

I just don't care.

*shrug*

I think it really sucks that Driver's Ed is not taught in schools. I don't think it should mandatory, but I think it should be an option.

 

[Kitties]

I graduated from high school in the late 70's. I took both cooking (hated it) and sewing (it was OK but school was torture in general) I also took wood shop. There were some males in cooking and even in sewing class and fewer females in wood shop.

I own a sewing machine. I like to sew. I think however I learned more on my own later in life. I also learned more advanced knitting and to crochet later in life.

With sites like Ravelry and Craftster, there are plenty of people of all ages crafting and so many resources out there.

 

[Clueless Git]

Do you think that they would be invaluable to kids today to learn how to sew and cook, to shop for food and prepare healthy meals? Or would they be too much of a waste?

A whole generation who can neither cook nor sew a button is a high price to pay for whatever savings were made, imho.

The fast/convenience food and clothing industries have benefitted massively from the dissapearance of such basic skills though.