Should home economics be mandatory in high school?

Question

It seems many people today are quite helpless when it comes to cooking, grocery shopping, housekeeping and budgeting. It obviously is not being passed along in many homes. Should schools require the class for a diploma?

Answer 1

God no.  Not everyone aspires to be a Suzy Homemaker.  Cooking, grocery shopping, and housekeeping are all the easiest things to learn and students only take Home Ec for a slacker class.  Budgeting is a different story; I think that rather than Home Ec, Finance should be mandatory: learning about stocks, money, bills etc.

Answer 2

no. not mandatory. we already have it as an elective in many schools - those that have the means and materials already.

There are things that are the purview of the family.

It *sounds* like an ok idea - but adding more things onto schools curriculum waters down the primary mission of a school. i could come up with a list of hundreds (if not thousands) of things that "not being passed along in many homes" - doesnt mean we should or could  do them all.

Who would teach it - you'd have to invest some cash into this - you need supplies, if you are mandating it schoolwide  - this means numbers of teachers not just one - ( the large high school across the street has 12 physical ed teachers - thats also mandated) so lets say perhaps 4? since you wont take it all 4 years in HS) equipment to cook! - cant use the cafeteria as mandated by law.

4 teachers  - 240k (think insurance, salary, medical)

equipment - 20k to start?

supplies - cooking materials for the entire school for the year - 20k?

so my quick math 280k per school.

there are 23,000 high schools in the US

= 6.4 billion per year.

Who's payin for this?

Answer 3

Yes, I think it should be mandatory.  People need basic skills to survive and home economics is one.  Also, students should be required to take a basic auto shop class and an an economics class (where they learn about credit, budgeting, mortgages, banking, etc.).  You could blend all of these together (along with other skills) into one class and give it a name like Life Skills 101.

As a teacher, I see kids graduating and they have no clue about basic things.  They go off to college, mess up their credit, can't wash clothes or cook anything, and have no idea what changing the oil in a car means.  They aren't getting taught these skills at home, so it would be prudent to teach them at school.

Answer 4

Yes

Answer 5

Its a good idea yes. I thought parents should teach their children this kinda stuff anyway.

The one strong advantage I see for school mandatory economics is that everyone who leaves school will be generally more intelligent in the 'real world'. Also it could result in people being more healthy, wealthy and happier. The downside to this is making it happen - likely to take a lot of effort.

Answer 6

Yes definately, being able to cook is a valuable asset and it is a skill that everybody should have, and learning about nutrition, balanced diet , costing and other aspects of catering can be useful in married life. Both my 2 sons and my 2 grandsons did home economics, and all 4 can cook with confidence and often do.

Answer 7

in an ideal society this would be learned at home along with s*x education.  but parents aren't living up to their responsibilities.  unfortunately this usually falls onto the schools to do.  i do think that both genders should have to take home ec either as part of their coursework or as a mandatory extra-curicullar activity (like drivers ed in most states).  sadly we have lots of young adults who can't cook, plan a menu, balance a checkbook much less care for a house.

Answer 8

I agree with the second post that everyone needs to learn these pragmatic skills, and not just young women.

I learned this stuff from my mother.  (I didn't have any sisters, so my brother and I learned the stuff; that's an advantage to me).  I wish I had learned, or taught myself to sew somewhere along the line.

Along these lines, I think a semester of basic auto shop should be in the curriculum.  I've saved many  a dollar just by being able to talk to a mechanic and by changing my own oil and plugs.

All that being said, however, I'm leery about stuffing more and more required subjects into the curriculum.  I think those subjects should be offered but not required, as they are now.  Of course, if it's not required, then it's not valued.  Aaaargh.

I don't have a better answer than that.  Sorry.