Interesting post on The Kitchn. Should home ec have a comeback in public schools? I say yes! I had really rudimentary home ec in middle school. I remember making an omelet, but that's about it.
I'm not really confident that kids these days (I can't believe those three words just came together in my mind...oh dear) know how to do anything close to cooking a healthy meal. They know how to microwave. They know how to order a combo meal.
I think it is crucial for every kid to learn how to make basic meals and exercise creativity while using their hands (baking, sewing, folkcraft, etc). I think it's also important to find out how your food reaches your table, how to make choices about what you should eat, how to grow plants, how to budget.
I was lucky enough to have a large set of grandparents. I would spend at least one day each week, usually, learning how to make something with a grandparent, whether it was a simple soup, a rag rug, an experiment on the sewing machine, biscotti, a casserole, etc. I was around food. A lot. My mom didn't cook, which was also a catalyst for learning. I was making omelets way before middle school home ec.
My grandma was a teacher and for a while she used the old home ec room. One of my fondest memories was using that hour between when classes were over and she could leave to dig through the debris of the fabric closets in her class and fashioning outfits for my stuffed animals. Remember that? I'll never forget it.
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You are absolutely right. I didn't have home-ec nor did I have grandmothers who taught me how to do any of the things you learned. It's one of the main reasons why I still haven't learned how to cook a healthy meal that tastes good and I'm almost 30. Thank God for Dusty, he knows how to. :) In a way, things like this are becoming a dying art....of all the people I know only a small handful know how to sew, knit, or be creative with food. Ok, I just went off on a tangent, I just wanted to say that I agree 100%.
By the way: Dusty was the most creative one of all of us when it came to the stuffed animal outfits. Me, Josh, and Cody would always try to copy him. He made the most incredible hats. With brims. They were really something.
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