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Thursday, September 12, 2019

Is home economics still taught in school?

I've been sitting on this article for quite awhile and also one of the articles that seemed to have been well read on this blog involved home economics. When I was in high school - GO FALCONS - in lieu of such a class I had to do a unit on "consumer education" to be taught for example in a social  studies class like psychology. And with due respect to my teacher at the time I had little clue about what we're supposed to be learning in such a unit, especially if it's one we needed to graduate.

Either way I heard from my division teacher at the time that home economics was considered obsolete and it's funny that this article from last year talks about it. We need it now more than ever:
Every semester I have a week of "math lab" in my college reporting class. The words strike fear in my students. Their eyes roll back in their heads, they foam at the mouth, they sputter the words, "But I'm a liberal arts major."

It's not that bad, really. We cover things like what property tax changes mean for their rent, how interest rates affect their car or credit card payments, and how a 5 percent raise affects their paychecks.

We seldom get past property taxes before they start realizing that if they own property, they will pay property taxes forever. And it always surprises me that they don't already know this.

It's a failing of our educational system that students don't leave high school with this basic understanding, among other things.

That's why we need to bring back the old home economics class. Call it "Skills for Life" and make it mandatory in high schools. Teach basic economics along with budgeting, comparison shopping, basic cooking skills and time management. Give them a better start in real life than they get now.

How cool would it be if our kids knew how to shop for groceries and stay within a budget? Wouldn't parents feel a sense of relief if their kids understood how interest accrues on their credit cards? And shouldn't everyone have one great go-to meal they could cook if guests pop in?

These are the skills we learned in high school home economics, the skills all kids should have, whether they are college bound or heading straight into the workforce.


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