Home Management: Buying Food

 

[VIDEO] I wonder how many generations of home economics students watch this film in a classroom. When I was in high school one of my teachers stated that home economics were obsolete. The only thing I knew about home ec. is that a classmate was bragging on a taco he made and ate in class.

I wonder how many students have no clue about how to efficiently use their funds. Sometimes I'm not as smart with my money, however, I'm learning. One thing that would be very important about home ec. is certainly personal finance.

Perhaps part of home ec. if you ever teach about this in school is to show them how to manage your funds when you're in college. In real life outside of a college campus you have to manage your funds to pay other bills such as rent/mortgage, utilities, car notes, etc.

Of course as this video states part of personal finance is to avoid impulse buying of foods. Buy items that you're not likely to waste later. And especially consider the quality of the foods you're buying.

BTW, in lieu of home ec. we had a unit in "consumer education" which would often be taught within a social studies course (yes I'm talking about the 1990s I don't know what they do in 2021). To be fair our teacher at Harlan - Go Falcons - a man by the name of Mr. Ross at Harlan who taught my psychology class did the best he could with what we're supposed to learn, however, it just went over my head to be honest.

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.

Buzzfeed: Could You Pass A 1954 Home Economics Class?

 When I was in high school, a teacher mentioned that home economics was considered obsolete. I suspect it was replaced in favor of consumer education which was a unit in most social studies or business classes. Never really saw the point and wasn't taught very well when it was taught in a psychology class back in those days.

With this buzzfeed quiz, I learn more about home economics. It seems as much how to take care of the items at home, how to cook, and then other is more social ettiquette. Now that I see this I can't believe it was taught in school.

Having taken this quiz I only got 3 out of 19 right. How well can you do?

BTW, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.