Family and Consumer Sciences

[crisi]

We've often bemoaned around here kids not getting "taught" the things they need to be successful. My son started middle school and gets "Family and Consumer Sciences" - which used to be home ec.

This year, as a sixth grader, he'll get ten weeks to cover basic life skills. They have to do LAUNDRY. Mend. Sew buttons, make muffins from scratch. Learn basic housekeeping. And complete the red cross babysitting curriculum. (He's such a boy - "I'm not looking forward to SEWING" - this from a kid who can crochet - just not where any of his friends might see him).

As a seventh and eighth grader, he'll get ten weeks each, much more focused on the consumer sciences part. Budgeting. Credit card interest. Life choices (like career selection). But expanding on the home part as well (menu plannning, pantry management).

So at least some kids are forced to sit through it - whether they retain it is another battle. I'll let you guys know how the year goes. We have my son make dinner once a week or so because about a year ago he asked me how to boil water and I was ashamed he couldn't do that much for himself. He can already sort laundry and fold - a little. We will see.....

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

we also have this as a 6th grader. but my ds doesn't have it until 3rd quarter so i have no idea what is all included. he is excited about the cooking prospect.

 

[tlbwriter]

I wish I had been forced to take home ec/FACS when I was in school. I really needed those skills!!!

 

[PaulaSue]

Our 6th grade does this as well as 3 other classes they rotate out though the year.

 

[eliza61]

Glad to hear it. Even with all my dh and I think we drummed into their sweet little heads, every once in a while (ok, maybe more. lol) my kids still act as if they have a money tree growing in their back yards.

I also have "testosterone" males, last year when my oldest was trying to figure out what he might want to pursue in college, I suggested nursing. He looked at me like I had spoken Icelandic to him and replied... "mom, nursing is for girls" grrrrrr.

My youngest is in h.s. and they offer home economics as an elective but that's it.

 

[njmom47]

My daughter, a high school senior, has Independent Living which teaches them about finances (ex: how to manage a checking account), how to pay bills, renting an apartment (not that she'll ever move out )...I am so excited because they do need a reality check. I don't recall them having a class like that in middle school, but yay, I'm all for it!

 

[*BTMRR*]

That sounds like a great curriculum, if it's carried out correctly.

When I was in middle school back in the 80s we had a year of home ec + shop. We learned how to sew a pillow and a shirt, bake cookies, and then build a wooden racecar.
Your son's curriculum sounds MUCH more useful for actual daily life!

 

[GoofyGolferGirl]

I love the idea of teaching kids these things!!! I wish our school had these classes. Everybody needs to know about balancing a checkbook and interest etc. Our economy may not be in this shape.

 

[Pigeon]

I think these are things parents should be teaching their kids, not the schools. My kids have to take it in jr. high and it's nothing they don't know.

 

[drcmk]

I think these are things parents should be teaching their kids, not the schools. My kids have to take it in jr. high and it's nothing they don't know.

I agree that it is my job to teach those things to my kids. But it can't hurt to have the school reinforce it and give my kids a little different perspective. Plus, it helps everyone in the community for all students to know these things. Remember public school students are not just our offspring. They are also our future employees, public servants and neighbors.

 

[robsmom]

I geuss that I am going to be the voice of dissent. I think that our education system is falling behind because we spend too much time on the extras and not enough time on the basics. My son had home economics for a quarter and focused on sewing - made an apron. green and white check, not even remotely gender neutral. This year I think it would have been cooking but he switched shcools. he also had woodshop. I think these curriculums were designed in a different day and age. Kids need life skills - but as a parent I can teach this to my kid. I think that the crafts are important and potential careers but by dabbling our kids into a bunch of things we don't prepare them for anything. I do think we need to push the basics to a point and then start dividing students by their interests. We should have many more kids in vocational programs rather than push them into college prep and then graduate them without practical skills. We should also have many more performing and fine arts high schools to support those talents. On the other hand we should have college prep students getting much more math and science and a whole lot less of the arts and craftsman skills.

 

[hambirg]

I think it's good. I was just telling my DD15 I'm surprised they didn't offer Foods in middle school for her. She found out she can take it in high school as a zero hour period. That might have to do with her being in IB. I think other kids can take it during the regular school day. I took Foods and Sewing in jr. high. I think they were both really worthwhile, but the best class I ever took was Business Math in high school. It was an elective and wasn't even on my radar, but my Dad insisted on me taking it. He was a high school business ed. teacher. We learned to balance a checkbook (but strangely not how to reconcile), about compound interest, and the best, ALL about percentages. I use that almost everyday. . .think doing the quick mental math as to how much an additional 60% of the 30% off clearance price is. I was in a department store with my kids once and the clearance was 50% off original, and an additional 50% off. There was a lady that actually got excited because she thought everything was free. I did explain to her that everything was 75% off. We were just talking about Groupon on another board. People think they are getting 50% off when the buy a $50 GC for $25, but if the cheapest service available is $100, you are really only getting a 25% discount. This is important stuff and unfortunately a lot of people don't get it.

 

[hambirg]

I geuss that I am going to be the voice of dissent. I think that our education system is falling behind because we spend too much time on the extras and not enough time on the basics. My son had home economics for a quarter and focused on sewing - made an apron. green and white check, not even remotely gender neutral. This year I think it would have been cooking but he switched shcools. he also had woodshop. I think these curriculums were designed in a different day and age. Kids need life skills - but as a parent I can teach this to my kid. I think that the crafts are important and potential careers but by dabbling our kids into a bunch of things we don't prepare them for anything. I do think we need to push the basics to a point and then start dividing students by their interests. We should have many more kids in vocational programs rather than push them into college prep and then graduate them without practical skills. We should also have many more performing and fine arts high schools to support those talents. On the other hand we should have college prep students getting much more math and science and a whole lot less of the arts and craftsman skills.

I understand what you're saying, but it isn't just about making an apron. He learned to cut a pattern, operate a sewing machine and most likely how to do some basic seams and hemming. I regret not taking shop in school. . .it was either Foods and Sewing or Wood and Metal shop. I don't care that I didn't get to make a little car or birdhouse, but I wish that I had some basic wood shop skills. Sadly I don't. There are pros and cons to the tract system. I do think that we should be teaching kids that there is nothing wrong with forgoing the college prep route and pursuing a vocational path. Not everybody wants to be a doctor or a lawyer, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a mechanic or a plumber. But I do think we should teach ALL students at least some basic life skills. . .especially when it comes to money. Not all parents have the time or the know how to teach their kids everything. I used to teach in an inner city school, and sadly the only thing some kids will learn from their parents is how to shoplift, sell food stamps and roll blunts.

 

[crisi]

I don't know that we don't spend enough time on the basics. Some of my daughters class gets FOUR HOURS of math every day in fifth grade. Others get four hours of reading.

And while I teach my kids these things, its pretty obvious that a lot of people don't learn these things from their parents - and that hurts us all. Its a shame when people have to learn how to eat well from school, or about puberty, or how to budget - but for many kids their parents don't teach them - either because they don't know, they don't care, or they assume these skills are acquired via osmosis.

These life skills things ARE the basics. How to feed yourself needs to come even before the parts of a sentence. We are a society drowning in the medical costs related to obesity where people don't know how to cook if it doesn't come in a prepackaged box.

 

[Leajess99]

Our kids get FACS but they don't learn how to cook or do laundry. They do learn budgeting and such. I can honestly say that while I took Home ec it did nothing for me. I learned what I needed from my mom and even though she is great at sewing, I suck at it. I never took shop but if I need to make something I can figure it out or I know where to ask for help. Everyone is different and while I find it okay to teach kids about budgeting and such, I don't agree with the schools having to teach them how to do laundry.

 

[Ava]

When I was in middle school back in the 80s we had a year of home ec + shop. We learned how to sew a pillow and a shirt, bake cookies, and then build a wooden racecar.
Your son's curriculum sounds MUCH more useful for actual daily life!

I had the same thing in middle school in the early '90s. The home ec part was divided into a sewing course & a cooking course, but I don't remember learning anything REALLY useful in either area. In 6th grade sewing, we made cross stitch bookmarks. Pretty, but not a very useful skill. We didn't sew on a machine until 8th grade, and then we made a pillow. Never learned to sew clothing that I can remember. In the cooking course all I remember was baking cookies.

I actually think it would be most helpful to kids to have a home ec course be mandatory in high school as well, along with the "Independent Living" course that a PP mentioned - now that sounds like a very useful curriculum!

 

[crisi]

One of the things I like is that they are teaching mending, not sewing. I can sew - but its far more expensive to sew most things than to just buy it - and the things where it isn't you have to be a really good seamstress - which I am not. But mending is a different matter. Throwing out clothes because you can't mend up a ripped seam of reattach a button is a waste.

We will see what they get in shop. If its similar, it will be things like home repair and basic tool use rather than metal shop. I'd really have rather learned how to change my oil than how to make a metal napkin holder.....

 

[robsmom]

One of the things I like is that they are teaching mending, not sewing. I can sew - but its far more expensive to sew most things than to just buy it - and the things where it isn't you have to be a really good seamstress - which I am not. But mending is a different matter. Throwing out clothes because you can't mend up a ripped seam of reattach a button is a waste.

We will see what they get in shop. If its similar, it will be things like home repair and basic tool use rather than metal shop. I'd really have rather learned how to change my oil than how to make a metal napkin holder.....

This I can agree with. If they had taught my son how to hem a pair of pants or iron and dress shirt it might be practical. A home improvement class that covered basic repairs, basic plubming, etc would be much better than wood shop or metal shop.

 

[branv]

I still remember that our senior year we were required to take Economics (not home economics, mind you). We learned about GDP, the treasury, yadda yadda, but not one single thing about personal economics. It strikes me that they easily could have incorporated immediately applicable things like basic taxes (returns, etc), savings/investments, how credit cards work (interest), loans, credit scores, etc. Is individual consumer economics not as important a part of big E - economics as a general overview of the system at large? It still makes no sense to me.

Which reminds me of something DH just told me. He works for a company in the computer industry. They hired a new guy in their lab who had just graduated with an EE degree (electrical engineering). They needed to put together a system to test out some things, and asked the guy to do it. He admitted he a) didn't know how to put a basic system together and b) had never soldered before. DH was just like . He and the older guys in the lab see it pretty consistently now: kids showing up with a computer and engineering degrees completely comprised of theoretical knowledge, without any hands-on skills. More and more I think colleges should have internships as a requirement of their degree plan.

 

[drcmk]

I geuss that I am going to be the voice of dissent. . . . I think these curriculums were designed in a different day and age. . . . I think that the crafts are important and potential careers but by dabbling our kids into a bunch of things we don't prepare them for anything. We should also have many more performing and fine arts high schools to support those talents.

Feel free to dissent. I am glad you expressed your opinion and got a discussion going.

I agree that there are some old-fashioned home ec/shop courses out there that need to be revamped. (I personally learned to make a ring by soldering a penny to a strip of sheet metal that I cut in 7th grade--not useful). But I really like the idea of schools teaching basic budgeting, banking, responsible home ownership, nutrition, etc. On a daily basis someone on the budget board posts a horror story about a grown-up who doesn't have these skills and is inconveniencing themselves and others as a result.

I also think Jr. Hi/middle school is a pretty good place to dabble. These courses may be exposing kids to subjects that they aren't familiar with because their parents don't sew/cook/woodwork/etc and may thereby be creating a career option for them that they would have never recognized otherwise.

I'm not opposed to creative/performing arts schools, but I'm not sure we need more of them. Many more students will develop a career or improve their daily lives by learning what used to be home ec/shop skills than in the arts. Many more people work in trades or the food industry than on Broadway.