How the Fast Food Industry Destroyed "Home Ec" to Hook Americans on Processed Crap

[SoCalDem]

http://www.alternet.org/how-fast-food-industry-destroyed-home-ec-hook-americans-processed-crap

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)

How the Fast Food Industry Destroyed "Home Ec" to Hook Americans on Processed Crap
October 16, 2013 |



The following piece first appeared on Mother Jones. [3]For more great content from Mother Jones Magazine, click here to subscribe. [4]

I was a rotten high school student, a shirker and smart-ass of the first rank. I even found myself purged from a typing class for bad behavior—an event I regret to this precise moment, since touch-typing is obviously a convenient skill for someone in my profession. Afterward, I had to choose another "elective." Naturally, I seized upon home economics—in which, I hoped, I'd spend my time amusing girls with wisecracks and whipping up desserts from boxed mixes. If memory serves, that's exactly how it played out—especially the bit about the just-add-water confections. Mmmm, instant cake. In other words, I retained just as much from my home ec class as I did from my failed stint as a student of the keyboard: which is to say, nothing. Yet Ruth Graham's recent Boston Globe essay "Bring back home ec! The case for a revival of the most retro class in school" [5]strikes me as spot on. Graham isn't talking about the home ec of my misspent '80s youth, nor that of quaint stereotypes featuring "visions of future homemakers quietly whisking white sauce or stitching rickrack onto an apron."

She means a revitalized, contemporary home economics for all genders, one capable of at least exposing youth to basic skills that so many adults (i.e., their parents) lack: "to shop intelligently, cook healthily, [and] manage money." And I think such a reimagined home ec should move from the shadowy margins it now occupies—the field has been rebranded as "Family and Consumer Science," Graham reports—and become mandatory for all high school kids, and—why not?—even elementary school ones.

snip

The convenience food industry that's so powerful and entrenched today was just taking root in the 1950s. And as it began to aggressively market its products to a growing US middle class, it "faced one real obstacle," Moss writes: the "army of school teachers and federal outreach workers who insisted on promoting home-cooked meals, prepared the old fashioned way." Home ec teachers explicitly battled against the industry's claims of convenience, Moss shows. In 1957, he writes, the American Home Economics Association conducted a demo pitting a commercial cake mix against a homemade batter, Moss reports. "As reported in the association's journal, the homemade cake not only cost less and tasted better, it took only five more minutes to prepare, cook, and serve." Plus the batter could be made in advance and stored, "for quick parceling out when a cake was needed." Home-ec teachers also schooled their charges in frugal shopping, teaching them to "avoid buying things they didn't need."

snip

[Champion Jack]

1. Thanks for posting this

[fitman]

43. Home Ec disappeared because more women entered the work force

Processed foods came about as a result of both parents working and it's easier to come home and throw a package in the microwave or go out and eat..and more disposable income.

Same for the men..most HS's today no longer have a wood or metal shop..those jobs have been offshored overseas.

[KurtNYC]

72. The same percentage of students take Home Ec today as in 1959

More than 5 million students were enrolled in secondary FCS education programs in the 2002-03 academic year, the study found, or about 25% of all students, almost the same percentage cited in a 1959 Department of Health, Education and Welfare study.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/26/food/la-fo-homeec-20100826

The article's title is not backed up by facts. It is fun to think that things were much better when we were kids and that some evil burger-seller with a clown costume made us all into cretin with high blood sugar but the truth is Home Ec is alive, more people eat at home today than ever and food is cheaper and more plentiful than at any time in history.

We are living in the golden age of health food and much of the boom is driven by INCREASES in consumer demand:

- Sales of organic food have increased at least 10% every ever since 2004. Sales of $11 billion in 2004 have increased to $27 billion last year.
- More than 60 organic farms have been started in just one county in New York over the last 10 years.
- Chipotle, formerly owned by McDonald's, is an industry trend setter partnering with local food producers to offer customers the fresh, local, humane and organic food they demand.

[Drale]

100. I took both culinary arts classes my High School offered

and in Jr. High part of the gym rotation was 6 weeks every year in a traditional Home Ec class.

[leftstreet]

111. +1

Thanks for posting that article

No one will hear you though. Much more fun to grouse about the bad behavior of the working classes!

[Lifelong Protester]

113. That video always makes me cry

but thanks for posting it again.

And I hope that the pendulum is swinging back to 'real food'.... it is at our house.

[KurtNYC]

116. me too. It's the song I think

Great use of that song -- the irony and sarcasm of the lyric under the images of "Beef-ish".

And that cow's eyes.

[xfundy]

135. That's an ad campaign and it's still factory food

Look for the asterisks * on the website. "*When available."

It's a masterful ad, very well done, but it's still cranking out "food" as a factory.

[KurtNYC]

149. I'm going to give them credit for talking the talk even while they

have a bit to go before they completely 'walk the walk.'

"We're making these serious issues more approachable to people who are pretty new to them," Arnold said. As such, he said, the new initiative "isn't a tool to drive people to our restaurants; we have advertising and local marketing for that. This is an initiative about bigger-picture values."

They are making progress but this is a huge transition in terms of supply chain.

Chipotle transitioned from purchasing 10–15 percent of seasonally available produce from farms to 75 percent in some markets.
...
Chipotle, with its “Food with Integrity” slogan, is the highest profile company spearheading the pro-farm movement. The company’s annual Boorito fundraiser at Halloween supports Farm Aid and the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, which lends a hand to family farming operations. In October, the company threw a festival in Chicago, “Cultivate Chicago,” that raised awareness for small farms. And the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation earned media attention late last year with two short films that spotlighted the struggles of small-farm operators.

“What we have seen over the years is certainly a huge consolidation among family farms,” says Chris Arnold, director of communications for Chipotle Mexican Grill. He says industrial farming undercuts small farms and leads to 300 families leaving their farms every week.
...
For starters, operators can streamline their supply chain to limit the distance ingredients travel to get to stores. Complex farm-to-market supply chains reap profits for large food processors, but prove detrimental to small-farm operators. A 2010 USDA study, “Comparing the Structure, Size, and Performance of Local and Mainstream Food Supply Chains,” concludes that shorter supply chains increase a family farmer’s income.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/ingredients-dayparts/case-sourcing-locally

I know a couple local small farmers who are trying to get into Chipotle's supply chain.

[xfundy]

133. No.

Both parents working came about as a result of Raygun. Look it up.

[Liberal_in_LA]

134. it hasnt totally disappeared. the folks who manage dorm kitchens, nutritionists . the profession

exists different form

[xchrom]

2. du rec.

[Niceguy1]

3. with both parents

Working cooking dinner is often hard to do...homework, after school activities, etc., 10 hr work days

Having a stay at home parent did have it's advantages.

[Demeter]

5. There are days when I don't have the strength to eat

let alone the strength to cook. Even fast food.

We need a new (or return to) sustainable social life. Jobs that pay enough in an hour so that there's some life after work: time for food, family, fun, life.

[Stargazer09]

11. This +1000

Work should not be all there is to life.

[fitman]

48. If I was dictator

I would close up all non essential business on Sunday..let families reconnect and have fun together. Everyone can still do their shopping the other 6 days.

Macy's and JC Penny just announced they are going to be open on Thanksgiving..just pisses me off...Wal mart started all this crap.

Jeesh let families be able to get together

[SoCalDem]

54. Kansas had blue-laws & everything WAS closed on Sundays

of course back then there were NO fast food places anyway..

stores closed at 5:30 pm..banks at 3pm (bankers' hours)

We all manged to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves. have shoes & all the essentials of life

[fitman]

58. I grew up as a teen in the 70's

and that is how it was..and yes we all got by...I do like stores being open late today though but I would still close up everything on Sunday if I had the power...keep the other 6 days just as they are now.

[joeglow3]

59. Why do Macy's and Jc Penney piss you off

Don't shop there on thanksgiving. Problem solved.

[fitman]

61. Oh C'mon

They don't have to be open on Thanksgiving-no reason whatsoever....allow the poor employees to be with their families and friends..

Is one day closed really going to hurt these two stores?

Just another step of going back to 1900's style slave labor..

[joeglow3]

63. The sad things is the public demands it

Remember when all car dealerships were closed on Sunday? I am 36 and I don't. NPR had a good piece on this.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

68. Unless I'm mistaken, car dealerships in Chicago are still closed on Sundays.

This works to the advantage of car dealerships who want to put pressure on customers during Saturdays to "close the deal" or they will miss out on getting a car that they want.

[Freddie]

101. Same in PA

I understand it's a "gentleman's agreement" that all car dealerships are closed on Sundays and holidays. They know if one of them opened, they all eventually would.
I can see convenience stores open on major holidays like Thanksgiving but that's all. There should be a law that any retail open on such days should pay their employees time and a half on those days.

[CrispyQ]

105. "...the public demands it." Bingo.

From back during Occupy:

[gopiscrap]

126. they piss me off because they are big business

and big business is designed fuck over people, part people from their money in anyway possible.

[kestrel91316]

138. I lived in Utah in the early 70s when they passed just such a law

to make sure no one had an alternative to going to church (meaning the LDS church).

You can take your Christianity-favoring authoritarian plans and stuff them.

[fitman]

142. I am an athiest and you are wound way too tight

I have not gone to church in 20 years.. Does not have to be Sunday..make it a Saturday or how about Friday OK..Would that be ok for you then?

Jeesh..no one is going to be forcing you to go back to church..the country is becoming more secular every year and is going to do so..not the other way around.

But anyway Sunday would be the best day regardless...it just fits..Saturday is usually home repair day, automotive oil change day, shop for wedding gift day and that is the day most people need stores to be open.

[kestrel91316]

156. There is nothing to stop people from taking a day off consumerism all on their own.

We don't need jackboots to force us to do it.

[enlightenment]

78. Balance and regulation.

Share Our Wealth Proposal

Cap personal fortunes at $50 million each — equivalent to about $600 million today (later reduced to $5 - $8 million, or $60 - $96 million today)
Limit annual income to one million dollars each (about $12 million today)
Limit inheritances to five million dollars each (about $60 million today)
Guarantee every family an annual income of $2,000 (or one-third the national average)
Free college education and vocational training
Old-age pensions for all persons over 60
Veterans benefits and healthcare
A 30 hour work week
A four week vacation for every worker
Greater regulation of commodity production to stabilize prices

Huey Long
http://www.hueylong.com/programs/share-our-wealth.php

[missingthebigdog]

106. I'm with you

I think we need a "lifestyle contraction."

We need to stop focusing so much on getting more, getting ahead, getting stuff; and focus instead on having ENOUGH. I am trying very hard to see things from that perspective right now. Expanding my business would bring in more money, but would take away the time that I have to enjoy that income.

We are programmed from an early age that more is better. People who do just enough to get by are seen as lazy or unmotivated. Perhaps some are, but for others, maybe they have embraced the concept of ENOUGH.

[Le Taz Hot]

28. This is why the goddess made crockpots/slow cookers.

Here are two of my favorite crockpot recipes:

Bar-b-que chicken:
Place cut-up fryer into crock pot.
Pour a 1/2 bottle of bar-b-que sauce over chicken.
Cover and turn crock pot on low.
Done in 8-10 hours.



Pot Roast:
Seer roast in hot skillet on all sides.
Place in crock pot
Take one packet of Lipton onion soup mix and add to crock pot.
Pour about a 1/2 cup water in.
Turn crockpot on low and cook for 8-10 hours.

Sides could be a baked potato cooked in the microwave and canned or frozen veggies, also heated in the microwave. ALL of this can be done in 15 minutes or less which is less time than it will take you to find your keys, go out to your car, drive to the fast food place, place your order, pay for and receive your order and drive home.

[Hestia]

38. +1 Taz

[Barack_America]

67. Yep. And don't forget the glorious casserole.

Make it the night before, keep it in the fridge and have a kid or caregiver pop it in the oven.

Those cooked and ready grocery store rotisserie chickens can be a great value too. Pick up some fresh veggies while you're there.

It's amazing how much money a family can save with a little meal planning. Not to mention the nutritional value of cooking at home.

[Le Taz Hot]

74. Ah, the beloved casserole.

Made one yesterday as a matter of fact. A while back I was going to make enchiladas, looked at all the ingredients and thought, "Why the hell am I rolling each individual enchilada?" Layer." Voila! Enchilada casserole was born in the LTH household.

Another favorite my husband LOVES: Tuna/Noodle Casserole. Two packages Macaroni & Cheese, 2 cans drained tuna, 1 can drained peas. Cook Macaroni and cheese following instructions on the box. When done, mix in tuna and peas. Done.

The rotisserie chicken is a great bargain -- literally cheaper than you can make it in most cases.

[Barack_America]

81. It'll be spinach & artichoke lasagne for us tonight.

Which is basically a sauce with veggie broth, Alfredo sauce, frozen spinach, cut up artichoke hearts & rosemary layered with noodles, mozzarella and feta cheese. Tasty and makes the house smell fantastic.

[Le Taz Hot]

97. That sounds delicious!

I've been thinking about this topic and it dawned on me that nobody had brought up making your own TV dinners. Basically, when you do have a chance to cook, whatever it is, cook a LOT of it and freeze it. I used to do that when I was in college and working full time.

[SoCalDem]

98. It's the solution for people who get home late

and in one day off, you can make a lot of yummy stuff..

My aunt had her own business & every Sunday (her day off) she would make roast beef/pork roast/meatballs/baked chicken..and other favorites.. portion them out ans then they only had to add a veggie & salad..

I do the same.. Our "tv dinners" are waaaay better than Banquet

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3878167

[Le Taz Hot]

99. Cool link!

Bookmarked.

[xmas74]

146. 15 crock pot meals prepped in one day

http://www.mamainspired.com/2013/01/mass-crock-pot-dinners.html

[Le Taz Hot]

148. THIS is genius!

I've pinned it to my Windows 8 Screen (since I haven't been able to find "Favorites" yet -- everything important is on my opening screen now). Probably only about $200.00 worth of groceries on that list as well if you shop sales. Honestly, you should post this in the Cooking and Baking Group on DU (if you haven't already). There are some incredible cooks in there who are a GREAT source of knowledge and I know they'd be interested in this.

[xmas74]

150. I found another the other day that was

40 meals but I don't know what happened to the link. They were two different articles from different sites.

Have you looked at some of the once a month cooking?

[Le Taz Hot]

151. No but I will now!

Thanks for the heads-up and thanks for the above link.

[xmas74]

154. Not a problem.

Ever look at budget 101?

http://www.budget101.com/

There is a link for recipes, which is ok, but the reason to look on the site is for mixes. Click on the link for mixes-it has everything from myo ranch dressing to Bisquick.

[SoCalDem]

157. I still have & use my old "Make-A-Mix" cookbooks from the 70's

You can buy them cheap online at ebay & other bookstores online.

I bought a set for each of my kids..

[xmas74]

168. I love make a mix!

I had a few from rummage sales and really loved them. The site I linked had even more suggestions.

I use old glass jars from leftover condiments for some of my mixes-I just scrub them really good a couple of times. (Unless it needs a better seal, of course, then I'll use some of my old 70's Tupperware) I recover the lids with fabric or decoupage or whathaveyou (I just did a few with blackboard paint), fill them up and then store them away for use. The jars look so pretty you could put them out for display! And it's nice knowing what's in the mixes.

I have a couple of cake mixes in my cupboard right now, along with some ranch dressing mix, an Italian dressing mix, a Jiffy cornbread knockoff, some bean mixes and some pancake mix. I have a huge gallon jar of Missouri mix in my fridge right now and it works just as well as Bisquick for much less.

[csziggy]

158. That's the best justification I have ever seen for a Food Saver!

Since I will have one hand in a brace for two months after surgery in two weeks, I am thinking of setting some of these up ahead of time.

[SoCalDem]

163. I love my food saver.. It's also great when shipping things

if things are squishable you can save postage by getting them into a smaller box

[csziggy]

165. I'll try the crockpot recipes with Ziplocks

If they work for me, I'll think about a Food Saver.

[SoCalDem]

167. One tip with food savers

Flash-Freeze what you plan to store BEFORE you food-saver it.. the liquid extracted make a big mess.. Just frozen stuff works great because the liquid does not ooze out as the vacuum does its thing

[xmas74]

166. She said you don't have to have a food saver.

You could use zip lock gallon freezer bags. The difference is that while they'll last about 4 months-6 at the most-with a zip lock but with a vacuum bag they'll last up to a year in the freezer.

Also look up once a month cooking. There are tons of ideas that you could do, especially if you have no problems with going to the Dollar Tree and buying some of the disposable aluminum trays and such. (I soak and reuse them, usually saving them for a pot luck.)

[csziggy]

169. I've done a lot of cook ahead and prep ahead cooking

Usually what I do is cook larger quantities and freeze 2/3 to 1/2 of it for use later. With just two of us, it makes it more economical in terms of time and money. And when we were running the farm, I had to cook on easy days so we'd be able to eat on hectic ones.

Since 2001 I've had to cook ahead before each of my surgeries so my husband could handle working, helping me cope, and getting meals.

But I do like the linked article on planning a lot of meals ahead and processing them all at once. I realized that I will not be able to do it for this surgery - my freezer is already pretty full so there is not much room left to pack away the complete meals. I might go ahead a get the raw vegetables, process them and freeze them on trays so they will be easy to separate, then use some of my already frozen meats to make packs of stuff for meals.

[gollygee]

4. Very interesting

Thanks for finding and posting this.

[distantearlywarning]

6. Really interesting article.

Thanks for posting this!

[annabanana]

7. Could not agree more! Also, Can we get Civics classes back?

Let's equip our kids to live well, safely and as good citizens!

[CrispyQ]

107. But if we teach them the value of government, then they might actually want government!

And a functioning government at that!

I was stunned with someone told me they don't teach civics anymore.

[RebelOne]

160. I took civics when I was in 9th grade.

I passed and I don't know why because it bored me. Now I wish I had paid more attention in class.

[SoCalDem]

164. way-back-when, the text books were quite boring

and some teachers did their best to make it even more boring

In my high school we had one semester of "government" and then one of "civics". Being a junior in 1966, we were quite interested because of Viet Nam

[SunSeeker]

8. My kid needs this class. I need this class.

I can't imagine a more useful class to teach middle school kids. I wish I had it when I was a kid.

[SoCalDem]

10. Iam always amazed that some people don't know how to cook or

are afraid to cook.

My friend called me one day, desperate because she did not have a cake mix & she needed a cake.. she asked if I would bake one for her..

I asked her:

do you have 2 eggs? flour? sugar? vanilla? butter? baking soda?

I told her.. You HAVE a cake..

It was the best cake she ever had & she was proud as anything.. She did not have cocoa for the icing, but she did have frozen strawberries & some cool whip for the icing..

I read her the measurements over the phone & she was amazed at how easy it really was

[SunSeeker]

14. My mom was a single mom who worked two jobs.

Me and my brother ate cereal for breakfast and Chef Boyardee for dinner. Thank God we qualified for free school lunches. It was my best meal of the day.

[SoCalDem]

18. Aaw..How dreary for you guys.. BUT It's never too late to learn

There are some super easy things (and tasty) that you can make on the weekend, portion them out/freeze & eat like royalty during the week..

[mountain grammy]

32. oh that hurts...

as a single mom working two jobs (during the "wonderful" Reagan years) with two growing boys, it was hard to put good meals on the table. "Scrambled eggs again?" my boys would whine. Neither will eat eggs to this day.. I'm sure they loved their free school lunches too

But I forced them both to take typing, something they've always thanked me for.

[LiberalLoner]

35. Bless you for all you did for your family during hard times

You hold your head up with pride, you did good.

Scrambled eggs are one of the healthiest foods in the world. You did good.

[closeupready]

75. Gosh, yes - I'm middle class (barely), and I eat scrambled eggs

every other night - well, or in the form of some kind of omelette, and I always look forward to it.

Now, the reconstituted from dehydrated scrambled eggs ... THOSE make me barf.

[tabbycat31]

162. There was a period where I had eggs for dinner almost daily

And to this day, I will only eat them in cooking.

[fitman]

50. My wife does not cook

if she does it's right out of the 70's,,tater tots, Mrs Pauls Fish patties or Dinty Moore stew.

I do all the cooking in the house. I never cooked until I met her and found out quick that if I did not learn I would starve..actually love to cook now...like it so much if I could go back in time I would have become a chef.

[SunSeeker]

92. Sigh. Your wife is a lucky woman.

[SoCalDem]

94. If cooking was left to my husband, we would eat nothing but

toasted cheese sandwiches (burned) and campbells soup

[SunSeeker]

95. LOL. Sounds like my "cooking." nt

[politicat]

121. I can't imagine what we would eat.

My partner has partial anosmia (very diminished sense of smell and taste.) I'm a super-taster, so therefore very picky.

Cooking is my job, though he does chop all the onions and the peppers -- one of the few flavors he can taste, and the hotter the better -- and cleans the kitchen and does the dishes. It works out.

[Codeine]

47. The first time my fiancée made a cake from

scratch rather than a box she was amazed by how much improvement resulted from so little extra effort. Now she can make a cake or a batch of cupcakes - vegan, no less - in her sleep.

[SheilaT]

108. Thanks for that story.

It's genuinely sad how few people realize that cooking things from scratch is vastly easier than they realize. The time difference between baking a cake from scratch and one from a mix is perhaps five minutes and well worth it.

I love to bake, and since I live alone I bring my baked goods to work to share. It's obvious how many of my co-workers have never had a cake, cookie, or brownie not from a mix. The mixes have a distinct chemical taste that is lacking in the real thing.

I just hope your friend keeps on baking.

[SoCalDem]

110. She was the youngest of 8 and was always shooed out of the kitchen

Not surprisingly, she never learned to cook. She married young, to a man 16 years older and HE loved to cook, so until she was divorced and in her 40's she cooked very little. She's getting more adventurous..and she can bake a cake from scratch now

[kentauros]

41. I wanted to take it as a kid in the late 70s.

However, while boys weren't forbidden from taking the class, it was pretty well known by most of us as just for the girls. These days, I'd define it as "wife-training" because of the focus on "cooking, cleaning, sewing, and daycare."

I had to learn cooking, cleaning, and sewing in the Boy Scouts and at home. It would have been nice to have had some kind of "Life Training" type of classes back then. Teach kids how to do their taxes, how to live alone and still live comfortably. I had to teach myself most of my cooking and baking skills. But I do wonder what my life would have been like had I been given the opportunity to learn those skills a decade earlier.

[Eleanors38]

49. Home Ec was ditched at the same time when "shop" classes were thrown out. Stupid.

[Liberal_in_LA]

128. when i took home ec it was mandatory gender separation . home ec for girls

Shop for boys

[Eleanors38]

130. We had a girl in our "shop" class, c.1964!

[Liberal_in_LA]

132. not allowed until about 1972 in my calif school

[Eleanors38]

136. Well, I grew up in that cultural utopia everyone in DU loves: Florida.

[csziggy]

161. I grew up in Florida and had a different experience

See my post below.

[csziggy]

159. Yes - and my Mom fought against it for her four college bound daughters

Shop was not mandatory for boys while Home Ec was for girls, so college bound girls could take one less class to prepare for college. They did change the rules - after the last of her daughters had left high school.

They did add a two week "swap" the year I took Home Ec - boys learned to wash dishes, boil eggs, sew on buttons, and iron shirts from the Home Ec teacher. Girls learned to hammer nails, use a hand saw, and rewire a toaster and lamp from the shop teacher. Girls did NOT get to use any power tools which was an immense disappointment to me.

On the other hand, I wanted to take drafting, but girls were not allowed to take it. Go figure.

[Catherine Vincent]

9. Great article

I've always wondered if classes like home economics and body shop were still around. When I was in school, I could never get in because of its popularity and by the time I entered high school, it was available but I wasn't interested by that time. Home Ec (not bodyshop) was considered an easy class for extra credits.

[Downwinder]

45. I was the only boy in 4-H cooking and sewing.

The cooking never really took but I have used the sewing a lot.

[MattBaggins]

12. Oh man you hit on one of my favorite topics

I remember school in the 80s where we were still taught how compounded interest works, how to avoid deceptive advertising and fraud.

Can you imagine how much the insurance industries would scream and rant if you taught kids the difference between term and whole life insurance and why it is stupid to get anything other than term?

Lots of industries that prey on people have paid billions to dumb down our schools.

[missingthebigdog]

103. Exactly! Home Ec is not all about cooking and sewing!

It is Home ECONOMICS.

My progressive Home Ec teacher taught us how to do taxes, how to fill out job applications, how to create a budget, and how to calculate cost per ounce so that you could compare prices (we didn't have the benefit of shelf tags that gave us that information when I was young). Also to sew buttonholes and make Quiche.

It was the most valuable class I took in my childhood. As a result, I have NEVER paid someone to do my taxes, and have a healthy skepticism for anything someone is trying to sell me.

We get nostalgic about home cooking and sewing, but that isn't the part of the program that benefits kids the most. The economic training is essential to survive- now more than ever.

[cali]

13. I agree. and yes, start it in elementary school

and throw in gardening.

I never took Home EC. And even in the late 60, early 70's it wasn't offered where I went to school. I'm glad I didn't need it. My mother never used a cake mix, we had a vegetable garden and orchard.

Teaching kids nutrition, real cooking and some basic gardening skills is a no brainer.

[SoCalDem]

16. I am so proud of my son & d-i-l.. Their little baby has NEVER had anything to eat

that did not come from Momma or their garden.. A cheapo baby food mill bought at a garage sale, and a clever old cookbook I bought online has made babyfood unnecessary for them.. and she enjoys making it for our granddaughter.. Friends drop off excess or interesting veggies they grew too.. It only takes them about an hour a week to prepare & freeze her meals

I also stocked them up on unbleached organic cotton diapers from a place in Vermont

I LOVE the internet

[PennyK]

15. I agree completely

My two daughters, in their twenties, had Home Ec in their middle and high schools (Wantagh, Long Island) and it sounded as though the classes were very popular. And even though they are both very busy with work, they both cook on a regular basis. I like to think that I set a good example for them there.
I think that eating real food is the most important thing people can do for their health. And the yummiest!

[malaise]

17. I absolutely loved my home-ec classes

My paternal grandma and her first daughter and mom taught me a lot about cooking, baking and preserving but often when I'm cooking or baking I recall those home-ec classes.
Many of my colleagues are amazed that I actually love cooking and baking, but I always tell them that you only know what you're eating when you cook your own food.

My best friend from childhood always tells our other friends that I can cook something healthy from very little,

[SoCalDem]

19. and it's usually faster too.. I can put a balanced meal on the table

in less than 20 minutes... My husband is always amused when I come up with a meal in such a hurry.. I remind him that I have over a half century of experience

[malaise]

24. The other day some really good friends telephoned us and said they

were here for a few days and in our neck of the woods. We told them to come on over. I was planning to bake later than Sunday so butter was already melted. I whipped up some cinnamon, walnut and raisin cup cakes, while hubby seasoned some 3/4lb yellow tail snappers (most fish thaw in fifteen minutes in tap water). We baked some new potatoes, tossed up a salad, and brown stewed the snapper with onions, tomatoes, spinach and parsley (from our garden) and celery.

That's home-ec 101 talking there - we had a grand time and finished a few bottles of white wine.

[SoCalDem]

29. I want that cupcake recipe.. sounds yummy :)

I'll pass on the fish

[malaise]

85. LOL

Enjoy

[SoCalDem]

88. I ate so much fish as a KID (Lived in Panama). I just don't like it much now

Except for broiled lobster & shrimp cocktail

[malaise]

89. We eat more fish than anything else

and it's mostly yellow tail snapper.
I love shrimp but it's expensive and I only like fresh shrimp. I like lobster but don't go out of my way to buy it. It's relatively cheap here - in season.

[SoCalDem]

93. Those are our annual Las Vegas splurges

As a kid, we were always on some damned pier at 3 AM or on some smelly boat fishing for BIG fish..Corbina..sword..you name it and then we would eat fish fish fish..and of course the obligatory greasy stringy wild boar cooked in a hole in the ground..ugh !!

When I was about 8 or 9, I was almost dragged off the boat when I hooked something that weighed 75 lbs

[malaise]

102. Well I can see why you had enough fish

I never hooked a big fish in my life.

Is there anywhere on the planet where folks don't love wild boar? That's where jerk pork started.

[BlueToTheBone]

20. I started cooking when I was about 4 or 5

my mother would drag a chair up to the cabinet and I would prepare things. By the time I was 12 I was cooking for a family of 7. Yikes! I learned to bake bread and made several loaves a week. To this day, my younger sister feels she was cheated by not getting to eat wonder bread.

[SoCalDem]

21. I usually made french bread because for me it was easier

and sliced thin, it was just as good as anything.. My boys never had storebought bread until they visited Grandma on their own

My cinnamon rolls are waaaay better than Cinnabon too..and I think they sold our house on day one of the listing.. I made BIG pan of cinnamon rolls & had an urn of coffee & had a sign that said Help yourself.. We had an offer within 3 hours of the open house

[BlueToTheBone]

27. I had a Sally Lunn bread recipe

and only learned how to put them in the pans. Of course at the time I was just a kid and that was one of my "chores."

[malaise]

25. LOL

A friend's sister recently delivered her mother's remembrance and talked about her mother's home made bread and her wish to eat some wonder bread until she grew up and realized her mom did them a favor.

[BlueToTheBone]

30. Mine, not so much

she told me the story with a great deal of sadness.

[Hestia]

42. I learned to bake young too - my dad wanted/demanded homemade biscuits for breakfast so mom would

drag me out of bed early before school and have me fix and bake them while she cooked the rest of breakfast. That was one thing she absolutely insisted on - a real breakfast before we went to school. It may only be oatmeal and some toast or cream of wheat (mmm) but she made sure we were fed.

[duffyduff]

22. This is just ridiculous garbage, little more than quackery.

Nobody bakes from scratch because nobody has time for it.

The processed food industry isn't the "villain" despite this pseudo-hippie garbage article. It is the change in the economy in general that laid the groundwork for it.

"Home economics" was for girls and women--NOT for men--but changes in women's status thanks to economic changes in our society was the major reason it went by the wayside.

I would also add that the emphasis of schools from vocational ed to college prep was also a huge factor.

The author of the article is a moron.

[cali]

31. Are you kidding? I've NEVER NOT baked from scratch. Never.

Not when I was in college Not when I was working full time. Not when I was working full time as a single mom with a little kid. Not now when I'm disabled.

My mother with four kids and a busy life outside of that always cooked everything from scratch.

I know lots of women like me.

I think I know who the moron here is. And it's not the author of this piece.

[Codeine]

51. Baking from scratch takes only a bit longer

than baking from a box. Banging some flour, baking powder, sugar, a pinch of salt, some oil and some water into a bowl takes maybe two minutes more than dumping a box of pancake batter into a bowl with water and results in a great, tasty Saturday breakfast for my family.

My fiancée makes scratch cakes as fast as she ever made boxed mix cakes. Brownies and cinnamon rolls also take just a few minutes more.

[kentauros]

52. I'll have to tell my tongue that the homemade, french-braid bread currently in my mouth

that I made last night doesn't actually exist because I didn't have the time to form and bake it about an hour and a half before I went to bed.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

I like this book, and while I have professional training in baking and pastry, this concept saves so much time, energy, and makes it easy to motivate me to bake more.

But, keep thinking that no one else has time to bake anything from scratch. You might also want to stay away from the Cooking & Baking group on DU. They're a fierce bunch when their skills and abilities are challenged like this.

[fredamae]

71. I Always bake from scratch!

Things like: Blackberry Pudding-Zuch Bread, Zuch Pizza, Plum Crisps, Choc cakes, Apple Cake, Old Fashioned White, Breads, Cookies, Muscle Bread-Grow a very small garden & preserve veggies, Berries, winter/summer squashes, salads/beans/spuds/onions/peppers/carrots/toms/caul/broc/peas and so on...
Why? Because its great exercise, mentally therapeutic, satisfying outdoor Fun-and for a brief moment in time while its producing? My garden produce tastes great!

[GreenPartyVoter]

123. Our Home Ec and Senior Seminar were invaluable.

We learned basic cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Senior Seminar, taught by the Home Ec and Business teachers, gave us flour sack babies and lessons on preparing a household budget and how to balance a checkbook. These are things that are not being taught in many schools any more, and are not always addressed at home either. Both boys and girls would benefit from those life lessons.

[xfundy]

137. Argle!

Bargle! Damn kids today! ARGLEBARGLE!

If you've never tried to make real food, from scratch, instead of accepting the CRAP that is processed "food," you ought to try it. I tried baking a cake from scratch and it beat the hell out of the premixed ones.

Oh, if it wasn't for them damn hippies, which are everywhere today!

And how dare them wimmins not stay in their place! ARGLEBARGLEBABYJESUSISMADARGLE!

[xmas74]

147. I bake from scratch every week.

I have three loaves of bread rising on the counter right now and cinnamon rolls. It's cheaper and healthier.

I also make my own cake mixes from scratch and store them in the cupboard. All they need is a few wet ingredients and I'm ready to go.

For the record: I'm a single mother who works long hours for low pay. I want to feed my child something healthy yet low price. I can make a loaf of bread for about $0.50, so it's a heck of a money saver. I get up on Saturday morning, start a pot of coffee and start making everything that needs to rise asap. While it's rising I clean and do laundry. I bake it off and the house smells wonderful, plus I've saved money. Leftover bread from the last week is turned into French toast for Saturday breakfast and the rest is cubed for croutons or prepped for bread crumbs. That takes just a few minutes to prep.

Oh, and a crock pot is heaven-sent. I use it constantly during the week. I follow a couple of once a month cooking sites for ideas, make my crock pot kits for the freezer and pull them out either the night before to defrost or that a.m. (Depends on the recipe.) I add the kit to the crock pot, turn it on low and come home that evening to an already prepared meal.

I ran into my old home ec teacher about seven years ago. I mentioned my love of crock pots. She thoroughly approved and said that she thought it was the better appliance for working families to own than even a microwave.

[mainer]

23. I hate to say it, but the women's movement might have destroyed home ec

I was in high school in the 70's, when budding feminists turned their noses up at the domestic arts, and boys wouldn't dare set foot in a home ec class because it was for girls. Home ec was for housewives and girls who wanted their MRS degrees, and it was almost a point of pride for girls to say they couldn't cook, because they would much rather bring home the bacon.

The result is a generation of young women who are helpless in their own kitchens.

My son was one of the first boys in his high school to take home ec -- yeah, partly because he thought it would be a breeze. Soon after, he began cooking our meals and briefly entertained ideas of being a chef. Now he's married and knows his way around a kitchen.

Yes, we need to bring back home ec, for BOTH sexes. And btw, I think girls should take auto shop too.

[SoCalDem]

26. and drivers' ed too

I was appalled to find out that schools no longer had it when our kids needed it. It;s very obvious on the roads these days too

Perhaps these classes need to be renamed.. Just call them Life Classes

[knightmaar]

40. Really?

Do you think it really likely that feminists would make women *less* independent?

That seems a little off-mission doesn't it?

"Sure, you'll have a career and we'll try to rebalance gender disparities, but you'll still need to get married because you need a man to do the cooking for you."

Probably not the case. For myself, I took home-ec and shop (industrial studies, I think?), so I least I can make a kick ass french toast.

[Jesus Malverde]

141. From the article referenced in the op.

By the 1960s and 1970s, however, once-revolutionary ideas about sanitation and nutrition had become conventional wisdom. Home economists, including teachers, had also become hopelessly entangled with the interests of food and appliance companies, promoting convenience foods and consumerism in the classroom. And as the women’s movement picked up steam and women moved increasingly into the workplace, the notion of teaching girls to cook and sew while boys hammered on wooden tie racks came to seem not just old-fashioned, but reactionary. When activist Robin Morgan addressed the American Home Economics Association in 1972, she said, “As a radical feminist, I am here addressing the enemy,” and accused home ec classes of producing young women who were “a limp, jibbering mass of jelly waiting for marriage.” She might have been the most colorful critic, but she was far from the only one.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/12/bring-back-home/EJJi9yzjgJfNMqxWUIEDgO/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

[fitman]

55. Spot on A++++++++

n/t

[treestar]

65. In my junior high girls had to take home ec and boys had to take shop

I was in the last class under that regime, The next year, they opened both classes to both genders. A very few girls took shop and a bunch of boys took home ec. This was in the middle 70s. The feminist movement to me just opened up the class to both, which is ideal. We didn't have boys terrified to take home ec, a few did and laughed about it, but I still have a memory of a guy getting to leave algebra to take his cookies out of the oven in the home ec room!

[GreenPartyVoter]

124. In mine we were all required to take both. This was in the 80s.

[treestar]

171. Very forward thinking school

[mainer]

114. Where did dI say we'd be better off without the women's movement?

I'm just saying it made all things domestic seem beneath us, and we ended up throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I went to medical school thanks to the women's movement. But I also learned how to cook, thanks to home ec.

[Tikki]

33. I could write a book on this subject..The woman who was my Home Ec. teacher was kind in a way..

maybe few will understand.

She packed in as much instruction to all the class as she literally could.

She was strict in ways but we learned to cook a nutritious meal, change a light bulb, write
a check and keep a budget, clean a toilet, iron, especially sheets (who does that anymore), sew a dress, turn
off a water main valve, what tools a housewife should keep on hand, kitchen safety with some
first aid, how to diaper a baby..she even taught a bit about pet care. The list could go on and on.

Now here's the thing..please don't assume every student has a chance to learn all of the above in
their parents's home..Many do not.

These skills I learned from my Home Ec. teacher erased so much of the anxiety I had as part of a young
couple just starting out a life together.

I champion Home Economics or Life Skills as an important part of education.

Tikki

[mainer]

34. What I remember about Mom was her cooking

and she was a wonderful cook.

For many of us, memories of our mothers are all wrapped up in meals and kitchen smells, and this is what is passed down through generations. We savor old recipes from grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and we talk about who made the best tamales or the best desserts.

How sad that this will no longer be true for so many future generations.

[SoCalDem]

37. Amen to that.. Fond memories of family dishes will be gone..and replaced by

a bucket of KFC on the counter or a pizza box

My grandmother died when I was 12 and every year I make her sugar cookie recipe..and her fudge recipe when I can stand the humiliation ..and when I can find her ancient candy thermometer

[Hestia]

46. My favorite from childhood is apricot fried pies - it is an art that I cannot master all these

years later. Believe me I have tried. I can't ever get them done or too much baking powder or something. You can't find anywhere that knows how to make them.

[Codeine]

56. I'm not sure exactly what an apricot fried pie is

but I know that just hearing the name makes me want one!

[SoCalDem]

57. Me too.. My grown son sometimes shows us with a bag of peaches..

I know what he wants...

My homemade peach cobbler

[Hestia]

80. They are marvelous - also apple, chocolate, whatever fruit you like

The skill is in the cooking of them. You make them in an iron skillet in shallow grease/Crisco but I can't seem to get them done on the inside.

[SoCalDem]

60. They were probably made with lard

and I think baking powder has changed somehow over the years..

[Hestia]

77. No they were made with Crisco before they changed to soy instead of corn

I think that has made a big difference in the "new and improved" Crisco.

[SoCalDem]

82. You are right.. our crisco is nothing like it used to be

[LiberalLoner]

39. +1

[Hestia]

36. Agree wholeheartedly - Home Ec for me was cooking from scratch and sewing

(Though my grandmother and mother had already taught me scratch baking.) A friends mother lives in Minnesota and works at the food bank once a week. They give out dried pinto beans and the mother said most everyone brings them back because they do not know how to prepare them. I understand if you are homeless, it is impossible to set a pot of beans to soak and then cook but if you have utilities on for a kitchen, there is really no excuse for cheap, nutritious meal. Add some onion and garlic to give a bit of flavor.

We were taught how to balance the family checkbook, grocery shop for the best values (along with name brand vs. store brand) and other life skills. It is definitely needed.

[knightmaar]

44. Kitchen Ignorance is Brutal

There's no question that my life through university was one in which I carefully avoided the kitchen. Sure, I'd taken home ec and could do a great job of breakfast, but the whole thing with sauces, meats, vegetables, rice and spices was like some kind of arcane dark art. (Add a counterclockwise stir after every seven clockwise stirs.)

I was fortunate enough to meet one or two people who showed me how to make simple spaghetti sauces. Later, I met a woman who actually knew a lot on the subject and I learned a tonne of things from her. At this point, I'm brave enough to try new things in the kitchen.

But the guy in university? Scared of the kitchen. He could make a sandwich.

I'm trying to imbue my children (both boys, if it matters) with greater comfort in the kitchen, so they won't just freeze up and order pizza like I used to. Fortunately, the woman mentioned above is their mother, so there's a good chance they won't turn out like the university version of me.

[Eleanors38]

64. 4 sons in our family. We know how to cook thanks to Mom (and a little Dad).

Just finished off a venison (self-harvested) meat loaf, and a pot of "Jewish penicillin" (chicken soup). Had veniburgers over the grill last week.

Though at my age I probably shouldn't, I fry my own chicken and make my own mashed potatoes. But I do miss freshly-harvested peas (there's a difference between N. Florida and Central Texas).

[riderinthestorm]

53. My daughters' friends are amazed that I cook from scratch every day

NONE of them have parents who cook.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

62. Boys should take Home Ec and girls should take shop (metal or wood). Both should take both.

There is a great need for teaching children hands on creation and fabrication. I'm not talking about hands-on in new New NEW math or whatever it is called these days (the "method is more important than right answers" nonsense), though I'm all for exploration in math. Nor science labs.

Too much stuff is thrown out instead of being repaired and re-used or altered and repurposed.

Too few children these days learn basic life skills, especially those cooped up in urban apartments.
Too many children learn a hideously wasteful "toss it" way of life.

As a male, l learned some basic sewing and cooking from my mother. I'm glad of it, using cooking skills daily and sewing infrequently (repairs mostly). I had a woodworking class. Later in life I taught myself auto mechanics. I fixed a friend's printer three weeks ago by replacing a blown $1.25 capacitor (guided by online searches), saving them $120 for a replacement printer and keeping a chunk of waste out of landfills and the waste stream.

[AnneD]

117. They did exactly that....

at my Mom's high school. Mom stayed at home until we reached high school. She may not have brought money home, but she grew an acre kitchen garden, canned, reupholstered dad's truck, did minor plumbing, wiring, and car repair. She had us helping out in the kitchen at an early age (I could cook a complete breakfast by 7.)

In high school, she wanted me to take home ec. While I did want to learn the sewing part, I already did everything else. In fact I was cooking dinner when she started working. Our argument went something like this....
Why don't you take home ec.
Why should I, all they do there is burn biscuits and how to set the table if an ambassador comes to dinner.
Well, it is good to know how to cook.
Mom, who makes the grocery list and cooks dinner-you do
Who picks up the house and tends the other kids-you do
And don't you think if an ambassador came to dinner that I would have enough smarts to call a caterer.
At that point she laughed, gave up and let me take my science and chemistry classes.

But she set a great example for me. I do all my minor plumbing, minor car repairs, bake from scratch when I find time, always have a kitchen herb garden and a small patio garden, laid tile, repaired a washer, repair my vacuum cleaner, reupholstered chairs, painted the house inside and out, repaired and replaced screens, windows. I even do a minor amount of sewing. Now, an ambassador has never come to my house but I could set the table, cook the meal, and come up with an interesting group of dinner guests.

[KurtNYC]

66. Nothing in the article backs up that headline.

Original MJ title was "Why Home Economics Should Be Mandatory" and that was more honest and fitting for the content of this article.

Home Ec became "FCS" (everywhere but California) in the mid-1980s as part of the effort to transcend the stereotype that the courses were simply to make girls into housewives. It hasn't been "destroyed" and general Mills is convenience food, not 'fast food'.

The number of secondary school students who take FSC classes has not substantially changed since the late 1950s, according to a 2004 national survey conducted by the National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Education.

More than 5 million students were enrolled in secondary FCS education programs in the 2002-03 academic year, the study found, or about 25% of all students, almost the same percentage cited in a 1959 Department of Health, Education and Welfare study.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/26/food/la-fo-homeec-20100826

[knightmaar]

70. They didn't necessarily remove the classes

The food industry "sponsored" the instead. From the article:

... and then by "sponsoring candidates for the organization's top leadership posts, candidates who would bring a decidedly pro-industrial view to home economics."

And that is how home ec became the piece-of-instant-cake elective that I so idly enjoyed in the '80s.

[KurtNYC]

79. it doesn't add up though

the writer says there was 'an army of educators and associations' but then says they were all crushed by $227K donated to ONE association. Not to the schools or directly toward the cost of Home Ec (aka FCS) classes themselves.

Organic food is bigger than ever. And LOCAL organic is the hottest trend in food today. Sales of organic food grows at about 11% annually, easily the fastest growing sector of foods.

There has been an explosion of cooking contests across the USA over the last ten years. Also in the number of cooking classes offered to adults and children.

Raw, vegan, and vegetarian diets are all making gains in the number of people who practice them.

[jeff47]

69. We need "basic life skills" classes

We should be teaching our kids some of the basic skills they will need. And all students should take it.

- "Home EC", aka cooking and budgeting. Aside from producing better food for less money, they'll also be able to figure out just how much that "no money down" deal will cost them.
- Basic home maintenance - have the students maintain a nearby elderly person's home so they learn how to do simple "handyman" stuff. Learn some of the basics of how a house is put together so that they can maintain their future homes - and know when they really need a pro.
- Basic car maintenance - learn to change oil, change a tire. And again, the basics of how a car works so that they know when they really need a pro.
- First aid and CPR

Every single high school student should go through this class, because it provides skills they will use every single day, no matter what their career.

[SoCalDem]

73. 6 lbs of ground beef & 6 chicken breasts

6 lbs of ground beef & 6 chicken breasts

Lots of people say they cannot cook or do not have time…or they can eat fast food cheaper

Here’s a list of multiple meals from the above main ingredients

I feed 2 (but of course these can be easily increased for family size)

#1
The obvious hamburgers (1 lb) served with store bought potato salad, & some grapes (or other fruit)

#2
1 lb for spaghetti sauce..( I have gotten lazy & use prego with added spaghetti seasoning)
(at least 4 servings)

#3
2 lbs + 1 minced onion+ 2 eggs + stale bread (food processor) (more bread/more meatloaf)
Served with green beans/small salad/baked potato/baked apple w/cinnamon
Fresh from the oven + multiple cold meatloaf sandwiches …) I usually freeze it because we get tired of it and don’t want to throw it out.. freezes well

#4
2 lb + 1 large diced onion + 2 large cans of tomatoes (mooshed up) + 1 med can of tomato sauce + 3 small cans of kidney beans (or beans you prefer) + 3 bay leaves + chili powder to taste
Makes a LOT of pretty darned tasty chili.. I usually end up freezing the leftovers

#5
Cook all chicken breasts (the ones with skin and ribs..take cut the bones out) (don;t throw them out)
Olive oil..brown well and sprinkle with Salad Supreme (all sides)
Serve on a bed of rice + broccoli + sliced oranges

#6
Use a food processor/chopped to shred 2 chicken breasts
Add 4 celery stalks (diced finely) + 1 small minced onion+ salad supreme to taste + mayo to get the consistence you like…refrigerate & prepare to have the best chicken salad ever
I serve it on squaw bread with lettuce & paper thin sliced tomato w/salt & pepper
Makes a LOT of sandwiches (at least 10-12)

#7
Remaining 2 cooked chicken breasts.. slice diagonally for chef salad with whatever you like in a big ole salad

These are ALL super easy and anyone can do it..

#8

I cook the chicken bones (skim away the icky stuff ,,I use a strainer) remove the chicken & pick off the meat (or add more later)
1 large onion-chopped 5 or 6 carrots.. 1 stick of butter 4 or 5 celery stalks cut up
and home made egg dumplings (a pile of flour/some salt & 2 eggs beaten.. prepare to get messy hands )..drop from a spoon into the chicken soup.. make a big pot of soup.. I usually freeze the bones until I have a decent supply of them and make soup whenevr the spirit moves me

*Salad Supreme is a McCormic spice & I have found it at Dollar General for a buck  It’s also wonderful to put on chopped potatoes + sliced onion cooked in olive oil (as you cook them)

[AtheistCrusader]

76. I learned the basics of cooking in Home Ec in the 90's.

I learned to sew too, a skill I maintain to this day. (My friends make fun of me sometimes, because I'm a guy, and then they ask me to fix shit. Who's laughing now?!)

I think of sewing just like welding, but with thread instead of molten steel. Both respectable craft-work.


I wonder if home ec has changed in my former schools, since I left?

[IronLionZion]

83. It always amazes me that people think cooking must be difficult or time consuming

It takes only a few minutes to skillet fry some fish with some asparagus and tomatoes with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and peanut oil. The whole thing can be finished in about 10 minutes.

Someone above mentioned the slow cooker which is perfect for those who think they can't cook, eat meat, and like food that tastes like its been cooking all day.

Its even easier for vegetarians since veggies cook very fast in the microwave, steamer, or oven roasted. And veggies with seeds are great raw too. Nothing beats bringing home fresh farmers market bounty and biting into a vine ripened tomato.

And to the raw food types, it can be quick and delicious to run veggies through a juicer and fruit through a blender and have nutrient-packed smoothie instead of fast food.

Home ec was great for learning the basics and not fearing the kitchen. It was required of everyone when I was in school.

[fadedrose]

86. God bless my Home Ec teachers...

Learning how to measure and read a recipe...terrific knowledge.

My oldest son was in the last classes of Home Ec and I recall him bringing hom a batch of chocolate chip cookies made and MIXED BY HAND in school. He's a good cook now - my younger ones learned at home but they never got the confidence that Bill has. I think that learning while having a good time with classmates makes a difference.

Even tho my mother sewed quite a bit, I went on to sew more than her. That was because of sewing class in 7th grade, where we had to walk to another school to get to class. We learned to read, cut a pattern, thread and use a sewing machine, iron, and take home our god-awful pajamas that I'm guessing we all wore. The boys were sent to a wood class or something - girls were excluded....

I made a lot of my own clothes, curtains and drapes, even leisure suits for my husband. Now my fingers and eyes and back can't take sewing on large scale, but the "kids" all bring their mending. I hope to make some caftans as soon as winter sets in and spend less time reading....

Thanks for this thread. Brings back good memories...

[bklyncowgirl]

87. I'd like to see mandatory classes on personal finance, cooking, home maintenance and basic car care.

Mandatory. Both genders all classes.

I first noticed this over 30 years ago when I took a group of kids out on a trail ride picnic. Most of them had never seen corn in the husk or had any idea that baked potatoes had to be washed. Apparently none of these kids, all from upper middle class families, had never seen food prepared from scratch.

Ideally, kids should learn this stuff from their parents, but let's face it, these simple life skills are often not passed down. Most parents have fairly limited knowledge or have strict ideas about what children of each gender need to know.

My husband's and I grew up in the 60s. My husband's mother was of the firm belief that boys did not need to learn to cook. His father thought that a woman working on a car was a joke. My parents were a bit more open. Once my mother went back to work, my Dad, who got off work early, did the cooking and I helped. He also taught me to change a tire and check the oil on the car and do simple electrical repairs around the house. To this day my husband is helpless in the kitchen though he has learned to do the dishes and laundry, much to my mother's horror, by the way.

The point of this is that ideally kids should be exposed to the full range of everyday stuff they'll need to know to survive in the real world.

There are plenty of villains here. The fast food and convenience food industries are just two. I'd add also a brand of feminism which demeaned traditional homemaking skills, the rise of the two job family--when both parents are working it's hard to take time to cook and the over scheduled child. When Mom's ferrying the kids from class to game to party to practice it's hard to find time to sit down and cook with them, much less to teach them to balance a checkbook or change the oil.

[SoCalDem]

90. As soon as my boys could reach the washing machine knobs

they were in charge of their own laundry..and they all cooked too..and did their own ironing

Their wives thank me now

[Barack_America]

91. With income inequality worsening, these are survival skills. Nt

[missingthebigdog]

104. Absolutely! nt

[kydo]

144. I agree these classes should be mandatory

All kids both genders.

Home Ec - shopping family budgeting taxes financial planning...
Cooking - How to cook plan healthy meals snacks the basics with food
Health and Nutrition - This what it says. Cpr, what to do in emergencies taking care baby classes, sex ed
Home maintenance - how to fix the basic things that break at home - sewing and ironing laundry cleaning
Motor Shop - Anything with a motor Engine maintenance, cars, lawn mowers anything in the garage learn who to fix it.

When I say fix it I mean basic things that really don't require taking your car in for a new transmission, things that came be done at home like just regular maintains how to change a tire.

[pansypoo53219]

96. my home ec class sucked.

luckily i had a grandma who had a settlement cookbook + good genes. i got those genes.

[CrispyQ]

109. In our school, girls had home ec & boys had shop.

One week the boys came to home ec & we taught them how to cook scrambled eggs & toast, how to sew on a button & other domestic tasks. However, there was not an exchange week for the girls, where we got to go to shop & learn how to use tools & stuff. I asked the teacher why we didn't get to go to shop & her answer was that "Shop is no place for girls." The budding feminist in me was always pissed off about that.

[SheilaT]

112. My mother, bless her, was a terrible cook.

She didn't particularly enjoy it, wasn't remotely creative, and needed to feed six kids. Plus she worked.

By the time I was five I could fix certain basics for myself, and as a teen did a fair amount of the family cooking. I wasn't a very good cook because I'd learned what little I knew from her, but over the years branched out, learned new stuff, got a little creative. It helps that I like to eat.

As so many others have already pointed out, cooking from scratch does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. Lots of recipes make things that freeze well, and sometimes all you then need to do is pull the frozen whatever from the freezer to the refrigerator in the morning, and it's good to heat up by the time you get home from work.

Bread machines are also a wonderful invention. I like to set up the bread in the evening before I go to bed, use the delay timer, and wake up to freshly baked bread. I've never done it by setting up in the morning and having it ready in the evening for supper, but that and a crock-pot would make a wonderful combination.

[MisterP]

115. gets you comfortable in the kitchen--and my middle school home ec teacher was the first to tell us

about the ranchers' leveling the Amazon for Mickey D's

[brer cat]

118. My granddaughter is taking Home Ec in middle school.

It is called something fancy now...family and consumer science I think. It is good for both genders to learn kitchen basics at least if not more demanding cooking.

[SoCalDem]

119. Cooking is chemistry, math and art

and tasty too

Ours was called Family Living (the high school version)..and included checkbook-y stuff, shopping, conflict resolution, etc.. It was a good class

[brer cat]

120. I taught my grands fractions

during our cooking sessions. It was a great way for them to learn...and yes, tasty too.

[TexasBushwhacker]

122. I think it's just part of the disappearance of electives

It's not just home economics and shop classes that have disappeared. Music and art programs are being dropped as well. Cost cutters have dropped as many electives as possible because they aren't reading, writing or math. They've cut PE requirements as well. All the focus on standardized test scores (and funneling money to the big businesses that write and grade the tests).

[GreenPartyVoter]

125. I agree. I think that is a huge part of it. Budget cuts, over-testing, and for

the college bound an ever longer list of required courses.

[alarimer]

127. I'm sorry. I like convenience

I'm not spending half my fucking life in the kitchen. I'm just not. And I'm not fat or out of shape. I just have better things to do than kitchen drudgery.

Nor am I spending it mowing the lawn. Or changing my own oil. I pay people to do that shit so I don't have to.

I eat what's convenient and easy for me. As a single person, it is a pain in the ass to cook for one. I don't really care to learn, any more than I care to learn violin.

Home ec was sexist crap. Good riddance.

[Liberal_in_LA]

129. great topic. home ec wasnt just food. curriculum included sewing, crafts, hygiene, social skills

We had a home ec book . Discussed all kinds of topics . How to bath properly, watched funny outdated films. Had to sew a shirt. Learned to use sewing machine and patterns

[jmowreader]

131. That's not what killed Home Ec

1. Home Ec costs a LOT to offer. It can't be a lecture class, it has to be a laboratory class, and the "lab" needs to have multiple home-style kitchens, lots of sewing machines and a really big classroom. (In the high school I attended, the only classroom that was bigger was for industrial arts and they have an 80,000-square-foot fully equipped metal shop.) Home Ec also runs up the utility bill, and the school district has to buy food for teaching purposes.

2. Because the classroom is so large, every time the school needs to offer a new class - computer science, say - the school board is going to wonder, really hard, if the kids can't just learn to cook at home.

3. And thanks to George W. Hoover's "all children left behind" initiative, there's no time to teach anything that isn't on the test. And last I checked, "how to make a pot roast" isn't on the test.

[WCIL]

139. I agree

when schools are cutting costs, these classes are among the first to go.

When I was in junior high in the late '70's, everyone took one quarter each of industrial arts, home economics, art, and consumer education - unless you were in band or orchestra, then you didn't take those courses. When our district went broke in the early '80's, there was no more home economics or consumer education, art was only available as an elective for students not on the "college track", and industrial arts/shop was only taught at the high school level on the "vocational track". Music only existed before school, and only because the music teachers taught for free in order for musical knowledge not to be lost.

[madrchsod]

140. back in the olden days.....

boys had to have at least 1 credit-one year in manual arts and the girls 1 credit-one year in home economics.

my wood shop teacher was a true psychopathic and my metals teacher was a perfectionist.

[LWolf]

143. I'd like

to take our schools back to serving meals prepared and cooked from fresh food on site, served on actual plates with actual eating utensils that get washed and re-used.

[MadrasT]

145. When I was in junior high (late 70s)

Home ec and shop were mandatory for 2 years and they were still gender segregated.

My mother had already taught me to cook and sew and balance a checkbook. I was shocked to learn that virtually no one else knew how to do those things and that there was a class in school to teach it. To me, that is stuff your parents teach you.

Biggest waste of time ever for me.

(My mom also taught me how to change a tire, patch drywall, and fix a leaking faucet. Mom was big on learning life skills, gender be damned.)

I was much more intereted in wood shop and metal shop but was not allowed to take them because no penis.



Later (after I moved on) my school made them mixed gender and home ec and shop were required for everybody in junior high. I don't know what they do now, if anything.

In high school I took 3 shop classes as electives (they had a different policy for electives in HS that for mandatory courses in jr high) and was the only girl in the class in each class.

Since it seems my situation was not normal and since I guess everybody's parents don't teach them how to cook, bake, and sew, it would be good to learn them in school... but no gender separation, please.

[bullimiami]

152. We had Bachelors Ed in HS back in the middle ages.

It was great.
We sewed and baked.
Im proud to be able to say I won the Betty Crocker award. Dont know if it was my blueberry pie or Hawaiian shirt that did it.

[Zorra]

153. Could not agree more ~ Rec for Home Ec. nt

[jwirr]

155. From my experience since the early 40s I remember my mother going shopping and saying, "it's

cheaper than I can make for scratch or canning." As the years passed it's faster was added after my mother started working out of the home. So the answer is cheaper and faster was the line they sold.

[Jamaal510]

170. I remember watching an episode

of Cow and Chicken when I was 6 years old, where someone was talking about home EC., and at the time, I was thinking 'WTF is home ec.?' At least when I was going to school in the late 90s through 2008, there was never anything like that, so I thought that was some make-believe class from TV.