“Sometimes we take for granted that kids know how to wash dishes,” says Susan Turgeson, president of the Association of Teacher Educators for family and consumer sciences, according to NPR. People from previous generations may be dumbfounded by the fact that kids today lack some of the “basic” life skills, such as washing dishes, ironing, and cooking. Part of the issue can be traced back to the absence of home economic classes in schools.
Many schools, including Cannon Falls, now don’t have a home economics class due to staffing shortages, or budget cuts. “Their presence in schools are dwindling,” as seen in NPR. Only 6,000 of the 32,000 high schools in the United States have Home Economics classes, according to Salon.com. Schools have moved onto subjects to prepare their students for college, such as math, science, reading and writing. Cannon Falls schools are not the only schools that don’t have a home economics class, and because of that, students are suffering. Home Ec. may not seem like an important class, but it plays a beneficial role in students’ lives.
Kay Sabin was the home economics teacher at Cannon Falls from 1967 to 2000. She taught classes in six content areas: food and nutrition, clothing and textiles, housing and interior design, consumer economics, personal and family relationships, and child development. In the class, students learned how to do everyday tasks such as cook, do laundry, and sew. Sabin says; “All of my classes were very hands-on. I wanted to give my students real life experiences,”
Sabin said that she felt that her students benefited from having a home economics class. She commented that she had students share how their class helped them. Whether it seems that learning nutrition helped an athlete perform better, or how a former student was able to become a better parent because they took a child development class, “One of the benefits of being in a school for a long time is you have students who come back and share with you what they learned,” she commented.
Though a home economics class may not be present in most schools anymore, some of the curriculum is still taught through other classes. Nutrition is taught in health class, and it is a state law that all students must take a consumer economics class. Sabin says “Schools are trying to fill in some gaps.” Nevertheless, much of the information that was previously taught in a home economics class has been absent, which has an impact on today’s youth.
Sabin believes that all students could be assisted by having a home economics class. She says that she wishes that the class would be added back into the curriculum at Cannon Falls. Some students also wish that they had a home economics class. Isla Harrison says; “I think that having a home ec class would be so much fun. I’d be very interested in the subject,”
Ultimately, some people would love to see home economics being taught in more schools, but in some cases lack of staff and other components contribute to the issue of why schools don’t offer that class. Lastly, Sabin noted; “I definitely felt that the students benefited. Of course curriculum has changed over the years but the focus is still on family life, wellness and career preparation.”
