How many teens do you know that can plan and prepare a nutritious meal…maybe a handful? Of those, who can also clean up after themselves — including the spaghetti sauce stain on the oven mit? Even fewer, right?
Add to that understanding the economy of earning, saving, and spending wisely; as well as the basics in home maintenance, and we’re pretty much down to zero.
But before condemning the deficiencies of our young adults, we should recognize a growing gap in their education.
Cooking, cleaning, maintaining your home and paying your bills are basic survival skills that everyone needs to know, and it was not long ago that they were imparted through a comprehensive course called home economics (home ec). Home ec was a hands-on class where students learned fairly important things — like how to cook without burning down the house, enough sewing to get by, managing personal finances and parenting — in essence, “adulting 101.”
You won’t see home ec in your high school or college course selection these days, however; so how are kids supposed to learn these essential life skills?
The rise and fall of home ec
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Traditionally, such knowledge was passed down from parents (mainly the mother) to their children. But with the spread of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s and women joining the workforce, household management became a science to be taught in school — and not just grade school.
With The Morrill Act in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln ensured the establishment of land-grant colleges across the country, laying the foundation for our public university system today. Aimed at providing higher education to a broader segment of the population, these schools offered both academic and practical courses, and were open to women.
Pioneers like Catherine Beecher — an early advocate for women’s education, and Ellen Swallow Richards — the first woman to graduate from MIT, were instrumental in developing the course that would impart all the skills necessary for efficiently running a household.
Home ec was offered at various stages of education, including colleges and universities. It covered essential topics such as food and nutrition, child rearing and development, housekeeping, balancing a budget and more. Although it was initially geared toward women, a changing social and political environment led to its broader appeal, and home ec eventually became a required course for all students.
Thus, busy, working parents were relieved of much of the burden of preparing their children for real life. Yet, although it enjoyed widespread popularity for some time, several factors brought about the decline of home economics, and it was eventually dropped from the classroom.
First, the cold war placed budget constraints on universities, which overwhelmingly opted to defund the social arts in favor of science and technology. At the same time, the phenomenon of pre-packaged, convenience foods emerged, making home-cooking seem outdated and unnecessary.
Then, despite the important part home ec played in enriching educational and professional possibilities for women, the course was demonized during the feminist movement for reinforcing traditional gender roles. This put the nail in the coffin for home ec courses at colleges and universities.
The economic recession in the 1980s brought additional budget cuts, and academic focus in high schools shifted to preparing students for college. With a growing emphasis on STEM courses and standardized testing over practical life skills, a valuable course — fundamental to functioning adulthood — was gradually pushed out of public schools altogether.
Picking up the pieces
Regardless of social and political trends, people will always need to know how to take care of themselves and manage their lives. A generation of young adults who struggle to do that will find it even harder to teach the next generation skills that they never learned, which could have a crippling effect on society as a whole.
Poor time management, debt, and unkept homes are just the beginning. One study made a strong tie between the absence of home ec and our ongoing obesity epidemic, stressing that understanding food preparation and nutrition is essential for promoting healthy eating habits.
Fortunately, what has disappeared in name survived in essence, albeit fragmented.
Circumventing the sexist stigma attached to home ec, the American Home Economics Association (AHEA) formally changed their name to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) in 1994.
FCS attempts to be more user-friendly and inclusive, offering a variety of practical courses in financial literacy, career education, and consumer family and life skills. These can be taken as electives in high school or college, and potentially lead to promising career paths. But, as per the nature of electives, one needs to choose them, and you may or may not get the ones you choose.
The comprehensive package is missing.
For instance, a teen may learn a great deal about nutrition in health, but not know how to tell when chicken is fully cooked; perhaps they become versed in the culinary arts, but remain woefully deficient in managing their finances; or they they may master micro and macroeconomics without knowing how to take care of a child.
In short, the classes are too specific to impart the broad range of practical knowledge that young adults need to function efficiently. This is not to knock our educational system. The things students take away from school today are impressive and laudable; but for taking care of the home and family, perhaps some of that needs to be reabsorbed in the home, by the family.
Back to tradition
We may not be any less busy than the bread-winning home-makers of the 1800s, but we can find time for our children. Whether you were fortunate enough to take home ec in school, had capable and attentive parents, or had to figure it out through trial and error, be sure to pass your knowledge on to your own children. See to it that they participate in the tasks that make your home life pleasant and efficient.
Of course, students already shouldering a tremendous workload intended to prepare them for college may resist the idea of any new constraints on their time, so take it slow.
Make a checklist of life skills that you want them to have, find out which ones they are learning in the classroom, and focus on those that aren’t covered. If there’s something you feel deficient in, throw that in as well and you can learn it together.
You course curriculum could look something like this:
- Cooking: Cover the sanitary handling of food, safe use of appliances, cooking from scratch following a recipe, and how to substitute ingredients when necessary. Teach them how to orchestrate the timing for various parts of a meal, and instill clean-as-you-go habits.
- Home maintenance: Besides general housekeeping, go over all the little things that make your home run smoothly — like fixing the flapper on a running toilet, tightening the screws on a loose chair, cleaning the filters on an air conditioner, and putting out garbage on the right day.
- Laundry: It may be second nature to you, but sorting, settings, stain removal, hand-washing delicates, drying, folding, and putting away can be intimidating to the uninitiated.
- Sewing: A fully functional adult should know how to replace a lost button and hem a pair of pants if necessary. If you have a sewing machine, sons will benefit from knowing how to use it just as much as daughters.
- Finances: Go over the bills with your child — let them see how your paycheck gets whittled away and how you manage to save money. They may finally understand why it is better to put on a sweater than crank up the heat.
- Shopping: Take your kids with you when you shop for groceries. Explain what you look for, why, and where to find it. If you have a young driver, let them exercise their new skills by making a solo run.
- Car: Boys and girls alike should know how to change a tire, check the oil, and replace fluids.
- Lawn and garden: Outdoor space is a treasure, but make sure they understand there’s more to it than pleasure. Weeding, raking, composting, and watering are all part of the package.
Take the time to talk to your teen and you may be pleasantly surprised to find them actually embracing these life lessons. If you’re home for spring break, consider offering them a crash course in home ec!
