Should Home-Ec be a class again is a question being asked as the idea of bringing Home-Ec classes back into schools. These classes are important and should be taught in schools because they teach students about the basic life skills, as well as home management skills they will need as they go into adulthood.
Home-Ec helps develop many basic life skills like cooking, budgeting and even sewing. It offers skills and lessons that normal classes like math, science or history do not have.
“You learn a lot of valuable skills in a home economics class that applies to real life and I feel like a lot of students have a need or desire to learn about things that can help them in their daily lives outside of school or outside of academics,” history teacher Abigail Yates said.
Home-Ec classes provide these sources needed to learn the skills. It offers more in depth lessons in the life skills students need going into adulthood. The basic required classes do not provide what Home-Ec does.
A class like Home-Ec is beneficial for high schoolers especially since their so close to being adults. The lessons these classes provide can help students feel prepared to enter adulthood.
“Home-Ec can benefit students as they are growing up because it teaches about things that people would do in their daily lives inside and outside of work life” Yates said.
This class teaches skills everyone should or needs to know. It benefits students so they can feel prepared for life or at least know they have the knowledge and skills that can help them throughout life as an adult, and also help them prepare for know they can get through life challenges.
Although schools may have other classes that have the financing or budgeting aspect Home-Ec does. They do not provide classes that look at the creative points in life like cooking, sewing or fashion design.
“There are some skills that are covered by other classes like personal finance classes,” Yates said. “But at the high school right now we don’t have any cooking classes or we don’t have any classes for anyone interested in fashion design or fabric arts.”
Classes that can provide some skills in Home-Ec do not go as in depth as Home-Ec does. Also Home-Ec goes through all the different aspects of life and the many different choices people can make. They go through the creative, financial and basic communication in life that classes should be providing but do not. Home-Ec will provide these missing skills.
Home-Ec can cover many different skills that are beneficial to life and are very helpful for students to learn. It allows them to explore creative freedom and know what they like. Having the knowledge of relationship building or knowing how to engage with others is extremely helpful in the long-run.
“It is also great for learning how to solve problems. Also can teach kids valuable lessons like how to build relationships with others” Yates said.
Building relationships and communication is essential to life and people use it everyday but often can struggle with it. Being able to do this well takes time and is a learning process. Having a class like Home-Ec would help students learn effective ways to build these skills.
Home-Ec may cover skills that other classes cover, but Home-Ec goes more in depth and gets more hands on with these skills. It provides a deeper understanding of the lesson and helps students in the long-run remember and not just learn it once and be done.
“I learned a lot of my cooking skills in Home-Ec classes in middle and high school and I still use a lot of them today,” Yates said. “Also it allows students to work in a more project based learning environment.”
Having Home-Ec go in depth and be hands on in school gives the students the experience and that is important so they can truly learn the lesson being taught. Then they can keep continuing to use this knowledge later on in life. Unlike some classes where many students learn the lesson once and then either forget or do not ever use it again.
Although there are some opinions that say there are enough classes that cover the skills in Home-Ec there really is not. Students should learn more about cooking, nutrition and communication skills. They should also be learning about budgeting and taxes more since that is a common question asked by young adults. Home-Ec should be a class taught in schools even if it is just an elective. It prepares kids going into adulthood and gives them the skills for the long-run.