Confrontation in the Star Tours queue

[knitster]

Second that. My brother took home ec back in the day (on my mom's recommendation) and has never regretted it. My mom never required him to do any of that stuff at home, but at least she recognized he needed to learn it. Home ec was mostly review for me, but I found the budgeting stuff useful, because while my parents are frugal, they never really set up a family budget. They're so much alike - similar personalities, raised in the same small town - that they never discussed money while always handling it well, so that was not something I'd been exposed to before.

My mom didn't make me take home ec in school and I had no interest in it, but as an adult I have always regretted not taking the class. Though my mom is an excellent cook, seamstress, house keeper (and career woman on top of it all), she never taught me any of those things. So, once I became an adult with a household of my own, I had to figure it all out on my own - which means I (still) make a lot of phone calls to my mom re: cooking, house care, etc.

[WEDFan]

Home ec wasn't a choice for me in school. Boys took shop and girls took home ec. In my case I couldv'e used the home ec more than I needed shop. I had a father who was a jack of all trades and didn't need much help in shop. Most of the tools were in my cellar. Cooking, budgeting, etc. I had to learn on my own becuase my parents didn't discuss money, and my mother didn't think boys needed to do cooking, house cleaning, and so forth.

I think the skills ocvered in both classes are extremely useful to have and believe students should be exposed to both.

[shilohmm]

My mom didn't make me take home ec in school and I had no interest in it, but as an adult I have always regretted not taking the class.

I have a friend who is a medical doctor, but ended up a stay-at-home mom because when the kids came along, she didn't like leaving them (when the kids were little, I had two different female pediatricians make the same discovery and bail on me :p: ). She never learned any of that stuff either, and says learning that job demands a far steeper learning curve than school was. But of course most other "careers", you learn the job, or at least part of the job, before you're actually doing it. Entrepreneur is the only other "career" I can think of where you gotta learn the job, on the job, with no knowledgeable supervision. I think in both cases, having a good mentor you can call and consult with helps a lot, but not so much as knowing a good chunk of the job ahead of time.

[Technically, there's a sense where neither full time parenting nor being an entrepreneur are careers, because there's no "chance of advancement". OTOH, in both cases there's a definite chance of success or failure, so I suppose it depends on how tightly you define "advancement."]

I think the skills ocvered in both classes are extremely useful to have and believe students should be exposed to both.

I don't regret skipping shop class, and fortunately I married a guy who does all that stuff (my sister took shop and loved it), but I did take auto mechanics. Which unfortunately was "girls auto mechanics" instead of the real thing -- the teacher would assign a chapter, give us a "fill in the blanks" sort of thing with chapter excerpts, and wander off. I'd finish the thing in ten minutes and then chat with the other shop teacher, and we only got to actually bring a car in and work on it (all we wanted to do was to change the air and oil filters -- which was actually a requirement for the boys' version) because the other shop teacher said he'd work with us. Our shop teacher seemed to think the idea of girls actually working on a car ridiculous, and wasn't willing to oversee it. :mad: Actually the other girls in the class thought we were nuts, too; they'd taken the class for the easy 'A'. *sigh*

[DragonFox98]

In my school, we were required to take both home ec and shop. I kicked the boys' asses in shop, I am proud to say. :D:

(those of you who know me know I don't play nicely with others where my tools are concerned)

I'm lucky....I had the best of both worlds. My grandmother was awesome at all the "housey" stuff (cooking, sewing, etc) and she taught me that. On the other hand, I had a grandfather with a shop in our basement and my dad is a milwright (I grew up on job sites), so I work well with my tools (I'm about to start my renovation now that my hand is healed).

[Main Streeter]

Home ec wasn't a choice for me in school.

wasn't a choice for me either until they realized I burned everything & sewing was not worth teacher's effort. I went before school board & happily was told to choose an elective. The joys of believing I didn't need to conform.

[Mayonnaise]

Our school had Home Ec as mandatory for both genders in 7th grade. In class we mostly sewed and did worksheets on actual economics (household budgets and stuff,) and I think we had one group baking project. We did all our cooking, and using the laundry machine and stuff as homework.

8^)

[Darksin]

Our school had Home Ec as mandatory for both genders in 7th grade. In class we mostly sewed and did worksheets on actual economics (household budgets and stuff,) and I think we had one group baking project. We did all our cooking, and using the laundry machine and stuff as homework.

8^)

My Middle school had a Home Economic rooms but we couldn't use it on the belief a bunch of 7th graders would burn the school down, kill everyone or *GASP* hurt ourselves doing something stupid. It didn't matter much to me, I'd already learned to make the stuff I liked (mostly baking) from when I was much smaller anyway.
We didn't have shop either for the same slew of reasons. Burning down, Killing, Cutting things off.. blah blah blah. I always hated it, I wouldn't have minded taking Shop or Auto. That may have been fun and amusing!

In High School we had a "Home Management" course, which really was what I describe as a mix "This is how babies are made" and "This is how to balance a checkbook". This is the same course that had those obnoxious "Fake Babies" that would howl randomly for a week if they didn't pick them up and hold the key in the back. Naturally, I skipped that part of the class with my mom and I being in agreement "We don't want to put up with that shit, here's your note with a big old "HELL NO" written on it! Because, back then parents had a choice of if they wanted their kids to participate!

[Zazu]

I guess I went to high school longer ago than most on this thread. Before I got there, no boy had ever been permitted to take Cooking, or any other home ec class. I advised the school that I would either be enrolled in the cooking class or I would give us both an opportunity to see how the court system worked.

They blinked first.

The compromise they offered was a "Boys Cooking Program". Not what I had wanted, but it did give us some serious kitchen time. The first thing we made was Baked Alaska, and invited the School Board to help us eat it. (Politics being another topic worthy of study.) After that, we sort of coasted, but the program was continued, so perhaps we fell short of the burning-down-the-school fears that I'm sure some of them had.

At least I made one mark on my school that didn't come from a spray can!

[shilohmm]

I guess I went to high school longer ago than most on this thread. Before I got there, no boy had ever been permitted to take Cooking, or any other home ec class.

Could be. Although the first time I read that I thought it said "I went to high school longer than most...."

My brother was the first (and to my knowledge, only) guy to take home ec, but no one made a big to-do about it (or at least no one official). The one concession was he got to make a shirt instead of a skirt for his sewing project. I was the first girl to take advanced computing -- but one hopes I wasn't the last!

[hobie16]

In my school, we were required to take both home ec and shop. I kicked the boys' asses in shop, I am proud to say. :D:

(those of you who know me know I don't play nicely with others where my tools are concerned)

Good for you! My newest favorite tool is a



It works great for cutting out damaged fiberglass on boats where our junior sailors have rammed each other.