Should We Be Taking Home Economics?
- Madeleine Buergel
- Jan 15, 2025
- 3 min read
“When are we ever actually going to use this?” It’s a refrain echoed in classrooms everywhere, used to question the value of calculus and Macbeth. But even as the nation turns towards career- and life-centric education (as evidenced by the sheer number of students choosing to major in computer science or business, focused on potential salaries), schools, including Ingraham, are still slow to re-adopt arguably the most life-skill centered class: home economics.
Home economics, or family and consumer sciences, officially began in 1909 (in America) with the founding of the American Home Economics Association, which is now known as the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. It covers a wide range of life skills, from cooking to budgeting, family health to career development. It used to be quite popular, funded in schools by the federal government under the Smith-Hughes and Vocational Education acts, but it began to fall out of popularity in the 1980s with the rise of second-wave feminism. This was a response to the accurate perception of home economics as a woman’s class. It was conceived by state-funded women’s colleges as an acceptable alternative to a “real” college education, and fears that it was continuing to keep women out of the job market drove it out of schools.
Only about 3.4 million students nationwide were enrolled in family and consumer sciences (FCS) classes in 2012, a small proportion of the 50 million students enrolled in public school. At Ingraham, eight FCS classes are offered, although this includes IB Psychology SL and HL. Nutrition and cooking are taught through Nutrition and Wellness, Baking and Pastry, and Culinary Arts, which are a sequence and often have long waitlists. They are also focused on preprofessional education, instead of home cooking. Career development is taught through Career Connect, which only a small percentage of Ingraham students enroll in. There are no classes at Ingraham which cover budgeting or personal financials (although some 12th grade English teachers choose to cover it).
Are these classes necessary? Should we focus on providing more classes that cover FCS topics? The skills they teach are certainly necessary. You may be able to get through life without ever using calculus, but you’ll definitely have to go to a job interview or pay your taxes. Still, opinions differ over whether school is the right place to learn those skills. Many people argue it should be on the parents to provide this kind of education, but in this author’s opinion, that disadvantages students whose parents work or have other responsibilities.
50% of high school students surveyed in a survey conducted by this author reported feeling unsure about their ability to cook for and feed themselves after high school. That situation is untenable and reveals a gap in the education we are receiving. Still, the argument remains that home economics classes tend to reinforce sexist barriers. Everyone needs to eat, but when only women are taught to cook, it forces them into homemaking roles. There’s not a simple solution to that problem, but it is worth observing that when home economics classes were popular, they were frequently restricted by gender. Ingraham’s current FCS classes generally do not show any gender lines: Baking and Pastry, for example, is a popular class with both women and men, and there is no reason to assume that other FCS classes added to the curriculum would reinforce the gender binary in any significant way.
It is also important to recognize that, while home economics did eventually limit opportunities available for women, its introduction was an increase in these opportunities. The first women’s colleges were established to teach home economics, and the funding provided to them meant thousands of women received college degrees who couldn’t otherwise. Home economics has historically opened up the job market to women, who, when educated in cooking, human development, or typing, could then work outside the home as teachers or secretaries. Women should not be restricted to these jobs but opening them up to women was the first step towards wider workplace equality in the wake of World War II.
The fact is that Ingraham students want to learn about FCS: when I was writing this article, several people lamented the lack of classes about taxes or cooking. But there are not sufficient opportunities in school for these skills to be taught, and it’s leaving us underprepared for adult life.
Further Reading:
Comments