Home Economics
As I started to make my son's Halloween costume, a strange creature named Vivi from a game called Final Fantasy, yes I am making it myself, and yes, I know I am ahead of the curve as my Halloween and Christmas and Chanukah shopping is already in full bloom, I was thrust back into my public jr. high school home economics class where I learned how to sew with a sewing machine. Now, if you asked me what I learned in jr. high I would reply: photosynthesis, JFK's assassination and how to sew a dress from a Simplicity pattern. Like bike riding, I was amazed this morning at how quickly I was sewing nice, straight seams, moving with ease as I navigated my homemade pattern. Laying a zipper, making a hem, waistband and even a dart all came back to me with little to no trial and error. I remembered back to a day when I was taught those skills along with rudimentary cooking, music, drama and the basic food groups of learning, science, math, english, history, foreign language and even art, that now being a discarded basic and a vanishing breed of even extra-curricular activities. I remember learning how to draw in 3 D, to make a square into a cube, a room with walls and windows. Skills I use on a daily basis. Lost to current students in the downsizing of education. Even the name of the class, home economics is lost as everyone struggles to find their way in this tech driven/ business society. Any mother or father for that matter who has taken care of her own home economics, cleaning, cooking, mending and minor carpentry skills will lament the lack of respect and remuneration given to those fields yet they are vital to the sustaining of any race of people and are crucial to a public body growing and developing.
I AM NOT SAYING THAT I FACE THAT DAILY ECONOMIC CRISIS, SO ALL YOU SOON-TO- RESPOND-WITH-YOUR-COMMENTS FOLKS TAKE A CHILL PILL AND JUST GO WITH ME HERE.
I am not, for a second, trying even to relate to the daily struggle of a low-income mother trying to raise and educate her children in today's crumbling economy. I am only saying that my ability to sew this outfit, pants, hat, and jacket, with facing and grommets and zippers is only because I was TAUGHT. It reminds me how far we have fallen in giving our children the skills they need to succeed either in the big business world or in the big household world. We are FAILING. In music, art, home-ec, cooking, shop (remember shop?) as well as the basics, according to every study we are FAILING. We are Americans and we are getting an F in educating our children. Wake up and smell the global competition. Twenty other countries beat us in science; we are listed 24th in math. We need to let our elected leaders know that education should be the most important issue in this election. Without it, our children, the future of this great nation, will be unprepared and will watch jobs being given to people from other countries.
I am glad that I was given these skills as part of a basic, public school education. I want that for all children. So that whether they end up a political leader, scientist, teacher, artist or homemaker they all are given the best education possible so that they can develop their God given talents and abilities and flourish and thrive as adults.
Maybe if Obama wins, I will sew him a nice tie to wear for his inauguration.
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Ms. Curtis gives stunning insight into what most of us should know. If you want to have basics, you have to learn basics. Our schools no longer know how to teach basics. It's what comes when you pander to a society demanding leniency, soft grading and incomprehensible learning curves. After all, when you have a nation of idiots, shouldn't they deserve an educational system for idiots, as well?
Geuterre: In a sense, I agree with you, but the basics you refer to start at home and that is where I believe the problem lies.
Tax dollars for our schools are going toward too many social service programs, i.e., free lunch, health care in school rather than at the pediatrician's office where it belongs, mental health care/counseling, security guards and "planned parenthood." If none of these things existed, because of proper parenting, there would be money galore for extracurricular activities.
No, I am not a republican. However, I have been as poor as a church mouse, went hungry pre-children and without skills pulled up my bootstraps and made something of myself. That is what America is all about. I have never been on welfare, closed my legs when I knew I could not afford children and did without what I could not pay cash. It really is that simple.
I am not trying to be harsh and uncaring, but there is a time to take responsibility for our own lives and the lives of our children and to stop letting others do it for us.
Parenting is a privilege - not a right. It does take a village to raise a child - not only the school system.
My childrens' friends come to our house daily craving attention. They want desperately to be listened to. I know stories that would curl your toes of the environments these children live, i.e., alcoholics, drugs, left alone with little food in the house, etc. Kids have knocked on our door (walking alone in the dark) due to fights between parents.
When my kids were in elementary, we volunteered when we could (yes, we both work). Such chaos! Kids would not stay seated, yelled, ran around and "sassed" teachers. In most classes, the teachers clapped their hands continually to "shush" the class. At the end of the day, maybe ten minutes of teaching/learning per class took place. I was exhausted. Middle school and high school is even worse.
Schools have become parents. They are dispensers of birth control and sex education. They are the main meal for many and mental health counselors as well. Teachers deserve quadruple the salary they make, if not more.
Schools are the product of what parenting has become. Until many parents become real parents or those with no business having children do not reproduce, our schools do not have a chance.
If every child who went to school was well behaved, fed, eager and ready to learn, there would be time for sewing and music and I believe the money will follow.
Two points I do not agree with is.
Parenting is not a right or a privilege, parenting is a responsibility. Rights you can forgo, privileges you can deny. A true parent can do neither of these. I am a late 30's male, 19 years in the Navy, raised by a single mother that made 12K a year and I believe I will be a great parent to the twins my wife will be delivering later this year due to the lessons my mother taught me and in lesser part to the lessons my father taught on how not to parent by being absent most of my life.
Another point that I have a minor disagreement with is your assertion that teachers deserve quadruple or more their current salary. I think that needs a qualifier to it. Good teachers are priceless, some of the teachers of my 12 year old daughter I have met do not qualify for this raise.
Back to the original post though, I agree with Ms. Curtis that schools need to re-focus on teaching. Bring back the concept of "Life Arts" like shop, home-ec and basic life skills classes (like how to balance a checkbook). This really hit home for me when watching "The George Lopez Show" when his son, who was around 14 or so, said his parents had plenty of money because they had a whole book of checks left. What was meant as a joke was a sad commentary on todays youth.
the4given: To clarify, I should have said, to become a parent is a privilege and not a right. Being a parent IS a responsibility. I apologize.
With 250 words or less to get a point across on this post, your point about certain teachers deserving more money is obviously true. There are bad teachers aplenty for sure, and of course, they do not deserve the same consideration.
Being a good parent has nothing to do with money. I do not care if a parent is a single parent, married, a gay parent, an old parent, a young parent, etc. - just a good parent.
Lastly, I am completely for "Life Arts." I was a music junkie in school. I was in every choir, every ensemble, and then went on to a performing arts high school. Although a good student as well, music saved me from going in the wrong direction many a time. I am truly sad that my kids do not have those same opportunities, but as a parent, I am providing these things instead.
I believe to the depths of my soul, however, that these programs were cut because the money has gone to the schools raising our children. A school cannot cut math, now needs free lunches, so the music program will go. Simply put, money is there if the social service programs are no longer needed (again, 250 words limit expounding).
I appreciate your comment - thank you.
Keep the masses uneducated so they can be exploited! That worked for 50 years now and the politicians know it.
I went to an American school before finishing high school in Holland; and I now live in France where my children go to public school. And frankly, there's a lot to be said for American education. True, I was set back a year when I switched to a Dutch school - and still had to work my head off for a year to catch up. But basic skills such as researching a topic, writing an essay, structuring my time, I had learned at the American school starting age 12. Later at university I realized most Dutch students had never learned this skills, and I understood why Americans are so much better in college despite the head start Europeans enjoy after their superior, but mind-numbing, high school education.
Right now in France, Sarkozy is starting an educational reform which may be summarized with the words "Don't even try to understand anything, just learn it all by heart", thereby compounding the problem. If this reform proves to be just as bad as pedagogues say it is, I'll seriously consider emigration for the umpteenth time of my life.
IMO comparing educational levels makes no sense. Some systems - like the US system, at least as I lived it - lay the foundations. Others - like the European - build great works on sand. So the latter construction will seem better from a short-term perspective, while it actually consists of a monumental waste of our children's time and talent.
What year did you immigrate to Holland? Are you aware that now with No Child Left Behind....... American public schools no longer have time for research, essays,time structuring....because they are sudying for the test! ( imposed on a Fed. level )
I learned those things in public school 1940's 50's!
Sarkozy is taking too many cues from the neo-cons.
Okay, it was long ago... 1972 to be precise.
My niece born here in Mississippi went to Germany at age 2 and remained there until she finished
3rd grade. When she came to the US, spoke no English, she learned the language quickly and
passed the 4th grade. Needless to say she finished school and got a full scholarship for a
Texas University. While she had problems with the language she was way ahead of the teachings. When I put my own 2 children in school here in 3rd grade, I went to see the principal
and I complained after seeing their homework and what they were taught in school, and he assured me that the American School System was the best in the world. I walked out in disgust.
I told him that first grade in Germany starts on 1 September and by Christmas Children could read.
Too bad he was not around years later when TIME Magazine reported that the American Education System was # 39 in the world.
The K-12 system is a monument to Democratics politics. Since the Democratic Party and the two teachers unions have become comrades the cost to educate one child has tripled adjusted for inflation. In the 60s the U.S K-12 educational system was ranked first in the world, today it is twenty-five and on the fast track to last place. The countries that are getting US manufacturing jobs all have school systems in the top ten. The post by the Jazzcomedian that blames the Republicans and the Bushes and skips over Clinton and forgets that the failing Chicago, Detroit etc. schools systems are all controlled by Democrats. The post is so far from the truth it got a Huff'sPost Pick. The billion dollars a judge demanded Kansas City spend resulted in the school becoming decertified, so we know it is not about more money. We have poor schools because they are managed on the principle of political correctness meaning it is not about the children, its about preserving the teachers union, spreading left wing dogma and making sure the innies get a good education to demonstrate some degree of success and the outies get moved on to become society's problem.
"We have poor schools because they are managed on the principle of political correctness meaning it is not about the children, its about preserving the teachers union"
I very much agree with this part of your statement.
Oh. My. God. As I stated earlier, I am a teacher. You have some nerve blaming the teachers' unions for the problems of the educational system. If anything has come at a cost to the education of American students it is the failure of the Republican Party to create enough funding for the students to receive the education they deserve. Last year the L.A. school district hired a new superintendent-- a former commander in the Navy, with no professional educational experience. Included in his hiring package?
1.) Salary: $350,000 a year. 2.) $3,000 PER MONTH for living expenses. 3.) A chauffeur-driven car.
Perhaps you can tell me what percentage of the Kansas City school district's budget was allocated toward paying classroom teachers. I can assure you, it did not add up to $1,000,000,000.
I work my ass off to be the best teacher I can be to my students. I don't leave school at 2:30 because I'm planning, consulting with my colleagues and helping students who need it. I usally leave school after 4:30-- without overtime pay I might add. Yes, my summers free, but you had better believe that I earn it. Most people who decided to become teachers certainly aren't in it for the money. They do it because they want contribute positively to the society in which they live.
By the way, what do the terms "innie" and "outie" refer to? I always thought they were used to describe bellybuttons.
An innie is the top 10-20 percent of students and the outies are the rest. Most school districts have seniors graduating where only 10-20 percent can read and do math at their grade level. Many states find that half of high school graduates to go onto college need to repeat high school courses in college.
Teachers should and I repeat should be paid more and have more control over classroom behavior. Motivated students should be in bigger classes freeing funds to pay the teacher more which increases retention and attracts good teachers. Students that can not read at grade level should have access to proven reading techniques until they reach grade level even if the school has to contract with a for-profit firm. School boards should be contracting with outside firms to interview teachers annually without union involvement to determime what teachers see as barriers to meeting goals. This information should be made public and school administrations should be held accountable. High schools should be smaller so more students can participate in extracurricular activities. Rather than one of everything in an unmanageable 2400 student high school you have four times as many children involved in extracurricular activities in a manageable school. We do not need smaller classrooms, we need smaller schools with larger classrooms and more discipline with the savings invested in teacher salaries and supplies and school administrations held accountable for outcomes.
At least that superintendent had some "people skills." My daughter's middle school hired an ex-arena football player.
When all the MySpace controversy began and students were being threatened with death - his solution was to wait and watch, oh yeah, and to put them on "report." The parents of these kids came in and this is what they said verbatim ( I was at meeting): "What my kid do in d'eir free time it d'eir binness."
Does anyone else here see the flawed logic and where the problem lies?
csg629: I thank you for your contribution to our children, and I certainly appreciate and understand your comment as well. You deserve a raise - a substantial one!
1stThron: "The countries that are getting US manufacturing jobs all have school systems in the top ten." Perhaps this proves Ms Curtis' point ... readers, can YOU spot the logic error in that statement? [Answer at end of post.] In any Logic (or what used to be called "Rhetoric") class, this kind of logic error is addressed, in an effort to coach kids "how to reason." You don't see many Logic classes these days -- it's all about crammking as many kids into a classroom as possible to keep costs down.
BTW, the countries getting all the manufacturing jobs do so because companies are exploiting their cheap labor.
1stThron, I sincerely urge you to try and think first and then apply ideology afterwards, if you so desire. Applying ideology first imposes a filter which often skews your analysis.
[Answer to earlier question: The error is referred to as "Post Hoc Ergo Procter Hoc" (After this, therefore, because of this) and assumes an unsubstantiated cause and effect. A present observable effect is blamed on something that happened in the past with no other actual connection to prove causation. ]
Example: George Bush was president when Katrina hit New Orleans, therefore Bush caused Katrina. False, of course ... for all of his MANY failings, Bush did not CAUSE Hurrican Katrina.
Two areas of China have K-12 systems in the top 10 along with Korea. A cheap and educated labor force minus the regulatory cost to do business in the US plus taxes drive jobs out. But even when pursuing cheap labor, those countries with an excellent K-12 education system beat other countries with cheap labor but failing schools. Japan is also in the top ten but labor is expensive. It is Japan's well educated work force and business leaders that are redefining how to produce high quality, low costs products with an expensive work force. This is why the US K-12 system needs to return to number. If the US wants to maintain a high standard of living which requires high salaries, then the US work force has to have the skills to convert inefficiency into profits and salary increases for themselves.
I still think American kids today are so much smarter than kids from my generation. My kids help me with the computer and with our phones, equipment, and gadgets. I think our society today places more emphasis on answering test questions correctly than problem-solving and actual skills like sewing. I think America is getting smarter, or at least less dumb. I read somewhere that the average IQ in America has steadily increased for decades. I think we are not as handy as our grandparents were, but we are better at thinking than they were. We also have the worldwide web and google to help us look up what we did not memorize in school, like state capitals and the names of dinosaurs and things like that. We do not really need to know how to spell anymore. We do not need to know long division anymore. BUT....I spent the past two days with a middle-school aged boy from a small European country who speaks four languages so I realized how behind my kids are, relatively speaking. We do need to re-prioritize in order to be prepared for the future, I agree, but I am not sure returning to old-school ways is the answer.
Just a couple years older, Jamie, yet from a similar era for things I was taught, I also learned to sew a bit - but from my mother at home. In my grade school years, she taught high school home economics, sewed many things, and frequently experimented with 'new' recipes on our family. Though eventually becoming a college professor, she never lost her love for the kitchen.
While sewing didn't stick with me much, I developed her love of cooking and that has stayed with me throughout life. Doing the cooking and marketing probably deserves no small credit for having achieved a 30th anniversary with my wife this year.
But, of all the things I was taught in formative years that I feel the greatest sense of lose for in our children's generation, nothing's had so telling an impact across OUR country as when schools seemingly everywhere quit teaching 'Civics' and OUR Constitution. WE were once made to memorize the 'Preamble' and pass a test on OUR Constitution to even graduate. Now perhaps, we see the goal some in government had when eliminating this requirement the last few decades, as an entire generation of citizens seem eerily apathetic when THEIR major Constitutional individual Rights are abolished - WITHOUT Constitutional Amendments being presented to 'The People' for vote.
I DO agree that math and science are important to OUR country's competitive edge, but I would also suggest that without OUR Constitution - we will be little more than what some dictator
This comment ended "- we will be little more than what some dictator ...'deciders' for us."
I previewed it several times without problem, but it was chopped for me somehow when posted.
Apologies...
If our public schools are no longer teaching such important information as home economics, or shop classes, or civics, government and geography, then just what are they spending their time and our dollars doing? And this is not a problem caused by either democrats or republicans, because it has been going on for many years now. Anybody who wants to point fingers at either party is just taking an opportunity to take another cheap shot, without even addressing the problem
And the problem is, just what is going on in our classrooms, that our children are not getting the fundamental education that they should be getting? What do they do all day long? And yes, I do believe that a lot of the problem is the perception of political correctness, and instead of trying to do what is right, our schools are concentrating on not doing anything wrong. And the cause of that is the small minorities who make the most noise, and not the majority, who remain silent
As many others here have pointed out, for some time now public schools are teaching for 'achievement test' results because that's what the government has mandated, and they're often doing a poor job of that. You might also note I took no shots at "...either party", because I feel both parties are equally culpable for having created a 'mandates' mess.
You are correct about political correctness and concentrating on not doing anything wrong, as teachers thinking 'outside the box' to make immeasurable progress are most often rewarded with losing their job.
"...instead of trying to do what is right, our schools are concentrating on not doing anything wrong. And the cause of that is the small minorities who make the most noise, and not the majority, who remain silent."
Whew, freebird! Can I steal this?
sharon
Its a wonderful essay!!!!!!! As a 76 year old retired potter and art teacher in private low paying schools I can assure you that (as far as I know ) there are schools which still have a philosophy that resepects the individual creativity of each child. Part Of the difficulty in the visual arts is that too many teachers are hidebound to use old, outdated methods that do not take into consideration how much the world has change since 1944-45 when I took homemaking and shop.
There is help out there. One only need to read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards" who symposium for the NYC Association of Independant Schools" changed forever my approach to teachinf elementary classes as well as pottery to older students. The best part of using "Drawing..." as a backbone of your curriculum is that it can be adopted to everyage group and requires, only paper and pencil. If more funds become available, other materials can be addred. And if the srt department actually works with the classroom teacher- there can be no limit of having children learn to use their extraordinary creativity. But methodology seems never to change . There is so little time for the ARTS! Is any school too short of Money to buy a copy of "Drawing on the Right Side of Brain" Perhaps we could start a organization to donate are materials.
HuffPost's Pick
1. A child will only value education as much as their parents do. I got good grades in school because my parents got me into a book of the month club at an early age, and because they insisted that I get good grades or suffer the consequences. They made me stay insde one weekend until I learned my times tables up to 12x12. That's why I ended up going to college. Parenting is the key. Obama's mom got up and 4:30 every morning to drill him for three hours before going to work. They both hated it, but if she hadn't done that, it's doubtful he'd be a presidential nominee.
2. I don't think that the GOP wants an educated, smart electorate since they like to use wedge issues to make people vote against their economic interests. Education is not their priority. Both Bushes said they were for education and did nothing.
3. The GOP never nominates an intellectually or academically gifted person for president. Nixon was the last smart one as a Duke Law graduate, and he was crooked. The Dems nominate A students, and the GOP usually nominate C and D students. That's the pattern. The first step to having our nation re-prioritize education is to have a really intelligent person in the White House who truly values it and is willing to also call for better parenting.
"The Dems nominate A students, and the GOP usually nominate C and D students."
You mean like Gore (C average), Kerry (C average)? Bill Clinton? Cheezzzz, at least get your lies (I mean facts) straight, or else you might lose your credibility. And if education is not a priority for the GOP, why did Bush implement NCLB when the previous president (Clinton) didn't even try to set a standard? You know, social promotion worked so well, didn't it? The truth is, the Democrats want to keep the masses uneducated or else they'll lose their base. And since the Democrats seem to only nominate lawyers (B. Clinton, Gore, H Clinton, Obamam, Edwards) for president, (and we know a good start for them, 100 at the bottom of the ocean), is one reason why the Democrats come across as sleazy. Try to find someone who has had a real job, ok?
"You mean like Gore (C average), Kerry (C average)? Bill Clinton? Cheezzzz, at least get your lies (I mean facts) straight, or else you might lose your credibility."
NCLB is such a joke! Implementing something and going through with it are two totally different things.l
So what were Dubya's grades? D's or F's? He's certainly received an F from 70% of the general population. You get your lies (I mean facts) straight before you end up with hoof and mouth disease!
I learned to sew when i was seven from my mother who made most of my clothes because there was no Wal Mart or TJ Maxx and we had no money. I continued sewing into my corporate executive days because i liked it and i could make a perfectly tailored 100% wool suit for 1/4 of the retail price.
Sewing also taught me a lot about the current economy. I see the quality of work on some relatively cheap clothes and know that the people who make them (mostly women) are being paid almost nothing for the time it takes them to construct the garment. I also see "designer" garments that are poorly made of poor quality fabrics but are desired because of the name. They are not intended to last
Right on Jamie.
I was in home ec classes in high school in Hawaii where we learned our way around a kitchen and a house. Best thing I learned in high school in terms of home life needs.
We also took shop class but I had NO apptitude for it at all. Think Tim Allen.
Music was my saviour and did more for my self confidence than anything since I was at best an average student (except in reading and English which I LOVED).
When I hear of these programs being cut or so far in the past, it breaks my heart. One of those things I feel has gotten completely out of control is this belief that all kids today, and this might sound terribly chauvanistic particularly young girls who through Disney, MTV and Nick believe the only successful girls are ROCK STAR GIRLS!!! And the nerd nonsense still holds true.
What is really surprising is the loss of shop class especially with regards to car care and maintainence. The L.A. Times did a story on the two biggest shortages for jobs right now. One was Nursing and the other was car mechanic. Might not be glamourous but the pay is very livable for the majority. Not everyone is going to be a star or actor or Sports Star, or high powered CEO like Bill Gates and we need to stop letting our kids believe that through the messages they are getting through the media.
My Dad always said the one of the best thing you can have is a good mechanic. He found a man 25 or 30 years and I still give that man and his sons my business with complete confidence.
Thank you for the poignant article. I look forward to your next post!
In order to "improve" American scores we can do what some Europeans ( i.e.Austrians) do. Those who can't hack middle school, do NOT get to go to high school but would attend a lower level school or a trade school ( berufschule).
This way we're comparing apples to apples.
Otherwise we're comparing countries with table homogenized populations with American wildly diverse population.
Certainly, this blogger know thats California schools, crammed with many thousands of ESL students, whose parents are functionally illiterate, cannot be used for equitable statistics.
Still, if you compare an average Compton schools with a school in French or British Muslim area, the results will be quote similar.
The same would happened if you compare the public/private schools in American suburbs with schools in prosperous and demographically stable areas In Russia, France or Singapore.
All else aside, it's a point that needs to be made: we are equiping our children for failure.
Most of what I learn in school I don't actually learn from the classes. Yet my schools are all high-ranking, my classes all advanced, and my grades all high. If we don't at least accept the educational deficit, then we won't express our determination to obliterate it. In particular, those who need the most help--who came from backgrounds where they received sub-par educations and live in placs where such slights are consistent--have the least available recourse for informing children.
There are many ways to fight the decline in education, but those who have the time and the knowledge to sit down and work alongside their children to educate them more widely, who have access to the Internet, and who even RECOGNIZE the integral value of a quality education are generally the same people who have access to decent schools and extracurricular opportunities for their children.
P.S. -- When discussing any of the immensely popular Final Fantasy series' characters, you can save yourself a lot of potential hassle just by looking up WHICH one it is--in this case, FFIX, not the most popular one, but still having its fans. As you already know, considering the costume in question ;-)
Like some other commenters alluded to, I too got a decent pre prop 13 education.
And the the school I attended was forward thinking that they offered a class I took called 'Boys Chef'
where Jr. Hi boys learned to cook, so at least I came away with some minimal cooking skills so I wouldn't go hungry, and one of the classmates in the class was Ron Burkle, so don't discount the public education system folks (at least back then).
Great Article! You're a terrific writer.
As a mom of three whom was raised by a single mom in urban America, I appreciated every single thought you shared in this piece. Thanks.
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