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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I agree completely. I was in high school when the public schools began to be defunded. Almost all elective classes ended up being dropped, as well as many advanced-placement classes - at a magnet college-prep high school. Now, of course, No Child Left Alive makes school even less well-rounded; kids are being taught to pass the all-important LEAP test, with school funding at stake. We're burning out our children before they even reach adulthood.
I do see the need for parents to stay involved with their children's educations; perhaps that's part of the problem as well. The parents are burned-out as well, working multiple jobs to keep up with the Joneses, with little time to look after their children. The pace of life is too fast, and we have gained nothing for it. It's time that we re-prioritize our lives and our politics.
America's ranking in education is largely misleading for a couple of reasons.
1) Many other nations lie. When Cuba, North Korea, Libya, etc. give their stats do you really believe what they list? Of course I don't really believe we are No.1 but I also have my doubts about the numbers coming out of 3rd world dictatorships.
2) Our inner city schools drag down the national average. There were recent stories about "Dropout Factories" throughout the US in which the majority of students do not graduate. When following the links and digging a little deaper into the story you realize most of these schools are in the inner cities. CNN didn't give that info. You had to look a little bit.
Healthcare is the number one issue. Education is in the top 4.
Junior High Home Econ, Healthcare Financing (that is not employer-based as employers go away), Civics (for public schoolers and Choaties alike), Job Creation, Infrastructure Repair, Energy, Environment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Relations (apart from $1 Trillion worth of preemptive invasions, renditions, nation building, and human rights violations) ...
There are so many things that need attention (and funding) from our (local, state,or federal) government (and ourselves) after our SEVEN YEAR 'FINAL FANTASY' of foreign adventurism and laissez faire neglect at home (except for Homeland Security/TSA's flawless shoe inspections at airports).
So I am for change! I'll work for change. And in November, I'll vote for change -- maybe wearing MY (store bought) Vivi costume, Made in China. :)
I agree, without education we are a dying nation. But as I remember for 50 years now our politicians
promised to fix education and we got worse and people still vote for them over and over again.
It's possible that anybody who can do things for themselves ie. cooking, sewing, carpentry etc. will be at the top of the food chain if society continues to devolve.
I was always better at theory than practice in home ec, but I did learn enough about the engineering of clothing to check the seams and the hems on pre-made clothes, and how to make some very basic fixes.
Amen, Jamie! You always say the smartest, most common sense things. Thanks for posting.
"We are Americans and we are getting an F in educating our children"
It's great that you want government to do a better job on education but the real fault lies within the home itself and the parents. I am a strong believer that if the parents don't make education a priority it doesn't matter what government does or a teacher says.
You are correct. A teacher that only has a child 1 hour per day 5 days per week cannot make up for 24/7 piss poor parenting.
This is also why I believe we are reaching a point where the endless funding for education is going to come to end unless those funds are translated to results. For too long we have been giving them a blank check, in some states $20,000+ per year for a 1st grader is what we are spending when we should be hauling parents to establish them as teachers at home.
I completely agree!
You're absolutely right. However, to be realistic, some parents won't support their child's education very well if at all. For those children the only chance they have will be education or extra curricular programs.
I'm sorry but the schools cannot raise people's children if the parents refuse to do so and extra curricular programs only work for a few .
I can only respond with a quote from the movie "Sicko" by the man who stated it, Tony Benn, British politician:
"People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote. See they always say that everyone should vote, but I think if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people who represented their interests it would be a real Democratic revolution. So they don't want it to happen. So keeping people hopeless and pessimistic. See, I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them. An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern. And I think there's an element in the thinking of some people "We don't want people to be educated, healthy and confident because they would get out of control."
That quote summarizes all. They frighten people and they demoralize them. It is scary but this is the truth. Education is key to any human being, and it is not only getting good grades at school and going to college to improve your life; it is also mental, education should give you the love to learn more about anything even after the fact, it is good for our minds, it keeps the healthy and sharp. Educated people can think though and this is the part that governments do not like.
Thank you. As a former home econonmics teacher, I use the skills -- budgeting, nutrition, child development, crafting, sewing, home decorating, conservation, critical evaluation of ads and product claims -- every day. Of course we now have Martha Stewart and her clones, but the target audience is adults, not for our kids. One other big suggestion: Want brighter, more creative kids? Turn off the TV and limit the "gadget" exposure and time. Give your toddler a pan and wooden spoon, not a designer toy drum set. For God's sake, do not buy your daughter a bleeping bratz doll -- unless you're grooming her to be a child bride or hooker. Let your kids fill their free time with exploration, not structured activities. Push your school boards to cut spending on "assistant" positions and other positions that are not actually teaching the children. And get outside with your kids. Also, get them involved in giving through religious or civic involvement. You don't have to be wealthy to give your child a rich environment.
Barack Obama (or George Bush or John McCain for that matter) will not help our children's education. In fact, they will hurt it by keeping (or I'm sure in most cases increasing) the level of resources they take from state and local governments (as well as individuals) for the purposes of educating children. The Department of Education did not exist when Mrs. Curtis learned all those fine things in school. The federal government does for education what they did for levees in New Orleans or bridges in Minnesota.
Therefore, if she's suggesting that the federal government stay out of the education business and release those resources back state, local, and individual sovereigns, then I'm behind her 100%.
Good for you Ms. Curtis. I did well in the cooking part of Home Ec. (7th grade, public school), but lousy in the sewing.. Like you, I feel lucky to have had a very good public school education and I do not understand why that can't be available to all children again. Perhaps because our priority ontinues to be weapons systems and the ability to wage war. Never mind that we already have the ability to kill everyone on the planet 17 times over--maybe just two times over would suffice. For a arty that was/is constantly yapping about family values, "protecting children, and "leaving no child behind," Republicans have done very little to provide the tools and resources they'll need going orward. I don't know when people will wake up to the fact that the ONLY interests today's Republicans care about are business interests--the rest is empty rhetoric.
PS. I have a shower tile signed by your mother--"Janet 'Marion Crane' Leigh--I treasure it.
Don't expect much to change if Obama is elected. Even he supports the disastrous No Child Left Behind.
Education is at the top of my list also and I'm glad that you have posted here and hope that all will read it and take heed.Without education people will vote against their own best interests and will vote for anyone who scares them the most.Now what kind citizen is that and an educated people will keep the gov. and the 4th estate on their toes.It boogles the mind the this country is now.Tony
Education to do what, pray tell? (Oh that's right, "the jobs of the 21st Century") Funny you should bring up sewing. Soon we'll all be selling native handicrafts to our Chinese, Indian and Arab masters. A handknit can of Cheez Whiz anyone?
As a high school teacher, I appreciate your concerns and share your sadness at the lack of basic life skills classes required, or even available in our public schools. I agree with your premise that our young adults are disadvantaged by cuts that have eliminated practical classes such as family life education (formerly known as home economics) and wood shop. It is also heartbreaking to see the decline of music and the arts now offered in schools.
I do want to offer an alternative view about our students' math and science skills compared to other countries. It is impossible to make this comparison, as we are the only ones who test all of our students. In other countries, only the most advantaged students move to the upper grades resulting in testing of a very different population, meaning we are comparing not only our brightest, but our learning disabled, special populations to the scores of the more narrow groups tested in other countries.
I am not suggesting that our education system is not in peril. It is. But the way to evaluate this is not through comparative statistics. I submit that one need only observe the areas in which our young people struggle in their daily lives to prove the point; balancing a checkbook, determining if they received the correct change in a store, selecting healthy foods to feed their families, parenting their children and valuing hard work. This is the evidence that suggests we are failing.
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