I have been traveling and yesterday I found some treasures at an antique store outside of Carson City, NV, that will be coming home with me. This morning, I woke up thinking about “home economics.”
When I first applied for colleges back in 1979, I intended to become a Home Economics teacher. But, then, it seems, there was a giant wooshing sound and Home Ec classes were purged from the curriculum for their “lack of relevancy.” I also discovered that I hadn’t studied the science courses in high school that I needed for all of the chemistry I would study for a Home Ec degree. It never occurred to me that Home Ec required one to study chemistry! But, once it was explained that cooking is a science as well as an art, it made sense to me.
Just off of the top of my head, Home Economics encompasses:
- Nutrition
- Finance
- Chemistry
- Agriculture
- Economics
- Fashion Design
- Child Development
- Health
- Manufacturing
- Relationship Psychology
- Interior Decorating
- Spirituality
- Creativity
- Sanitation (maintaining a physically healthy environment)
And I know that I’m missing a whole bunch more. So, why did Home Ec become known as the “cooking class” or the “sewing class?”
Home Economics is now known as Family and Consumer Science. I believe the name better suits all that “Home Ec” encompasses. But, it still makes me sad that Home Ec has a bad reputation.
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