As I was sewing a button onto my husband’s shorts the other day, he made a comment that he’s glad I took home ec in middle school. It wasn’t like a had a choice! Where I went to school, we were required to have 1 marking period each year, for all three years, of home economics. While that’s all fine and good, I can’t say that many of my home ec skills were learned during that time.

Sure, I learned how to sew a button and make pillows but there’s really not much else I learned. Oh, wait! I did read a recipe. Once. Mainly it was just a bunch of 11-13 year old girls sitting in a stuffy, windowless room, pretending to do actual work and talking about which boys were cute. It was great fun at the time but now, as an adult reflecting back, I realize what a gigantic waste of time that class really was. And it had so much potential!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not faulting the teachers. They did a great job. We just weren’t ready to learn what they were teaching and those skills are not practical to teach 11-13 year old girls. But I do feel that home ec is an important class (which, by the way, I feel that boys should be required to take as well. Learning how to take care of oneself and one’s home is not solely a female job). People need to learn these important skills. Here are some of the changes I suggest:

1. Move it high school, particularly in the 11th or 12th grade as students are getting prepared for college. The information will be fresher and more relevant.
2. Teach skills for grocery savings. Kids have no idea how much food costs and if they’re getting ready to live on their own, it’s a good idea to give them some background information. Incorporate menu planning, looking for sales and using coupons. And while we’re on the subject, give kids ideas on how to prepare meals beyond macaroni and cheese from a box. Practical meals, not elaborate dishes.
3. Teach skills for how to effectively and inexpensively clean a house/apartment. Go over the importance of home hygiene, including methods for organization and establishing some sort of cleaning routine that also discusses doing laundry. My husband lived in his fraternity house for 3 years. I speak from personal experience when I say that boys must learn how to clean! My immune system is greatly improved from the time I spent in that house. (This is not to say that girls are immaculate. But I don’t know anyone who got ringworm from living in a sorority house.)
4. Teach basic personal finance skills. This includes how to balance a checkbook or use online banking effectively, the pros and cons of credit cards, having a budget, how to create a budget, how to look for a job, the soft skills required to obtain and keep a job, and the importance of paying bills on time. You cannot function as an adult if you do not have this information. I will leave the discussion about student loans, car loans, mortgages, and any other sort of major personal finance decision to the discretion of the teacher. This information may be better suited for another type of class.

Some people may think that this is a bit too sophisticated for home economics. I respectfully disagree. These are all elements that are crucial to running, maintaining and keeping a home. Many kids do not learn these skills from their parents or guardians. And I will concede that on some level, it is the parents’ responsibility to teach these skills to their children. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, many parents don’t do it. My parents didn’t. I didn’t know how to cook, balance a checkbook, clean my room properly, pay a bill or even make my own doctor appointments until I went to college. I only learned how to do my laundry at 16 because I was on a cross-country trip where we stopped at laundromats to wash our clothes. There was no real reason my parents didn’t teach me these skills; they just didn’t think it was important. Whether they thought they would always do it for me or I was too stupid to learn, I’ll never know. But it was only through trial and error, and reaching back into the depths of my brain to recall what I learned in middle school, was I able to survive.

Kids who are in the foster care system are offered the opportunity to work with programs and mentors on Independent Living Skills as they prepare to age out of the system and I think it’s wonderful that they’re given that opportunity. They sure as hell deserve it. But I think we need to start doing a better job of preparing all students to be responsible and practical adults. Schools are a great place to start.