Bring Back Home Economics

Bring it back, make it a required course in the public education system. I know, I know, how can I campaign to bring this particular course back when so many other equally important classes are being cut—music, sports, etc. They are indeed all of significant value; they are all critical to human development, and removing them is arguably an atrocity and an affront to our human growth potential. However, this little rant cannot be about the importance of every class deemed “non-essential,” that would result in a tome or two. So to keep things in check, and at a readable length, this little rant is all about the importance of Home Ec.

Looking around at the current state of North American culture, it strikes me as abundantly obvious that as a society we are lacking some basic skills in personal life management. In fact, it seems so abundantly obvious that I almost feel like it is redundant to make the case here. However, clearly it is not as obvious to everyone as it is to me, because if it was then this rant would never have arisen in the first place, and sharing it would be entirely unnecessary.

As I scan the surface of North American culture I see a society that is running up huge amounts of personal debt and walking full speed ahead towards a life determined by obesity and its associated health considerations. Basic skills like budgeting, saving, accounting, personal nutrition, and simple cooking seem clearly lacking from dominant culture. All these skills seem to me to be paramount to success—not necessarily to a successful career, but to success in life, to staying afloat, staying alive, and staying healthy. All of these basic skills that they don’t teach you in elementary math, science, or English class, that are pivotal to a successful community and successful country seem to be MIA.

Hence, bring back home economics classes. We have a problem, and we have a decent solution—a curriculum that teaches these skills to the majority of the population at a time in their lives when they can easily be learned and gradually implemented as age appropriate—so why are we busy cutting this sort of education only to spend more money on obesity related health care and other preventable costs? I just do not understand, and I know that I am not alone in this confusion.

So I am begging the general population, the parents, the administrators, and the activists to recall the days when home economics were taught to all students, and envision a day when all children in Canada, and heck, lets say all of North America, have the basic skills to manage their lives on a day to day basis. A nation where students don’t graduate from high school unable to manage a bank account, and young adults don’t graduate from undergrad still oblivious to the perils of compound interest as it relates to debt. A nation that understands that nutrition involves more than Kraft Dinner and processed grains.

This vision is within our realm of possibilities, I know it is. We have the knowledge, we have the teachers, we have the students, all we need now is the drive to make it a reality.

In my fantasies I am born in a time when common sense is common, and basic education doesn’t have to be fought for. So hop on the rosy glasses bandwagon with me and lets bring back home economics as a core elementary school class, let’s teach those wee little things how to manage their homes and manage their lives, so that when they grow up, they will know how to meet their basic needs. They can feel a little more secure in their daily lives, and their energies can be directed to other more challenging endeavours.