"Did Your School Let Boys Take Home Ec?"

[Janine]

In middle school I took Home Ec, also called Family and Consumer Sciences. My best friend Dillon and I had a blast learning to cook and sew in between goofing off and joking around.

[KyleEdric]

For my middle school, Home Ec and woodshop were required courses, and were available for both boys AND girls. The boys had no problem cooking and sewing, and the girls (myself included) enjoyed working in woodshop. We didn't have an actual "Home Ec" class in high school, more of a set of general cooking classes, Intro to Foods and Foods 1,2 and 3. They were loved by all genders thanks to the instructor Mrs. Marhalewitz. She was one of the school's favorite teachers.

Though please don't think that our high school was SUPER progressive. There was still a bit of homophobia and ableism that went around. 

[BeverlyAnn]

In middle school we were assigned classes with no electives other than band which got you out of PhysEd.  I was in the band because I DIDN'T want to be in a locker room with a bunch of boys.  The high school I went to in Georgia and the first high school I went to in Texas didn't allow boys to take Home Ec.  My senior year I went to a brand new high school and seniors could pretty much take what they wanted.  A few boys did take HomeEc mostly to be in a class full of girls.

f you think about it school should teach life skills. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic and people have no idea how to cook a basic meal. Both males, females of whatever background should leave school with the ability to wash themselves, care for their clothes, cook a meal, clean their home, maintain a budget (or at least know what one is) and to not be socially awkward.

I was lucky Cindy.  My mom was a nurse and sometimes worked shift work along with my father being career Army.  Since I had a disabled brother and a much younger brother, I had to help mom around the house quite a bit.  I could cook, clean, vacuum (hoover), do laundry and take care not only myself but my brothers by the time I was 13.  I didn't have a say in the budget then.   Dee sometimes says with all Mom taught me,  I'm a great little housewife.

[mac1]

No but I graduated in 1961.

[cindianna_jones]

For some reason... I think it was my music classes... I couldn't get shop scheduled. They let me take Home Economics instead. That was in junior high. The thing is, I really liked shop and wanted to take it. Home Ec was bore me silly bad. I already knew all that stuff! Had we learned to sew, that would have been different but they didn't teach that until high school. I never have learned to sew very well on my own.

[Serenation]

Home ec, sewing and typing was mandatory for boys at my trade school, just as welding, woodwork etc was mandatory for girls

[Arch]

I was miserable at sewing and would have needed more than a semester to become proficient--but it's hard to become good at something you hate to do.

The teacher, knowing that I had limited experience, suggested a simple project, a wraparound skirt. I had barely finished it when the other kids had gone on to second and even third projects. Near the end of the term, the teacher dressed me down for choosing such a complicated project.

[PrincessButtercup]

It was mandatory that all students, regardless of gender, take and pass basic cooking, basic sewing, and basic wood working in my junior high school - which considering it was WV, was quite progressive to have boys cooking or sewing and girls using tools. I barely passed all 3, but have gone on to become an awesome chef, I can mend basic clothing, and I still suck and have no interest in wood working. Though I can use all the basic tools and fix nearly anything in the house if I have to.

[AnxietyDisord3r]

I had wanted to take wood shop, but my counselor told me that shop was not an option for girls. I didn't know enough to call her on it, so I took a hideous sewing class with a bunch of hideous "mean girls" and hated pretty much every minute of it. Damn that counselor. She lied to me. Title IX guaranteed me equal rights to education, and she freaking lied to me--or the school did. I still get pissed off when I think about it. And I wish I hadn't been so meek about it, but that's how most girls were raised in my day.

I am so sorry to hear that. That's horrible!

My school (early 90s) was much more enlightened. Everybody ran through wood, metal, home ec, music for 6 weeks each. After the first year, you could pick electives which included stuff like screen printing (the only one I remember taking, maybe bc my crush was in it too).

In home ec we were supposed to use sewing machines and I got the teacher to let me do a jacket with the boys instead of a stuffed animal (why??) with the girls. Our home ec teacher was cool. (The cooking part involved a lot of sweets and was really popular.)

Some time after I graduated they needed more classrooms so they eliminated wood shop and metal shop. ((((

[Kylo]

Did anyone actually learn anything useful in home ec or woodshop??

About the only thing I retained from any of it was how to make a chocolate cake. Which is always useful. 

I couldn't tell ya how to use a sewing machine after the debacle with them in home ec. - those things were clearly invented by Satan to spread unholy mess and stabbed fingers here on earth. In wood shop someone forgot to use a spirit level to make tables that actually stand up, and I guess we did learn how to make a metal ashtray that would flip over if you were stupid enough to touch it while resting your butt there.

In all, I think cooking was the only thing that most kids would have benefited from (there were some in the class who just about knew how to make toast & tea and not much else). And I do actually enjoy cooking - maybe I got the bug from class, I dunno. My family used to look forward to what I brought back from cookery so it can't have been too bad.

[Elis]

Did anyone actually learn anything useful in home ec or woodshop??

About the only thing I retained from any of it was how to make a chocolate cake. Which is always useful. 

I couldn't tell ya how to use a sewing machine after the debacle with them in home ec. - those things were clearly invented by Satan to spread unholy mess and stabbed fingers here on earth. In wood shop someone forgot to use a spirit level to make tables that actually stand up, and I guess we did learn how to make a metal ashtray that would flip over if you were stupid enough to touch it while resting your butt there.

In all, I think cooking was the only thing that most kids would have benefited from (there were some in the class who just about knew how to make toast & tea and not much else). And I do actually enjoy cooking - maybe I got the bug from class, I dunno. My family used to look forward to what I brought back from cookery so it can't have been too bad.

Short answer; nope  . My food technology class only taught you how to cook professionally; for example following instructions on what ingredients to include and learning different types of production methods. This of course wasn't exciting to any of us and I doubt anyone wanted to do cookery for a living. It would of been far better if we learned how to cook certain recipes so we'd have some idea how to feed ourselves as adults.
Wood work wasn't much better. Again we were given different projects within the year and had to follow it to the letter. We also had to design the product as well. If you didn't want to do woodwork for a living these classes were completely pointless and left over from the 1950s when working class boys had no other choice than working in the local factory where these skills were needed.
I enjoyed using the sewing machine when for a part of the school year (I think it was year 9) we were given a break from woodwork and got to design our own design to put onto a drawstring bag.
I'm really bitter about secondary school generally. They taught us nothing useful.

[arice]

Did anyone actually learn anything useful in home ec or woodshop??

About the only thing I retained from any of it was how to make a chocolate cake. Which is always useful. 

I couldn't tell ya how to use a sewing machine after the debacle with them in home ec. - those things were clearly invented by Satan to spread unholy mess and stabbed fingers here on earth. In wood shop someone forgot to use a spirit level to make tables that actually stand up, and I guess we did learn how to make a metal ashtray that would flip over if you were stupid enough to touch it while resting your butt there.

In all, I think cooking was the only thing that most kids would have benefited from (there were some in the class who just about knew how to make toast & tea and not much else). And I do actually enjoy cooking - maybe I got the bug from class, I dunno. My family used to look forward to what I brought back from cookery so it can't have been too bad.

I learned how to sew enough to hem my husband's pants... that's about it from home Ec. I knew how to cook before that.
In shop, I learned a lot about large power tools that my grandfather didn't own.


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[Arch]

I think that a year of life skills would be useful to a lot of kids. Everybody eats, so basic shopping and cooking would be useful. Everybody should also have basic skills relating to transportation, budgeting, dealing with people, applying for jobs, and so forth. And, of course, the inevitable health class, which tends to have only a few basic messages: don't drive fast, don't smoke, don't drink, and do use a condom!

[LordKAT]

For me, Home Ec classes were required for girls, and shop classes were denied. Until my Senior year, also the first year the school had computers. I took every shop class and computer club, (no computer classes were offered).

[lisarenee]

When I was in Middle/High School (1990s), I don't believe it was required or prohibited based on gender. My mom got them to let me switch from Gym to Home Economics in 7th or 8th grade as I was repeatedly bullied/assaulted in the Boys' Locker Rooms. They didn't know I was trans* (only my parents and one other person knew at the time), but it was widely rumored that I was homosexual which put a target on my back.

[EDIT] The assignment of electives other than Gym and Computers (which were I believe required) was done by grouping students into "teams". Students on the same "team" typically had the same teachers and classes, but not necessarily during the same class period.

[BunnyBee]

My middle school (1989-91) mandated both girls and boys took at least one home ec class if I remember correctly. I know I took one. Cooking was fun, sewing was frustrating.

[Sydney_NYC]

In middle school (Junior High as it was called in Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System in NC) in the 7th grade (1983) everyone was require to take Home Economics and Shop. I remember making monkeybread as a treat during class. It was one of my favorite classes

[big kim]

I never cooked anything til I was 31, Dad never cooked anything til he was 84! Learning to cook would have been really useful

[Katja69]

Well diversified here.  In school, I took drafting, wood shop, metal shop, small engines, home economics, typing (required).  At home, I was already sewing, cooking and baking thanks to mom; with dad, I was pounding nails, laying nails, setting block walls, plumbing, electrical when I was 8 (along with fixing machines\engines and whatever) before the school classes.

Had little to no "play time," however I couldn't have asked for a better childhood (other than being born with the proper gender).

[WorkingOnThomas]

I almost always took shop when it was offered. I only went to one school where I had to take home ec, and there it was required for everyone to take it. Which wasn't a bad thing actually. Everyone should learn how to do basic cooking and sewing.