What Ever Happened To Home Economics?

By Susan Coney

Whatever happened to home economics class? It use to be, back in the day, that the boys attended shop class, learning to swing a hammer, while the girls took home economics to mold them into Betty Crocker wannabes.

In 1937 the Department of Education deemed that seventh grade girls should be taking such classes as “The Intelligent Mother’s Helper,” and “Development of a Pleasing Personality,” a far cry from the classes taught in today’s schools.

In 1900, Martha Van Rensselaer was hired as Cornell University’s first home economist to run a reading program for farm wives. Cornell, the only Ivy League institution in the country with a College of Human Ecology, which is the study of physical, cultural, economic, social, and aesthetic environment that surrounds human beings from birth to death, has as its lofty mission to improve the human condition and to empower people to better their situation for themselves. Today’s home economists are designing superior office furniture and developing safer fabrics for firefighters. They are studying the connections between disease and nutrition and are involved, as their home economic predecessors were, in realizing huge changes in social welfare and human rights.

The politically correct term for what was in the past referred to as home economics, is now family and consumer sciences and it is not just for girls anymore. At Newtown Middle School all seventh and eighth graders complete a rotation of the family and consumer science class each year. Instructor Rose-Ann Beck has been teaching the course at the middle school for the past eight years.

Ms Beck said that all middle school students participate in an eight-week rotation of family and consumer sciences, which deals with hands on experience to assist them in navigating their way through life. The course teaches students practical, life lessons dealing with such subjects as nutrition, portion control, eating healthier snacks, safety in food preparation, staying fit, and even how to handle a needle and thread. It teaches basic, everyday common sense knowledge that everyone should know.

When entering Ms Beck’s classroom last week, with its numerous kitchen workstations, it is evident that the students are focused, self-directed, motivated, and pretty self-sufficient. The seventh graders are finishing up the food studies portion of the course in today’s session and will begin sewing classes next week.

The final lesson in the kitchen is a sure-fire favorite with the kids — the making of a classic homemade pizza. In previous classes the students learned about yeast and the scientific role it plays in the making of any type of dough product. The class, with a total of 12 students, breaks into small groups and begins the process of cooperatively following the recipe step-by-step to achieve an end product resulting in a crisp, piping hot pizza. Definitely the most difficult task before them is deciding what toppings to put on the pizza; but not to worry, each student gets his or her own section of the pizza to adorn.

As the students work they must adhere to a strict time schedule; the class is only 54 minutes long. Little time is wasted as each team of students begins the pizza preparation. Ms Beck acts as a cheerful coach, ever mindful of keeping everything safe and clean in the kitchen and while maintaining a watchful eye on the clock.

In addition to making the pizza the students have made corn muffins, raisin cookies, and monkey bread, which is bread dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar with a smidgen of butter. Seventh grader Danielle Villa said, “I like being able to cook and then eat it right away. It’s a really nice way to end the day because I have this class last period.” Classmate Emily Silveira agreed, saying, “It’s one of my favorite academic classes.”

Student Robert Carroll said he enjoyed the class a great deal. “I think it is really fun making food with your friends and then the best part is we get to eat it,” he shared.