There is an Elephant in the Room in our School System!

Yep, and it is a noticeably big Elephant.

What is the Elephant?

Bluntly put, we are not teaching our kids enough life skills as part of their primary education. It is a problem. And, it is complicated.

As a parent, I can vouch for those who think our children would benefit greatly from a consistent life skills course.  Back in the old days, they used to offer somewhat of a finishing class for high-school students called Home Economics as part of our primary education.  It was great! Yes, it didn’t incorporate all of the necessary life skills a person would need when leaving high school, yet there were definitely some useful life skills that I can say I still use to this day, and my husband does too.

What happened to Home Economics? At times, but not always, it has been replaced with other more tech savvy courses in some schools. Then there is the issue of even having HR staff finding Home Economics teachers to educate students. If interested in the evolution of Home Ec., here is a really neat time line of Home Economics and where it is going in the future potentially.

So why has society deemed these types of skills less advantageous?

It isn’t exactly clear, and truth be told, it may be for many differing reasons. Given the fact that parents work outside of the house more than ever before, many kids and teenagers aren’t taught these practical skill sets by their parents, and Home Economics should really be making a come back to lend a helping hand.

Some people have over the years deemed these courses sexist, yet if we look at them without a veil of femininity plastered to them as they have evolved, cooking and cleaning need to be done, period.

Then there is budgeting, and taxes of which also don’t fall into the sexist dialogue, amongst other Home Economics Topics.  The main ones being:

• Foods And Nutrition.
• Home Management.
• Clothing And Textile.
• Consumer Education.
• Housing And Interior Decoration.
• Child Development And Care.
• Family Living.

Truth, there is nothing wrong with learning life skills that build a person’s self reliance. When kids know how to do basic life skills that will help them be more productive and helpful, all of society benefits over time. When teenagers turn into adults who clean up after themselves, their living environments benefit.

Learning to take care of your home environment is healthy for a persons physical and mental well-being. Learning life skills offers society a lot of positives. It also benefits the individual immensely, and even the environment.

For instance, as a person, it is empowering to know how to do things like fixing a tire, changing car fluids, or even just knowing a part of a vehicles basic terminology so you can relate and discuss with a mechanic your cars issues.

How did the school systems lose sight of practical life skills?

Yes, I’m not saying that all school curriculums are without practical skill sets. And, Home Economics is still taught in some schools.  The name may have changed in some schools even to Family Studies.  Yet, I am saying that most schools lack having practical skills development as part of their primary curriculum these days.  Some practical skills may fall into Electives.

Yet, that is just it, the course is therefore not mandatory if it is an elective. To get a conversation going in this blog, where in Canada and the United States is Home Economics still taught as part of the primary curriculum?

You see, the potential issue we run into as a society as a whole, when students lack these essential life skills, well, there is a possibility for older generations to do a lot of hand-holding until these students become more self-reliant.

When we take an even deeper look at how our school systems work, there is this lack of connection between primary disciplines verses secondary ones.  Secondary disciplines which might contain some life skills…

As an example, let us look at math as a primary discipline. We learn how to solve math problems, yet we do not connect this to life skills as much as we should.  Math is very much needed in so many aspects of our daily lives outside of school: baking for measurements of flour and sugar, other measurements for drafting household items. Math can and should be connected to our real life needs and experiences, not just in a textbook.

Where do we go from here?

As it stands, there is a need for practical life skills that are always going to serve a purpose.  These skills may even help climate change, click here to find out how!  These skills in our modern day society are necessary and should be considered gender neutral.  We need not stamp sexist on knowing how to cook, clean, or change our sinks plumbing. People can benefit from learning them, and we at Rarely Taught, but should be, are here to have them make a come back!

A Littler humour.

My last thought whilst writing this article. Thank gosh my husband took Home Economics when it was available, as he makes a much better Roux sauce than I ever could. Yes, everyone would benefit from real world skills that make life after high school a lot easier of a transition.