When speaking to your distant uncle that you probably see every other year at your family’s Christmas dinner you have surely been asked the question, “So, how’s school going kiddo?” With this, comes your awkward generic response and he adds, “…and what do you guys do in Home Ec nowadays?” still stuck back in his high school days. You respond, either reminding the old man that it’s not a real class anymore or maybe questioning what the ancient “home economics” thing he speaks of even is. However, after walking the halls of Westmont for three years and interacting with some needless to say… interesting figures, I have decided that it is time to bring Home Ec back!
All the signs are clear, Gen Z needs this class! Girls now spend a quarter of a million dollars on a pink lemonade Starbucks drink every year, send their entire bank accounts to China in exchange for half clothes from Shein made of plastic, and some even give money to the little yellow ghost on their phone to see whether they are number one on someones “best friends list”. There’s couples making out in the hallways, and students somehow showing up to school in pajamas mistaking their desks for beds? Worst of all, they have suffered the recent “I Want Watermelon” epidemic, affecting students so badly that their brains have started to merge ordinary objects into coconuts, only an inch apart conjoining a watermelon! It’s not just our current high schoolers who are in need of Home Ec classes either. We should be equally as vigilant about Gen Alpha behind us, full of Sephora girls and iPad kids who have no social skills whatsoever.
The Home Ec class I propose will be an updated version of the one that used to be taught. While still focusing on the very basic skills needed for life, such as how to sew a button onto your shirt and use a power drill, the course will also cover material on how to behave appropriately online and how to spend money, which is clearly a struggle for many. Both boys and girls will be taught these skills which will help further eliminate the stereotypical expectations of women in the household. The class should also work to educate students about AI, helping them understand its dangers, how easy it is to detect in their writing, and finding ways to use it appropriately for the future. Gen Z also needs major work on their social skills. This Home Ec class would work most efficiently if students were required to turn in their phones and interact with each other in character building activities. Maybe this will give them the chance to learn how to use a landline for once!
When society got rid of the Home Economics Class did they mean to deprive their incoming generations of these skills? That’s certainly what they got out of it. Did they justify its removal saying that there wasn’t enough to teach to consider it a real class? Nowadays there is a boatload more to teach and it is time to bring the class back! Westmont needs Modern Home Economics.