We can chalk this up to the fact that I attended private school most of my life, but I genuinely thought that classes like home economics and wood shop stopped existing at some point in the late 1980s. Because my school didn’t offer home ec, and I had only ever seen students in movies baking in school, I just assumed these types of courses were not offered anywhere.
Boy, was I wrong! Fellow Takeout staff members blew my mind when they all told me they had taken home economics or at least some form of it. Although it wasn’t called home economics, both Dennis Lee, staff writer, and Brianna Wellen, associate editor, did some sewing back in high school. Staff writer Lillian Stone did in fact take home economics in middle school and in high school. Stone learned valuable skills such as budgeting, light cooking, taking care of an egg as if it were a human baby, and, most importantly, how to make a roux. The egg baby may stand out to some, but as someone who just made a roux for the first time this past Thanksgiving, I have to say the egg baby is nothing.
However, the staff member with the most memorable home economics experiences would have to be editor in chief Marnie Shure. Labeled as “Home Arts,” Shure’s class watched incredibly detailed videos about how detergent washes clothes, and the curriculum involved learning the best method for dishwashing. (Lesson learned: never go from hot water to cold water too fast.) Sewing was also included in this course, but the real kicker was the safety training. “We also had a worksheet in which we had to circle all the stuff in a home kitchen that made it a dangerous environment for babies,” Shure said.
I am now completely jealous that I missed out on these essential life skills at such a young age. I mean, imagine the roux I could have been making all this time. Did any of our readers out there take home economics? What did you make?