Whether it is cooking in the kitchen, sewing up a patch in jeans, or changing a tire, students are no longer provided with this useful life knowledge.

Home economic classes were important in the past years in high school – and still are – but the closest things students may have now is an “Ag Mechanics” class. Students are not receiving the information they may need for the real world due to the lack of these classes. They may learn of taxes and mortgages, but how much longer before the school board decides that students should learn those skills themselves later on in life?

Speaking to past generations, these classes allowed people to learn useful qualities that they have carried into their later years in life. 

People like Karen, a 1994 Ceres High School graduate, learned how to make the very clothes that they were wore to school in their home economics class, while people like Steven Campbell learned the skills necessary for sustenance when he found himself out of the home on his own.

“I mostly learned the basics of cooking and stuff – I learned how to use a stove properly, boil water, and how to cook simple things like eggs and bacon,” Campbell said. “It was good for me to learn because my parents were always at work so I was able to make myself some breakfast.” 

Studying cooking or basic safety precautions could be beneficial for students if they do not have the right people at home to provide food for them, or if they are ever in a time of an emergency where they may need to know certain procedures. For example, an oil fire is very difficult to put out, and in the situation of an oil fire pour water on it, not knowing the outcome will be an even worse explosion of fire. If this were taught in home economics classes, students in this situation would know that in order to put out an oil fire, they must first wet a towel or rag and cover the pot or pan on fire, and it will extinguish due to lack of oxygen.

This information could save lives, but may sadly not be as well known due to lack of classes teaching it.

Overall, students should be given the decision whether or not to take or attend classes where they learn to cook, clean, and even safety precautions.