What I Learned at My High School Reunion
I recently attended my high school reunion in Berea, Ohio. I haven't seen many of my classmates since I was 17. Some were a bit thin, some a bit round. All told, most of them looked pretty good!
As we took a tour of the school building, one of the topics of conversation was - what else? - food. We talked about how great our school lunches were and how the "lunch ladies" made everything from scratch. Our mothers always knew what we were eating, and they knew it was good. That conversation segued into memories about home ec class - like the time I partnered with the valedictorian of our class to make apple crisp and I burned the whole thing. She was really worried that the incident was going to affect her grade and status in our class. It didn't, by the way, and I bet that she, like me, still knows how to make this recipe by heart!
I've said this before in this space, and I think it bears repeating here: It's time to bring home economics back to schools - for both girls and boys. It doesn't matter what we call it, but children today really need to learn life skills like cooking. That Martha Stewart has been able to make a fortune teaching home economics skills to consumers tells me there is a need out there and we might as well start filling it early.
A number of schools do offer home economics (often called family and consumer science these days) as an elective. Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, and David Ludwig MD, PhD, both prominent researchers - she at Tufts University and he at Harvard - think that home ec should be mandatory, and they explain why in a commentary in the May Journal of the American Medical Association:
Even more than before, parents and caregivers today cannot be expected or relied on to teach children how to prepare healthy meals. Many parents never learned to cook and instead rely on restaurants, take-out food, frozen meals, and packaged food as basic fare. Many children seldom experience what a true home-cooked meal tastes like, much less see what goes into preparing it. . . . Girls and boys should be taught the basic principles they will need to feed themselves and their families within the current food environment: a version of hunting and gathering for the 21st century. . . .Ultimately, as this generation of school-aged children and adolescents reaches adulthood, they may serve as positive role models for their children and, through their longterm purchasing habits, ensure healthful food choices are readily available in homes, supermarkets, and restaurants throughout the country.
In England, "cookery lessons" will be compulsory in secondary schools for children aged 11 to 14 beginning in 2011. The government has recruited and trained specialists to help run the classes and has made the equivalent of almost $2 million available for new continuous professional development programs to train teachers to teach practical cooking classes. Jolly good idea.
I strongly agree with Drs. Lichtenstein and Ludlow when they say: "A renovated home economics curriculum could equip young adults with the skills essential to lead long healthy lives and reverse the trends of obesity and diet-related diseases. . . . Providing a mandatory food preparation curriculum to students throughout the country may be among the best investments society could make."
