Do you know how to cook? If so, do you actually take the time to cook? Do you plan on teaching your kids to cook someday? I've read several articles lately that talk about the importance of preparing and cooking healthy food in your house AND teaching your kids to do it too. "Back in the day," we used to learn some of that at school...I grew up knowing it as Home Ec. As of 1994, it started being called FACS (Family and Consumer Science).
Now, it seems, we need to pick up the slack again as parents because most of these "extras" have been cut from the school curriculum. This can mean that basic cooking skills can get lost, translated into after-school specials, trade classes or electives if they're not ignored altogether. And if home ec is ignored or replaced by more academic classes, then learning how to cook, something that was once routinely taught at home, is now often not taught at all.
I researched a few sources on this subject. Here are some thoughts from a NY Times article: "Revive Home Economics Courses to Fight Obesity" (Sept. 2011)
Today we remember only the stereotypes about home economics, while forgetting the movement’s crucial lessons on healthy eating and cooking.
Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home thanks to subsidized corn and soy, have contributed to an enormous health crisis. More than half of all adults and more than a third of all children are overweight or obese. Chronic diseases associated with weight gain, like heart disease and diabetes, are hobbling more and more Americans.
In the midst of contracting school budgets and test-oriented curricula, the idea of reviving home economics as part of a broad offensive against obesity might sound outlandish. But teaching cooking — real cooking — in public schools could help address a host of problems facing Americans today. The history of home economics shows it’s possible.
Next, parts from a recent Cooking Light article: Sept 2012 "Bring Back Home Ec!"
The classes used to be one year long, now are 9 week courses. There is an entire generation of "lost girls and boys" who have graduated from high school with few practical home-making skills like cooking. ( approximately 25%!)
Today's FACS classes, if offered at all, have shifted their focus to the jobs market, such as training young chefs, caterers, hotel and restaurant managers, child care workers, and fashion merchandisers. You don't necessarily get the basic skills of cooking, nutrition, and household management.
Marilyn Wagner, a FACS teacher in Colorado, commented in this article that "We are so focused on getting kids ready for college, but we're not preparing them for life.
Americans are growing up not knowing the whats, whys, and hows of eating healthy. Since 1980, as traditional home ec classes waned, the rate of obesity among children ages 2-19 tripled. Every child should have the basic skills of preparing fresh food, but many don't grow up in an environment where there's someone to teach or model them.
Have you thought about this before? Maybe you are thinking, "I have NO extra time for cooking or teaching my kids how to do it!" Well, you have to make time for it, just like making time to exercise. It doesn't just happen. This is important and we can all benefit. It's just too easy to swing through the drive-thru or heat up a frozen pizza on busy nights. Teach your kids how to plan ahead and make preparations. Show them how good you are at multi-tasking AND cooking. It will also take some of the burden off of you if they are the ones in the kitchen preparing and cooking supper. We have to be good role models.
