Just got done watching an epidode of “Strangers With Candy” where Jeri participates in a class project where she pretends she is married to another student. I also remember an episode of Beavis and Butthead where Coach Buzzcut has the students care for a rock or a loaf of bread as a baby or something. And there are other TV shows that use this class lesson as a plot device. Pay window:
I DO NOT KNOW ONE SINGLE PERSON who has ever taken a class where they are paired up with another student as their “husband” or “wife”, or where they care for a “baby”.
I thought I heard about this at my High School, but I really am not 100% sure. Are there really classes or projects like this? Or is this urban legend? Or worse yet, is being tracked in AP in High School 15 years ago going to mean my upcoming marriage will be a disasater?
I’ve never heard of marriages, but I had to take care of a ‘baby’ (sack of flour) for a week. In junior high one class had to take care of a hard-boiled egg.
My bag broke and I killed my baby, so I think I failed.
I have so many thoughts going through my head that sometimes it’s hard to finish a
Just call me the queen of high school domesticity. (No, not really–don’t say it) Anyway, in high school, not only did I have to take care of a flour baby, I had to participate in planning, organizing and actually going through with a mock wedding. Had to rent crappy taffeta dresses, tuxes, flowers, make food, the whole nine yards. Did it teach me anything? Of course not.
Those who are dancing look insane to those who cannot hear the music.
One-of-a-kind, custom-designed Wally sig available on request.
Where I work (A Vo-Tech Center), they do the mock wedding and the baby thing every year. In fact, the baby is an actual baby doll with a computer box inside. It simulates a baby and records data on how the baby was taken care of. It is very realistic, because at any time, the “baby” can cry and the student has to figure out why. Also the student has to spend time with the baby and play with it.
The baby records all the data for evaluation by the instructor. It’s much better than the sack of flour, rock, or egg that they used when I was in High School.
-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
I can see the point of the mock baby, especially as described by Dragwyr, but what is the point of having to plan a mock wedding? You’re not really learning anything about being married, just about the party to celebrate it. What was the objective of that lesson, evilbeth?
(BTW, our high school also did the flour sack thing in the Home Ec class. I didn’t take the class, but I remember a couple weeks in there when our school’s hallways were coated in flour.)
Ahhh! I thought my high school was the only one that did mock weddings there for a while - being in rural southern Missouri, it was a learning experience for some folks…if nothing more than “Okay, you want to get married. Muuuhahaha, plan a fake one first, then see if you still want to do it.”
Speaking of flour babies, has anyone read the recent news story where 2 boys carrying flour babies were fined about $150 apiece when they broke on a city bus?
Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh.
I haven’t specifically heard about mock weddings, but one idea behind the mock marriage is to pair up two students and learn how to budget, divide chores, plan jointly, etc.
It’s more domestic science than human relations.
I understand all the words, they just don’t make sense together like that.
You got it. In my high-school mock marriage, one part of the experience was going to a grocery store and working out a food budget.
Although I suspect that the actual effect of the mock marriage was teaching the girls to plot against one another and snare the particular fella they wanted…
In the high school here in town, they did the flour baby thing. The teacher noticed that one pair of students had left their flour baby on a table, unattended. So the teacher replaced the flour sack with a loaf of bread.
I get the purpose of the fake baby deal, but marriage? It would only teach the kids something useful if they had to LIVE together day in, day out, share a bathroom, have boring, uninspired sex with each other and no one else, and have to make conversation over the breakfast table. Oh, yeah, and take a vacation with several screaming sacks of flour.
Now, THAT would keep them from jumping into marriage!
We had a project like this in sixth grade home ec (which was required for everyone). There was no “marriage,” but each of us had to care for a baby–a balloon. We drew faces on them, dressed them, carried them around school in carriers, etc.
Our teacher graded us on having kept the babies with us at all times (asked the teachers of our other classes, sent notes home to our parents) and on how well-kept our babies looked (are you pushing it in a stroller or is it crammed in your backpack? Is it dressed suitably for the weather?)
Of course, she marked the balloons so you couldn’t replace your baby if it popped. None of them did, but some of my classmates’ children developed slow leaks and were pretty mushy-looking by the end of the week.
I don’t think most of us really learned anything. Taking care of a balloon does not approach the responsibility of taking care of a baby. The mock marriage idea, with the requirements of budgeting, decision-making, etc., would probably be more useful.
I was paired with the head of the cheerleading squad (such a sick joke to play on such a wholesome girl) and we had to take care of a potted plant. Our child soon developes an evil twin with five serrated leaves. Frankly, the sex stuff they taught us in the class was redundant. It would’ve been better if they’d taught us the basics of household finance.
Well, having planned a wedding, I would have to say that it didn’t prepare us for much! But the main goal was that ahead of time, we had already decided (similar to the game, Life) how much money each person (bride & groom earned, how much their “parents” would contribute, how many people would attend that would have to be fed, etc. So we had to plan the wedding with the resources we had. Kind of a budget exercise but also a planning one since we had to call around and find out which establishments had the stuff we needed for the day we needed it, etc. I don’t remember if we did the post-wedding, newlywed budget thing or not–I wasn’t the bride, only a bridesmaid!
Those who are dancing look insane to those who cannot hear the music.
One-of-a-kind, custom-designed Wally sig available on request.