# Why wasn't I taught anything about economics in "home economics" class? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 24, 2022, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200 "2022-08-24T02:28:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/21 "2022-08-25T18:13:50Z")
My great aunt was a home ec teacher; back in the '60s she created a “Bachelor Survival” class for senior boys so that was one way to break down gender barriers. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/22 "2022-08-25T19:08:19Z")
What a great idea! Can you interview her about this, or did she leave any records/experiences? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/23 "2022-08-25T19:13:56Z")
I graduated high school in 1984 and both boys and girls took the home economics course (basic cooking and sewing) and woodworking. I think we took this in junior high school so this would have been around 1980-81. I don’t remember any lessons about maintaining a checkbook, though I heard about that from my father. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/24 "2022-08-25T19:24:37Z")
Wild guess here: Our US school system was developed while most people were living in rural areas. Women we typically trained (not taught) for one of three jobs: farmers wife (if rural), secretary (if urban) or teacher. I believe that home economics was developed with economics in mind presuming once you had your egg-money (the term for the money the farmer’s wife has to take care of the home, referring to the money she made selling eggs) then how do you stretch it to take care of the home? Sewing clothes, home cooked meals using cheap ingredients or free from the farm, etc. Over time, as more people moved to the cities, the subject lost the living-on-a-budget economics component and evolved to the skills we think of today. Note: Janis Joplin majored in Home Economics at the University of Texas but never graduated. Jim Henson did however from the University of Maryland with a degree in Home Ec. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/25 "2022-08-25T19:25:51Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Both boys had absolutely no clue about how to cook anything and didn’t know things the girls felt they knew instinctively because they’d been helping mom for years. It’s not instinctive! Interesting. I don’t remember any boys having issues, even in the mid-60s. My father came from a restaurant family and ran a lunch counter before WW II, so I grew up assuming that boys should know how to cook. (In the Boy Scouts also.) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/26 "2022-08-25T19:30:45Z")
Maybe the boys in my high school were atypical, but I didn’t know any who did anything more complicated than assembling a sandwich or maybe making Kraft Mac & Cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/27 "2022-08-25T19:41:05Z")
Way back when in my high school days, no boys took Home Ec. It wasn’t because they weren’t allowed, it was because no boys ever took that class. Likewise, no girls ever took woodworking or welding. I really really wish I had taken the first year of Home Ec. I knew nothing about cooking when I got into the real world. And I still know very little. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200/28 "2022-08-26T01:25:26Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > What a great idea! Can you interview her about this, or did she leave any records/experiences? Sadly she died over 20 years ago. She was born in 1914. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-i-taught-anything-about-economics-in-home-economics-class/970200.md?page=1)