America Used to Teach High School Students to Machine. What Changed?
15th September 2026
When my parents went to high school, the boys were taught a useful skill that would get them a job and the girls were taught what they would need to know to run a household as wives and mothers.
Now it is assumed that everyone is going to college, whether or not they’ve got the smarts for it, and nobody gives a shit if you don’t fit that pattern.
September 15th, 2026 at 14:38
I took Home Ec in high school – it’s where I learned to dislike coil electric stoves.
September 16th, 2026 at 05:26
My Home Ec was my mother saying “I doubt any woman is going to want to marry you so you’d better learn how to do this stuff yourself.”
On the other hand, I learned how to sew before I could read, so I’ve got that going for me.
September 16th, 2026 at 13:49
When I was in high school, a number of the boys signed up for Home Ec. We, of course, gave them a lot of grief about it, but their logic was strong: The class was mostly girls and they got to eat cookies and cake.
I saw a video a while back (10-15 years?) in which a high school shop class was forbidden by the school board from having power tools. The shop teacher, faced with having his class phased out, modified the tools they had to be hand-cranked. They had a hand powered band saw, for example. It was slow, but it at least worked. To me it was shocking. The whole point of shop class was to learn how to use basic tools that might well get you a job in the future. Indeed, that’s what happened to most of the kids who took the class.
If you travel into Amish country, you can still find hand operated drill presses and foot powered lathes. Amish workers are nearly 100% employed.
September 16th, 2026 at 14:35
I would require all men to take Home Ec nowadays, since cooking and cleaning is apparently beneath the dignity of the Strong Independent Woman (who apparently has servants).
I love watching the Amish at work. Sometimes the old ways are best.