Monday, May 7, 2018

Week of 05/07/2018


How About Teaching Home-Living?
I’m going to take a break this week from talking about politics to deal with something that’s off the beaten path.
The other week, my good friend and former fellow Shocknet Radio personality John Mill shared a post on Facebook that suggested that several courses should be mandatory for students to take in high school.  These included accounting, money management, doing taxes, how to build and keep good credit, establishing a job or career, proper nutrition, self-defense, and that they should be obligated to be fluent in at least one language other than English.
Now I remember from my years in high school that there were some of these classes, but not many of them.  Learning another language was droned in on me, certainly, and I actually learned two other languages at the time, namely French and BASIC programming.  (If you think about it, computer language is still another form of language.)  I fumbled with both, but I still knew just enough to be dangerous.  But other than that, the rest were not mandatory, and I think some of them really should be for all students in school.  Along with one other...
Basic home-living.
Yes, I know, some schools have what they call “home economics”, but that’s not mandatory, and, from its inception, it was designed for young women so they could become better housewives and mothers.  Not exactly keeping up with the times.  And it’s not exactly a “cool” course to take.  Guys would rather learn how to tune a car or build a birdhouse than to learn how to cook and clean.  And the idea of making better housewives doesn’t really appeal to young women looking to make a career first and a family later on.  Plus, most households need at least two incomes to survive.  It’s the 21st Century.  Deal with it.
Fortunately for me, my mother was smart enough to know that if I was going to college, I should first know some of these basic things.  She taught me how to use a washer and dryer.  She taught me how to use a vacuum cleaner.  She impressed on me the idea that I should clean up after myself, and not just because she “said so”.
Needless to say, when I got to college and started living in the dormitory, I knew how to take care of myself on my own.  The same cannot be said of other students, though.  Every year at the start of the new class year, we would find out quickly which of these “smart people” had no idea how to wash their own clothes.  We would know because they’d leave their still-dirty-but-very-wet clothes in the washer, or their dry-but-still-dirty clothes in the dryer all day.  Or they’d have soap suds all over the laundry room because they put in a whole container of detergent instead of a little bit.  (Keep in mind that this was long before those laundry pods were even an idea, never mind a stupid Internet dare.)
Now I’m sure you’re thinking “okay, these are stupid young adults who think they know everything.  They’ll grow up and figure this stuff out.”
And, you’re right.  Some of them did just that.
But now, decades later, I’m still seeing grown adults who don’t know how to do laundry, or how to do basic housekeeping tasks.  And this isn’t just at their home.  There are people in the workplace who don’t know how to replace a paper towel roll, or change out a toilet paper roll, or even clean up after themselves.  They expect other people to do that sort of stuff for them.
Let’s get brutally honest here... the goal of both parenting and education is to prepare the would-be-adults for the rigors of the real world.  That’s more than just reading and writing and how to catch a football.  If your child or your student does not know how to handle all of the rigors of the real world, and not just the “popular” ones, then you have failed.
How many of you know how to cook your own meals?  And I’m not talking about putting a frozen meal in a microwave or ordering take-out.  I’m talking hot stove, skillet, boiling liquids, cutting board, knives, measuring, chopping, marinating, seasoning, and, later, washing everything in the sink so you can do it all over again the next day.  You don’t have to be a “Master Chef” or even a “chef” to know these things.
And yet... when I tell people what I’m cooking, they get amazed like suddenly I have this great talent.  It’s not talent!  It’s a survival skill.  It’s something that I had to learn so I wouldn’t go broke eating delivered pizza and microwave dinners.  I’m not a chef.  I’m just some guy who needs to eat like everyone else.
I had to learn how to shop for groceries, and not just loading up on microwave dinners and Hot Pockets and soda.  I had to figure out how much stuff would cost so I wouldn’t go over what I had in my wallet.  I had to learn how to prioritize expenses.  What’s more important: paying the utilities for the month, or going to some convention in town?  Do I buy food, or do I get that new game console?
I had to learn these on my own.  But I also know that there are some folks who still don’t know how to do these things.  And we’re talking grown adults with children and even grandchildren.  It shouldn’t be trial-and-error, and we also shouldn’t just presume that every parent teaches these things to their kids.
And, like I said, it’s not just something for home.  I’ve known plenty of grownups who are in their thirties and forties and even fifties that act like they’re still fifteen and expect their mom to clean up after them at work.  They don’t change a paper towel roll, they leave used paper plates and plastic silverware everywhere, they leave microwave ovens a complete mess after using them, they leave refrigerator and freezer doors open, and, if they weren’t married, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have any clean clothes to wear.
Now housekeeping at work is not just a personal preference.  It is a matter of workplace safety.  A messy work area is not just a mess; it’s also a fire and safety hazard.  And leaving a mess in the break room, where people eat, is a potential health hazard.  You leave food and food debris on the tables and counters, and it attracts ants and cockroaches.  You leave the microwave full of food debris and you are leaving rotting food where other people put their own food in to heat up and then eat.  Cross-contamination can leave a lot of people sick, and, with health insurance costs as insanely greedy as they are, no workplace would want that kind of headache.
That’s why I think basic home-living should be a required course for every student in America.  People need to know how to live on their own, even if they never end up doing it.
I understand that public education in America has been under aggressive assault by conservatives.  Teachers are struggling to make ends meet as well as deal with ever-dwindling budgets for needed supplies.  I get it.  Join the club.  That’s a subject in-and-of-itself for another time.  But I think requiring basic home-living is a matter of priorities.  You tell me which is more important in the long-run: knowing how to live on your own without going hungry or bankrupt, or getting new bleachers for your football stadium?
It is high time that we accept that this is not America in the 1950’s, and being a housewife is no longer a “career” choice for people.  If we are going to expect both parents to work and have the children brought up by the education system, then being able to take care of yourself beyond just reading, writing, and math needs to be their responsibility as well.

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