Someone ask what I teach. I teach Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS). For the "older" generation in the audience, that is Home Economics in the modern age. My students are getting the FACS of life in my classroom. I start the beginning of the year telling my students that I am the only teacher who can, without reservation, tell them that everything I teach is something that they will use for the rest of their life. This is the reason many of us who teach FACS cannot understand why there are people in education and government who are trying to make our program extinct.
The way I explain it to my students is that everyone is going to have to intereact with other people (Interpersonal Relationships unit). We all love food and must eat (Foods and Nutrition), and we all wear clothing (Clothing Management). We are all going to live in some type of dwelling (Housing and Interior Design) and we will all use money in some way, either money we make or spending someone else's money (Personal and Family Finance). Most will have children of their own (Parenting) and even if they do not have children they will have to interact with them in some way (Child Development). These are truely "life skills" that everyone needs to be successful in every other aspect of their lives. Why would we not encourage students to take these classes rather than trying to throw the program away. Hopefully you can tell that I am passionate about what I teach.
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6 comments:
I think that FCS program is great! My friend taught that for years at Vilonia. She can make anything with food. I believe everyone should have to take it.
I admire your passion. I can't believe that people in education and government are trying to make your program extinct. After all, they all have such high regard for my subject area (music) - LOL!
Making your program extinct would be one of the many mistakes the government would make! Hopefully they will see the light before it happens.
I agree...those classes are life skills. They really should be required of everyone, especially the parenting and finance classes. Our FACS teacher is just awesome with the students. It's not the home ec. I had in school, that's for sure. In Food Science, she really does experiments in the kitchen with the kids. They make a "chemical" pie that everyone swears tastes like apple. I just have this thing against eating something called "chemical" pie, but I'm sure it's great. So much for my rambling...your classes and YOU are essential to the education of the students.
Why would that stop this program? Do people not need to know how to take care of themselves & others?
Hopefully everything will work out for you.
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