Consumerism is FACS thus Family and Consumer Sciences

Family and Consumer Sciences in the past few years has been very focused on career tracking.  Examples would be education in culinary arts readiness and courses related to the housing industry and the fashion industry.  This is great, students need a taste to decide what they want to jump into for their entire life.  Right now many programs are moving back toward nutrition due to the obesity crisis in America.

High Schools that have a comprehensive environment can offer FACS courses and they benefit all students. 

One component of FACS that often goes unnoticed is consumerism.  FACS or Home Economics if you will, was cut from schools during the 80's because it was too domestic.  This was a time when many school districts did away with anything that had to do with the home.  Sewing, Foods, Housing.  People said it was common sense and you could figure it out for yourself.  For me, it is a bit ironic that their has been a call for Home Economics to come back to education because so many families do not have time to teach their children basic life skills.  (And by the way I hate the term life skills.  It feels very dumbed down to me and trust me it is not.)

Students need to know things for everyday living like, how to get a job, how to buy a car, how to comparison shop, how to find an apartment, how to keep track of finances, how to work with the bank, how to get a loan, how to cook....and we go on and on.

There are so many children going through school systems that have not a clue as to how they should operate in life in regards to the above items.  Students have had more personal money in the last two decades than ever before but because they are targeted by advertising dollars they rarely know how to save money for themselves.  Think about he "economic good" FACS teachers could do if they just taught a little bit of consumer common sense to each student for just a trimester.   Schools should not be decreasing FACS they should be increasing FACS.  This is a bit of a sore spot for me as the district that I currently live in has cut FACS in the junior high schools so that they can put more focus on Math. 

Say what?  Do you think there is Math in Housing when designing a room?  Do you think there is Math in Foods when you measure items to follow a recipe?  Do you think there is Math when you measure for fitting of clothing?  The University of Minnesota did a study approximately 5 ago in conjunction with several other institutions across the US.  Guess what?  Those students involved in courses such as those just mentioned scored higher in Math on Standardized tests.  These are hands on concepts that are ingrained in students minds while working and using numbers.

FACS is a good thing.  Please fight to keep it in your schools it will help all children and keep you child practical and well rounded.

From the soon to be retired FACS teacher.

Jane

P.S.  Yes, I am occasionally random.  Get used to it