Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do we still need home economics on the NCEA curriculum?

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

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9d ago 1:58

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I have to be honest with you, because it's been a little while since I sat in the home economics class in Tuakau College - so there is a fair chance that my experience is a little out of date by about 20 years and I might just make a fool of myself with what I'm about to say next.

But I do not understand the angst about Erica Stanford dropping home economics from the NCEA curriculum.

There is an opinion piece in The Spinoff today, and it's arguing against Erica Stanford removing this 'vital' subject from our school subject list because it's a 'moral decision,' - because, quote, 'everyone deserves to know what's in their food, how it affects their health, and how to make choices that support their overall well-being.'

Now, I tend to agree with that. You should know what's going on in your food. But from what I understand, home ec is still being taught and will still be taught to years 9 and 10 in some form or another, that's not going to change.

And if you cannot learn in the space of 2 years that you need to eat your fruit and your vegetables and your meat and maybe avoid the processed stuff and the sugar, then I don't have much hope that you're ever gonna learn this stuff.

And what's more, we are already one of the most obese nations on this planet. So home economics hasn't done very much for us in helping us to keep ourselves healthy in the last 114 years that it's been around, has it?

But also, and I think this is the most important thing, come on - did you actually learn anything in home ec?

Libby, who works with us, reckons that in one class, she spent the entire class just learning how to make a sandwich.

I remember setting a pot of oil on fire and and then running around with it and being taught how to put the fire out. So I suppose that's semi-helpful, but I also learned how to cut carrots, which, frankly, I should have known anyway.

All of this stuff, you can learn at home.

Now, home economics strikes me as one of those subjects that the country would be better off dropping altogether and replacing with another session on maths.

Don't you agree?

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