Figure 1.--Here we see children at an intermediate school inthusiastically involved in a cooking class. The boys seemed as interested as the girls.
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Figure 1.--Here we see children at an intermediate school inthusiastically involved in a cooking class. The boys seemed as interested as the girls. |
Home ecomomics dealing with household cooking and sewing skills, now often called textiles and clothing, have traditionally been the preserve of girls, just as boys have taken shop courses. In recent years increasing numbers of boys, taking a practical approach to modern life, have signed up for cooking classes--although the sewing classes are with few exceptions still all girl classes.
Intermediate schools introduce the children to a range of new subjects in which boys and girls participate together. The girls do woodworking and shop work with the boys. The boys do home economivs, especially cooking with the girls. Earlier these courses were gender specific with the girls doing home economics while the boys doing shop. Several of the boys were quite interested in the cooking projects at several schools we visited. Many may find the new skills useful. As far as we could tell, relatively few boys persued home economic in secondary school. We did not, however, some girls in the shop classes--especiaslly carpentry. This is, however, only a preliminary observation.
Here are some representative courses a school might offer in the different year level. The home economics program usually only runs to year 12 as because the year 13 program focuses on more academic programs.
