Discover the eggs benedict inside your poached egg

EDIT: Fixed formatting at work. A post with no paragraphs drives me crazy.

Our local fish wrapper featured a front page article on how home economics is redefined in the 21st Century, supposedly redefined by the “progressive” home ec. classes offered in our district. Rather than learning sewing or cooking, according to the article, students study interior design, family health or “how to become better citizens,” among other options. The thrust of the article grated at my nerves in general, but this quote rankled me the most:

They are more likely to learn how to avoid credit card debt than how to poach an egg.

If more people knew how to poach an egg, maybe there just might be less credit card debt.Also, this quote is not accurate. My son Tee took one of the classes the article’s author highlighted and it was all about cooking and nutrition. He had to cook a dish a week at home all by himself, including clean up chores. It couldn’t be from a box; it had to be from a different subset of cooking each week. He made smoothies, hummus, a pot pie, salsa, fried rice, spaghetti squash boats, among other dishes. He did a report on honey’s nutritional properties and made a dish to bring to class; he researched Vietnam’s cuisine and brought in a Vietnamese dish. We’ve taught all of our kids how to cook, but Tee was the shyest in the kitchen. Not any more, however. I know, without a doubt, that all my kids can feed themselves more than easy mac.

Genni McMahon, the Well Dressed Recluse, discusses in her post Art! the blessings of waiting for something that’s expensive, concentrating on how learning a craft or hobby doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor at first. To quote her:

I strive to teach my students that sewing needn’t be a tremendously expensive undertaking–particularly not at first.

Maybe if more teachers would take the wise approach Genni takes with her students, a larger demographic of kids would be interested in sewing. I always wanted to know how to sew, but my home ec. teacher thought sewing a monkey puppet out of thick faux fur was a beginner project. When I completed my stretched out chipmunk (which is what it resembled when finished), I was through with sewing.

And, thinking about it further, who says kids aren’t interested in learning about more traditional crafts? Knitting has gained a huge resurgence, especially with young, punk, DIY people. Beginning sewing patterns couldn’t be more hip than they are today. We have more choices at the supermarket than we can shake a stick at. Did anyone spy starfruit at the local grocer back in 1983?

TPTB work and weasel their way in, trying to convince us we can’t do anything with our own two hands without the state. “Being a good citizen,” according to the local paper, equates theorize and do pretty much nothing, unless it has something to do with obesity or anorexia. Then you can do something that’s , well, theoretical. I say, “You want to be subversive? Learn how to poach a fucking egg, sew a shirt, knit a scarf, grow a vegetable.” Whatever. Just try something new, created by your own two hands.