Shouldn't We All Know This? by Antonia

Shouldn't We All Know This? by Antonia - September 2019 Scholarship Essay

Did you know how to do your own laundry when you left high school? Could you easily replace the button that fell off your sleeve, or cook yourself dinner without difficulty? Shouldn't we all know this? It use to be common place to take a Home Economics class to become comfortable and capable of using these skills, but that’s not the case anymore. Many students don’t have their parent/guardian teaching them these skills and will leave their homes and avoid these easy fixes. The button on their sleeve fell off? Buy a new shirt. No idea how to cook a proper meal? Microwave ramen.
Most schools have moved away from incorporating the class into their students' schedules for many different reasons, varying from not enough funding, staff, or time.That doesn’t mean the problem has gone away though, people should know how to do these things. Given the opportunity to create an extracurricular activity for high school I would make a before/after school Home Economics Class.
I imagine it to be an environment where everyone feels comfortable despite how much or little they previously knew. I envision a safe space of collaboration between students, staff, and the community. Staff and the community can provide the pupils with their knowledge and expertise and the students can provide for the community, such as low-income families. The students could hold events for the community, an example being “Home Ec. Dinners” or “Community Laundry Day”.These dinners should be free to those that are poverty-stricken, but donations can be accepted from others to continue the process. Another event could have the young adults sewing clothes and selling them for significantly discounted prices compared to stores, to local families.
I would like for this activity to create a strong support system for the town or neighborhood. The activity would bridge the gap between youth and adults. Not only this, but it has the potential to teach our young people skills they may never have learned otherwise. Think of a world led by people that are involved and dedicated to their community, are resourceful, and self-sufficient. The activity has the strength to create a safe and opportunistic place for troubled and/or introverted students where they can gain responsibility and make friends as well.
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” The key to a healthy world is having healthy communities. I believe this could be one of the many ways we could achieve that, by feeding every hungry mouth, sewing every fallen button back on, and making sure everyone has a shirt on their back.