Home Economics Now Puts Focus on Environment : Simi Valley High teacher says today’s students discuss the rain forest and argue over what type of grocery bag to use.
Lyn Wong is a home economics teacher at Simi Valley High School.
“I’m very proud of my area,” she said when I expressed surprise that this subject is still being taught. Indeed, it’s attracting more students every year. But what’s of interest to Earthwatch readers is that the “area,” as Wong termed it, is becoming a setting for environmental activity.
“They’re very concerned about the rain forest and lumbering in the Northwest . . . they’ll argue about what kind of bag to use at the grocery store . . . they don’t want red meat,” Wong said, recalling some recent lively classroom discussions. “It’s an awareness” gained from the media more than the school textbooks, she said. Still, she does encourage “supplemental school reading about the relationship between the planet and home economics.”
At other high schools--Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Moorpark--I learned that these topics are discussed in classes that have titles such as Marriage and Family, Consumer Education, Economics, Food Class and even Career Technology.
By virtue of being enrolled in home economics classes, Wong’s students become members of the Future Homemakers of America (FHA). Yes, this venerable organization still exists. Now co-ed, with more than 250,000 members nationwide, it conducts regional and national competitions in various disciplines such as cooking and money management.
Wong and a hearty band of California home-ec teachers have managed to get a statewide environmental competition going--on such issues as home energy conservation--but the national organization hasn’t added this category to its docket yet.
“I’m a big promoter of FHA,” Wong said, and she invited calls from other teachers in the county who might be interested in activating a chapter or expanding the activities of an existing chapter.
One of the interesting “supplementary reading” books she’s using is a just-released paperback with the title “Students Shopping For a Better World.” It’s compiled by the Council on Economic Priorities, the same group that did the widely sold Ballantine paperback “Shopping For a Better World.”
Listing products most often bought by teen-agers, it rates the various manufacturers according to environmental good citizenship--and also by their minority and gender hiring and promotion practices. Young readers quickly get the idea that their shopping habits can influence corporate behavior.
Another tome the students are checking out at Simi Valley High is “The Green Supermarket Shopping Guide,” a new Warner Books paperback by John F. Wasik. It rates individual products by revealing such things as how often made-from-recycled material is incorporated into the item and its packaging.
I looked the book over myself and found it thoughtful and--as these things go--an example of snappy writing. One chapter delivers “A Brief History of Bad Green Claims Caught By Regulators.” Fun.
“Students Shopping for a Better World” gets in a few punches with a section titled AD MAD, wherein young people are shown how to look at advertisements more critically. One admonition that might have some effect is “Write companies or call their toll free customer service number to let them know that when you’re deciding what to buy, you care more about the environment . . . and less about commercials.”
My little survey of home economics classes in the county revealed a rising curve of interest in environmental matters.
Gary Talbott, a consumer education teacher at Thousand Oaks High, and Guy Aronoff, an economics teacher at Memorial High in Moorpark, both reported that classroom discussions have been taking on a green tinge because of local news on Weldon Canyon and other subjects that touch upon population growth and pollution threats.
I guess food class, which is what home-ec is called at Talbott’s school, must be a much more serious business than it was when I was in high school. Wong put it most succinctly by quoting a brief passage from the students’ shopping book: “Another Day, a Better Way.”
Richard Kahlenberg, who writes the weekly Earthwatch column, has been reporting on the environment since Earth Day I. Nowadays he recycles everything. You can write to him at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura, 93003, or send faxes to 658-5576.
Details
* FYI: Students or teachers interested in information on Future Homemakers of American can call Lyn Wong at Simi Valley High at 520-6850. For copies of “The Green Supermarket Shopping Guide” by John Wasik, check your local paperback store or call (800) ECO-FACTS. For copies of “Students Shopping For a Better World,” compiled by the Council on Economic Priorities, check your bookstore or call (800) 729-4237. Both of these 800 numbers also provide information on the environmental character of individual consumer products.
