HOME EC STUDENTS GET A TASTE OF THE REAL WORLD

Cafe Mirabeau will be full of hungry customers. Every dish needs to be delicious and every plate will model a perfect presentation. A group of white-jacketed cooks runs between the stove and the cutting board. They quickly stir, chop, cut and whip. Meanwhile, the smell of home-made waffles topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup drifts through the air. You think that it is a scene from a dinner rush at a five-star restaurant. This is not exactly correct. Cafe Mirabeau is inside Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. It’s run by high school students. The students are taking a course in cooking. This is one of the school’s courses in “family and consumer science.” It used to be called “home economics.” The course was once for future housewives for working in the home doing household jobs like cooking and sewing. But the course now teaches students modern, real-world skills. It also prepares them for possible future careers. The students at Lamar learn how to cook along with food science. They also learn how to manage a business. The three-year program begins with a nutrition and food science course, an introduction to cooking and nutrition. Next, students learn gourmet-cooking techniques. In the third year, they create their own menus and run Cafe Mirabeau. They also get their own chef’s coats. “When I was in high school, we took food prep and sewing courses that did not lead to anything, the focus was on the family” said Leann Bennett. Bennett works for the Polk County school district. “Now, schools are changing,” she said, “and they’re preparing students for careers.” In the 1950s, high school girls signed up for home economics courses. They learned cooking, sewing, and other duties of a housewife. Only about one-third of women worked outside their homes. Today, nearly sixty per cent of women work outside the home or they are looking for work. “In this day and age, everyone runs a home and manages kids,” says Becky Hunt. Hunt is the director of career courses in the Humble Independent School District. “Women are working alongside men,” she adds. The new courses are also interesting to a new group: high school boys. In 1959, 48 per cent of high school girls took home economics courses. Only 1.3 per cent of the boys enrolled in this course. In 2002, however, boys made up 37 per cent of high school family and consumer sciences students. When Miss Polydoros first arrived at Lamar four years ago, home economics courses were not popular among the students at all. Miss Polydoros turned the old classroom into a training kitchen. In the first year, 180 students took the course. In 2010, 300 took the course. The course has opened new career choices. Some students have gone on to top cooking schools. Brajae Joyner is a 17-year-old student taking these courses. “This can help you with owning your own business, with running your own restaurant,” says Brajae.