THE EVOLUTION OF DAME SCHOOLS: How home economics classes evolved into modern food labs

How home ec has evolved to address modern family needs FROM DAME SCHOOL TO FOOD LABS

BY JULIE K. YATES | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER L. RUBENSTEIN | GRAPHIC BY CARYN SCHEVING

When a visitor entered a typical Indiana junior high school in 1966, chances are they would notice a delicious aroma coming from a far corner of the building. If they followed that scent down the hall and into the room where it was wafting from, the guest might have viewed clusters of aproned teenaged girls in several mini-kitchens. As the noise from spoons clanging against metal mixing bowls mingled with chattering voices, the students likely checked time sheets and consulted purple-ink mimeographed recipes. And there was a high probability that the creation of that home economics food lab would have been a made-from-scratch cake or pie.

Fifty years ago, devising class schedules might have been a little simpler for Indiana seventh and eighth grade guidance counselors than it is today. Every student took math, English, history and their other required courses—and if you were a boy, one of those required classes would have fallen into the industrial arts category while the girls enrolled in home economics.

These days, middle schools and high schools offer a myriad of choices, Foods One is no longer a required course, and the nutrition and wellness courses have been absorbed into the discipline of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS)—a large umbrella including classes for everyone such as Interior Design, Fashion and Textile, Child Development, Parenting, Consumer Education, Interpersonal Relations and Preparation for College.

Early beginnings

The roots of home economics began in the East, after the American Revolutionary War, when it became acceptable for girls to attend school. Dame schools, which taught skills needed to maintain a home, were often held in the kitchen of the woman teaching the class, but eventually became part of the public school system. Later, in the 1870s, young women enrolled in both private and public cooking schools that originated in Boston and New York City. At the same time, land grant colleges were being established in the West, and classes such as cookery and household arts were offered to women students.

Cooking Class at Emmerich Manual High School (Courtesy of Bass Photo Co. Collection, Indiana Historical Society)

Indiana State Teachers College – Lab School (courtesy of Martin Collection, Indiana Historical Society)

Another important event that raised awareness in this area of learning was the 1893 World’s Fair. Held in Chicago, it featured an exhibit of the home of a workingman’s family that lived on $500 a year. Th e woman responsible for that exhibit, Ellen H. Richards, is credited as being the founder of home economics and was the fi rst woman to enter the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked there as an instructor in sanitary chemistry until her death in 1911. Although she never taught home economics, she wrote books on the subject and gave lectures on the importance of establishing it as a fi eld of study. She stressed the importance of using chemistry and science to give the fi eld credibility.

Indiana jumps in

In Indiana, sewing and cooking were introduced to schools in 1894 and a law was passed in 1913 that made them a compulsory subject. A 1915 article from the Indiana Department of Public Instruction titled “Outline of Work in Domestic Science” set out the curriculum

Changing Times, Changing Projects:

Continuing to Address the Needs of Families

An Education for Girls on Maintaining 1915 1945

the Home The War Effort

Homemaking

• Classes were held in the basements of school buildings • Tiny amounts of fancy food were prepared that had little relation to actual home practices • Samples or models using various stitches were sewn, but not actual garments • Classrooms resembled the kitchens of the era with groups of at least four working together • Meal planning was based on edge of food groups • Sewing machines were used to make clothes students could actually wear

Boys Cooking Class at Gerstmeyer School (courtesy of Martin Collection, Indiana Historical Society)

for a two-year course. Subtopics included were Dirt and Its Dangers, Duties of a Hostess and Use of Left-overs. Most of the time, culinary techniques were taught by the observation method: Students gathered around while the instructor demonstrated. When there was an actual hands-on cooking lab, it consisted of gas burners arranged around the teacher so she could observe what everyone was doing at the same time.

After being almost eliminated during the Depression, home economics became a strong force in the 40s. During the time of rationing and scarcity brought on by World War II, students were taught how to maintain proper nutrition and sew aff ordable clothing. Technology had advanced and instructors used fi lms and slides. Th e lab portion of instruction evolved to teams of girls working in their own kitchen space. Most schools had electric refrigerators although in the early years of the decade, a wooden box cooled by a block of ice was used.

1975

Home Economics Classes Expanded to Include Male Students

Today

The Push Toward Careers in the

Consumer Sciences

• Large open concept classrooms housed several mini-kitchens as well as a sewing machine area • Dishes produced in food labs were created with made-fromscratch ingredients • Sewing projects ranged from pillows to pajama bottoms, then to advanced projects like dresses • Computers are used in classrooms which include lecture area as well as several mini-kitchens • Complete ethnic themed meals are made with some homemade ingredients using microwaves • modeled in fashion show to raise funds for philanthropy

Future

Addressing Societal Needs

• Traditional classroom will be left behind as students go out into the community • Students in leadership roles will guide others in developing sustainable practices for families • Ventures will be dictated by need realized within a service project like reusable shopping bags

Barb Diehl

Boys join the fun

Starting in the late 60s and continuing to the 70s, some Indiana schools off ered courses open only to boys. Cindy Eiteljorg, who taught in Wayne Township, Indianapolis, instructed a class called Bachelor Living. Eiteljorg remembers, “Students sewed chef hats, which they then wore during food labs. Enrollment was always fi lled to capacity.”

Barb Diehl, a teacher in the Fort Wayne Community Schools during the same era, said, “Most boys still took shop, which was often located close to the Food Lab. When the girls cooked something that did not turn out well, they would take it over and it would be eaten up in no time!”

New name brings changes

In 1995, Indiana followed the national trend and adopted the name Family and Consumer Sciences for its home economics programs.

“Th e fi eld had evolved from a focus on homemaking skills to more scientifi c and research orientation; social and economic issues facing families and shift to career preparation were better refl ected by the change in name,” said Alyson McIntyre-Reiger, FCS program leader for the Indiana Department of Education. “In the 1900s Ellen Richards used her microbiology degree from MIT to solve safe drinking water for families and FCS continues to assist in creating healthy and sustainable communities.”

Currently, a dedicated team of secondary teachers covers the FCS classes for Hamilton Southeastern Schools. Amy Asher, Lee Ann Self, Elizabeth Trinkle and Cynthia Ziemba range in experience from two years to 34. Self travels between schools, but the classes off ered at each site vary due to student demand.

FCS courses seek to give students practical knowledge as well as prepare them for a possible career. Trinkle, whose Fashion and Textiles class cumulates in a Royal Project Runway Style Show that benefi ts Riley Hospital for Children, said, “Today, FCS has something for everyone.”

Asher stressed, “Basics are still being taught, but with today’s technology.”

Ziemba, who teaches the popular class Senior Foods, said, “My goal is to teach students that they can cook for themselves both to save money and eat healthier. FCS, in general, teaches life skills that will help them personally and professionally.”

Cindy Eiteljorg