Bring Back Home Economics To Schools
Dear Mr. President,
I am the fourth generation owner of a nearly 90 year old textile company that sells fabrics to mom and pop quilt shops in the United States. We cater to the quilting and sewing industry. Our fifth generation family members are a plenty and we are excited about continuing our American dream of having a multi-generational family owned company.
As the discussion of the fifth generation joining the business in the future was so easily written in the space above, I do have major concerns about the future of my business and a great American past time, namely sewing and quilting.
Skipping right to the chase as I know you are busy, our industry needs as much help as it could get in general, but for you, I have one specific request: Can you help to bring back home economics to schools in the United States? If you could help to facilitate that, it would be an enormous move in the right direction.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter. It would be so amazing if you responded to me and even better if you in fact helped me with this request. Let’s Make America Even Greater together by getting back to our grassroots. God Bless America!
Sincerely,
Scott Fortunoff, Jaftex Corp. President
P.S. If you order my blog book and anything else on Amazon from using the link below, I will get a commission from Amazon and that money too will go towards my sewing machine giveaway. Stated the proper way, “As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. “
7 Comments
Karen Lutkus
Hi Scott, Thank you so very much for the support. I have been a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher for 17 1/2 years and I teach an 8th grade Entrepreneurship class with a sewing section, and HS Sewing and Interior Design. Some states still call the classes Home Economics, while other states are eliminating the departments. My fear is that with the current push for all of our courses to be CTE (Career and Technical Education), many more will be lost as we don’t offer a HS level certification. (For example culinary students can become ServSafe Certified). The value of gaining a skill that will not only provide joy and an amazing sense of accomplishment, but also provide a way to maintain one’s wardrobe and home textiles needs to be brought to the forefront again. Thanks again for promoting my profession! #SayYesToFCS
Jo vandermey
I almost did not read your post. And I guess it is because of the make America great again in the title.
I agree whole heartedly that we need to bring certain skills, interests and things back to schools but I don’t think that it will make any country great again.
You see it is the people and their attitudes which make a country flourish and grow.
Do we have freedom to live our lives, are we kind to others, are we tolerant of differences, do we support those with less then what we have, do we live by example, what are the examples you live by.
What made your country great?
What I would like to see is how can we make our countries better…
And then in turn how can sewing/ home ecomnomics, shop, arts do this. Because these are the things that get cut from all our schools budgets. How can we teach students to be better citizens?
So here is my take on why we should teach art, life skills, hobbies, practical skills in schools all over the world to make our countries better and in turn our world a better place.
I will take sewing as an example….
What did sewing teach me… and why did I teach it to my children.
Discovery… an ablity to discover something new and different. The ability to sew a button on your pants, the ability to fix a seam in your pants, colour choice, desicion making (not spelling for me), individuality, math in the form of geometry, to strive to do better, follow instructions, create, history in the form of how those did before, ecomomics- how much does it cost to buy materials, budget how much can you spend on a project, failure, resiliency of trying again if you do make a mistake, how to use a machine and care for it, mistakes are learning opportunities, individuality, how to follow directions, how to explore changes, how to spend time, (not plugged in), patience…
You can take a hobby through out life if generated while young.
You can think of other careers beyond just going to university and college to get a job…
My parents and those before them grew up farming and in earlier years of industrialization. They had much less than our generation, our childrens generation and my grandchilds generation. People think I am crazy to spend more money making an outfit for my grandchild than just going out and buying something cheap from Walmart. There is a time and place for that. I hope my grand daughter likes her presents made by grandma… For grandma the fun and satisfactions comes from sewing for fun not necessity. The joy of handling the cloth, the practice of the hobbies my parents taught me as a child. The spending time with my parents actively doing something.
So my kids now in their late 20’s early 30’s were all taught to sew. (Not by me because I wanted them to respect someone elses teaching.) But I was the mom who let them play and make and create. Not just with them but their friends. And now I teach my daughter in law. All my kids have jobs but they also have outside interests not related to their jobs, they all give back to community works and charity. They do not all sew. The boys have other hobbies they have turned their attention to.
I think if our schools don’t do it, it is up to parents to do it. And before someone says oh but parents are so busy now…. My parents were farmers…. 24/7. Both worked the land and in the business and they still had time to do things with us.
This is what I think will make our countries great again… or if not “great” a much better place to be in. Because although time = money = greatness…. is what our world seems to say… Time + human connection + kindness = greatness that is worth more than money can ever give…
By the way… I guess I knew what you meant in your post but our world is such a global place now with how the world economy works we have to think about the world around our boarders….
With respect….
Jo an avid fan of the world and fabric…
P.S. I think the project you have with sewing machines is great, your company seems to give back to the world and in my books that says a lot!
Betsey Sumners
I agree! Girls and boys need to learn sewing, cooking and basic farming (think grow your own tomato!). We need to move away from a disposal society, fix that shirt or pair of pants, don’t like what they sell in the stores? Make your own! Don’t go to a restaurant every night, cook your own! Grow your own vegetables! They taste so much better! And of course the best blankets are quilts! We all enjoy more what we do ourselves! Please do promote this! I agree and I too will write…on the state level, even county level! Thank you for all you do!
Lora Parker
My son is in the 7th grade and one of his elective classes was Service Learning. I spoke with the teacher at Meet the Teacher night and was so excited to see kitchens in the classroom. I volunteered to assist in a sewing segment as well as to speak on banking as that is my past career. She was thrilled, handed me a clipboard to list my contact information and I never got a call. No sewing occurred during my son’s 9 weeks of the class. They did bake cookies which was great! People NEED a creative outlet such as sewing. One utilizes so many academic skills while sewing. I would love to help bring it back!
Scott Fortunoff
Hi again Barb,
Kill them with quilting kindness. I am with you.
As for the cookies, I will have to taste them before they are sent.
xxoo
Scott
Diana
I would love to see home economics in schools for boys and girls. Also I would love for children to learn the stock market!!!
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Diana,
I agree on all fronts. Happy Holidays!
Scott