1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:07,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 2: Chuck and it's us today. We've got our aprons on, 4 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 2: we have our spectulism in hand. We've been spanking each 5 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 2: other with them, and it's time to go to class 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 2: the stuff you should know. 7 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, just so you know, there was construction happening 8 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 3: next door. So if you hear a saw or a 9 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 3: hammer banging, it's not me. 10 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 2: No, it's not Chuck. 11 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 3: Sometimes you just got to live with the sounds of life. 12 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean we recorded for a while and every 13 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 2: time we recorded, a fire truck would go by, like 14 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 2: soccer do you remember. 15 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, in the old Buckhead office it was I 16 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 3: think we were near a fire station. 17 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,519 Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was like the exact same time. It 18 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 2: was really bizarre. 19 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 3: It was the radio lab, guys pulling fire alarms all 20 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 3: over it. Leaf. 21 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:01,920 Speaker 2: So, Chuck, we're talking about homec today. Did you ever 22 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:03,160 Speaker 2: take a home mech class? 23 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 3: I sure did, buddy, how about you? 24 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 2: I did. I have very vague recollections of it. I 25 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,199 Speaker 2: remember the room and everything, but I don't remember anything 26 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 2: I did. It's also possible I'm conflating it with an 27 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 2: episode of Saved by the Bell. 28 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I took it. You know, we had the 29 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 3: full kitchen situation in our high school back then, and 30 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 3: I took it because I don't know, I think I 31 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 3: needed an elective and you know, I knew their beekot 32 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 3: girls in there. And yeah, maybe I had a friend 33 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 3: or two that took it. Was probably my reasoning. 34 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 2: I could see that. I think both of us are 35 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,280 Speaker 2: the types of dudes who would not have been like, OK, 36 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 2: I'm a boy. 37 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, of course not there. And there were plenty 38 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 3: of dudes in the class. 39 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, because gen X is enlightened, that's right. The 40 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 2: thing is, we were really in the minority, though all 41 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 2: the dudes in your class were in the minority. That 42 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: from what I read, that was pretty uncommon, even even 43 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 2: at that time. And we were among like the last 44 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 2: age group who could elect for homech. Yeah, pretty much 45 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 2: across the country like this was a time. This was 46 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 2: about the end of the time where you could find 47 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,800 Speaker 2: a home MECH classroom and most high schools are middle schools. 48 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 2: But that is not the case anymore. Although it's still around, 49 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 2: it's just not everywhere like it used to be. 50 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, and in fact, I can confirm when I went 51 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 3: back to my high school a couple of years ago, 52 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 3: when they had me back to talk to students as 53 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 3: a you know, interesting professional, I remember that. Yeah, it 54 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 3: was fun. I took a walk around and I even 55 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 3: remember going by where the homech room was and it 56 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 3: was definitely not the kitchen anymore. 57 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 2: No, I remember you told me they filled in all 58 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 2: the sinks with cement. 59 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called the cement class. 60 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 2: So classic get really boring, really fast. 61 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, we should probably say homechis stands for home economics, 62 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 3: and just in case that's foreign to your tongue. 63 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 2: True, true, I understand that it's called homechir home economics 64 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 2: in Australia, and I think maybe Canada and in the 65 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 2: UK they call it food sciences. I think, yeah, it's 66 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 2: all the same thing. And essentially what it is for 67 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 2: those of you who don't know, it was a class 68 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,640 Speaker 2: in high school where you would learn basic life skills 69 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 2: that had a lot to do with being at home. 70 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 2: You would learn sewing, you would learn to bake a cake. 71 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 2: As time wore on, you would learn to take care 72 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 2: of a child, maybe learned to balance a checkbook, just 73 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 2: basic life skills as a class in high school or 74 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 2: middle school. And that is it turns out I didn't 75 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 2: quite realize the extent of home ec one little slice 76 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 2: of the whole home ec pie, which is delicious because 77 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 2: it was made by home economists and there's a whole 78 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 2: history to it and it's actually pretty feminists in nature too. 79 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, as we'll see, there was a bit 80 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 3: of a push pull at a certain time and which 81 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 3: way both feminism would that have. 82 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 2: Been the dose? 83 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 3: The dose? Yeah, where you know, there were certain people 84 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 3: saying like, no, this is you know, you shouldn't be 85 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 3: teaching women to stay at home and stay in the kitchen, 86 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 3: and other people were like, we're not teaching them, saying 87 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 3: you have to do that, but we're saying, you know, 88 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 3: there are viable careers that you can gain in you know, 89 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,719 Speaker 3: industrial engineering and statistics. And as we'll see, you know, 90 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 3: plenty of science careers came out of home economics and 91 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 3: food science because it is a science. 92 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 2: Right, and that was actually one of the initial points 93 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 2: of it. But if you were a homech proponent and 94 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 2: you were arguing with a feminist, you might start by saying, 95 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:38,880 Speaker 2: let me give you a little picture of what life 96 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 2: used to be like for the average woman in the 97 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 2: United States before we came along, and you would start 98 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 2: in about the nineteenth century, they run the turn of it, 99 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 2: so they're still wearing tri cornered hats, but they were 100 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 2: looking forward to trains. And if you were a farm 101 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 2: woman at this time, you worked yourself to the bone. 102 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean what we know as homeck was not 103 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 3: early homech because early homech was like you might have 104 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,599 Speaker 3: seven or eight kids that all worked on the farm, 105 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 3: and you might have farm hands that you also have 106 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 3: to kind of care for and feed. So you're feeding 107 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 3: these huge families from stuff that you're growing probably on 108 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 3: your land and processing and canning and churning butter, and 109 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 3: you're handmaking clothes and doing laundry by hand, and it's 110 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 3: a lot. 111 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, And like you would say, that's not even home economics, 112 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 2: that's just home terribleness, right. 113 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 3: Yeah. 114 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 2: When home economics came along, it was based on this 115 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,560 Speaker 2: idea that, Okay, all of these people are working really hard. 116 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 2: There has to be ways to improve this to make 117 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 2: it more efficient. 118 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 3: Yeah. 119 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 2: I suspect it. I'm pretty sure we talked about it 120 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 2: that this all grew out of tailorism, that obsession with 121 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 2: getting things as efficient as possible. And I think that 122 00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 2: that kind of grew out of that same vein. And 123 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,479 Speaker 2: there were actually a few things that and it came 124 00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 2: together to make the fertile soil that home grew from. 125 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 2: One of them, the big one was literacy started to 126 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 2: spread in the mid nineteenth century. And so when literacy spreads, 127 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 2: you got more books and home like domestic tips and 128 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 2: householding was a whole genre of books, so were cookbooks. 129 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:23,040 Speaker 2: And then part and parcel of that was this kind 130 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 2: of the very beginnings of this idea that maybe women 131 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,560 Speaker 2: can be educated too, but just in women. 132 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 3: Stuff, Yeah, for sure. And you know, the books were 133 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 3: important because previous to that, it was everything was sort 134 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 3: of handed down from you know, parent to child as 135 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 3: far as any kind of wisdom goes about how to 136 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 3: do anything right. So if you had books and you 137 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:49,400 Speaker 3: had classes, you didn't depend on like your grandmother necessarily 138 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:52,839 Speaker 3: being good at, you know, baking a cake or something 139 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 3: like that. 140 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 2: Like but if your grandmother was a dipstick, right, yeah, exactly, 141 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:01,359 Speaker 2: So cooking schools also emerged, and this was important because 142 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,479 Speaker 2: your grandmother might also in addition to being a dipstick 143 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:06,160 Speaker 2: might not have been that great of a cook. Now 144 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 2: there's a place you can go to learn to cook 145 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 2: well and nutritiously. That was a big one too. And 146 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 2: then also this was a new career path that a 147 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 2: woman could take to become a cook and like say, 148 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 2: a wealthy household, so they were training now people to 149 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 2: work outside of the house doing domestic. 150 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,720 Speaker 3: Stuff, yeah, for sure. And then one of the biggest 151 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 3: ones was the Morile Act of eighteen sixty two, and 152 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 3: that's when land grant colleges were established, and all of 153 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 3: a sudden there were schools that said, hey, maybe we 154 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 3: should offer you know, it was kind of the beginnings 155 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 3: of trade schools, like, you know, teach people how to 156 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 3: work in agriculture and industry and things like that and 157 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 3: not necessarily just sit around with your nose in the 158 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 3: air of reading the classics exactly. 159 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 2: And women were open or these colleges were open to 160 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,000 Speaker 2: women as well too. So these three things come together. 161 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:02,720 Speaker 2: And one of the other reasons that really made homemech 162 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:06,679 Speaker 2: kind of come to life start sprouting from that fertile 163 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:10,520 Speaker 2: soil was the transition that America was going through with industrialization. 164 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,160 Speaker 2: All of a sudden, you weren't on the farm with 165 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 2: your mother and grandmother who were telling you how to 166 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 2: do things, like you were in the city now surrounded 167 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 2: by people you've not really ever met before, with a 168 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 2: husband who now works in the factory rather than a farm, 169 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:26,560 Speaker 2: and you're like, I have no idea what I'm doing. 170 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 2: And so Homech kind of came in to fill that 171 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 2: break that had happened, that intergenerational passage of knowledge from 172 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 2: mother to daughter. Homech said, Hey, forget mothers. We're going 173 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:40,200 Speaker 2: to tell you how to do this, and we're going 174 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 2: to tell you how to do it better. They didn't 175 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 2: really say forget mothers. That wasn't the sentiment. That was 176 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 2: me being a smart alec. 177 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:48,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, initially it was not in high school. 178 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 3: It was a college level thing. And there's a PhD 179 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,400 Speaker 3: named Nancy Darling who kind of backs up this idea 180 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 3: that it was a feminist movement to begin with with 181 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:02,280 Speaker 3: this quote she said, it developed that is from something radical, 182 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 3: the idea that the traditional work of women is important, meaningful, 183 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:10,679 Speaker 3: and here's the key for me, economically significant. And it 184 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 3: was economics. They didn't just call it that to make 185 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 3: it seem fancy. The running of a household is big 186 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,800 Speaker 3: time economics, and if you're not good at that, as 187 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:26,520 Speaker 3: we'll see with younger generations, it can spell trouble for sure. 188 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, there's a whole wash out that's happened 189 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 2: that will cover for sure. But one of the people 190 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:34,680 Speaker 2: that you have to tip your top hat to is 191 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,760 Speaker 2: Ellen Swallow Richards, who's probably the most important person in 192 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:41,080 Speaker 2: the history or the early history at least of home economics. 193 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 2: Now let's just say it, the entire history of home economics. 194 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 2: She was a pretty impressive sort. She studied chemistry. She 195 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:52,120 Speaker 2: got a bachelor's and a master's from Vassar and then 196 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 2: became the first woman to get a degree from MIT, 197 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,200 Speaker 2: and then became the first woman instructor at MIT and 198 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:02,199 Speaker 2: set up a sanitary chemistry lab that was for women only. 199 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,959 Speaker 2: And this was not really domestic work. It was figuring 200 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 2: out water quality and air quality tests like essentially the 201 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:16,760 Speaker 2: foundations of environmental protection and consumer protection too. That's what 202 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,719 Speaker 2: this lab was doing. And the reason why you associated 203 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 2: with homec is because one of the reasons homech existed. Also, 204 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,720 Speaker 2: you said that it started at the college level was 205 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 2: as a way for women, almost a back door a 206 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 2: workaround a loophole for women to become scientists. It was 207 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 2: okay as long as there was enough of a whiff 208 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,959 Speaker 2: of women's work like clean water, that's woman's work that 209 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 2: academia could put up with it. That was one of 210 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 2: the big ways homech started funneling women into education and 211 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:49,359 Speaker 2: into the sciences. 212 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean she was trying to improve the United States, 213 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,160 Speaker 3: and she thought, and she was right on the money. 214 00:10:57,240 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 3: She was like, if I'm going to try to improve 215 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,280 Speaker 3: you know, the United States and civilization, then I have 216 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 3: to start at what she considered. And you know, I 217 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,559 Speaker 3: think most people agree is the basic unit, which is 218 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,800 Speaker 3: a family, the family unit. And if I can each 219 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 3: if I can get each household one at a time 220 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:18,479 Speaker 3: to practice you know, more efficient practices, more sanitary practices, 221 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,319 Speaker 3: safer practices, you know where you're not, you know, burning 222 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:24,240 Speaker 3: kitchens down and things like that, then it'll you know, 223 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 3: all boats will rise. And it started to become a movement. 224 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,959 Speaker 3: And you know, this is like the late eighteen hundreds, 225 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 3: early nineteen hundreds. 226 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, and remember also there was a big emphasis on 227 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 2: this work is important, Like this is unpaid labor, but 228 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 2: it produces a lot of dividends. For any family, and 229 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:47,560 Speaker 2: hence building upward for civilization, for a nation, civilization all that. So, 230 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 2: like you said, this is starting to become a movement. 231 00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 2: And they had a series of conferences called the Lake 232 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 2: Plastid Conferences starting right at the turn of the century, 233 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 2: and at one of these meetings they chose the term 234 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 2: home economics, like you said, to basically point out not 235 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 2: to kind of latch their field on economics, to point 236 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:08,439 Speaker 2: out that domestic work was a huge part of economics, 237 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 2: and up to this point economists had basically just been 238 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:16,800 Speaker 2: looking at production, they weren't looking at the demand side. 239 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 2: And one of the things HOMECH introduced was the idea 240 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:24,160 Speaker 2: of consumer sciences, like studying consumption as well as part 241 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:27,720 Speaker 2: of the larger economy, which is you can't do economics 242 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,679 Speaker 2: without that now, but that's what one of the things 243 00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:31,720 Speaker 2: HOMECH introduced. 244 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, and they came up with the name homek at 245 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:39,560 Speaker 3: one of those conferences after debating domestic science and they said, 246 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:44,079 Speaker 3: now that that doesn't sound like it's studying consumerism. That's 247 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:46,840 Speaker 3: a big part of this. I think household arts was 248 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 3: put forward and they said, no, that sounds too artsy, 249 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 3: fartsy and not academic. Enough, so they landed on home 250 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 3: economics and an ironic twist that kind of takes it 251 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 3: back home because the words or economics comes from I 252 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 3: love this word oiknoymia oikonomia. I inserted an extra either, 253 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,920 Speaker 3: which is ancient Greek for household management. So there you 254 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:12,200 Speaker 3: have it. 255 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:16,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, they dropped the old timing mike at this point. 256 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:19,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. And then in nineteen oh eight, at 257 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 3: that same conference, the Lake Placid Conference, they founded the 258 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:27,880 Speaker 3: American Home Economics Association. Really got the ball rolling, and 259 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 3: then shortly after, in nineteen seventeen, the Hughes Act started 260 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 3: funding vocational education like shop class and homech and it 261 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:36,680 Speaker 3: was off to the races. 262 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 2: Yep. So you want to take a break and come 263 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:43,360 Speaker 2: back and talk about how, like you said, home X 264 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:44,440 Speaker 2: starts to take off. 265 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 3: Let's do it. 266 00:13:57,120 --> 00:13:59,160 Speaker 1: Want to learn about a terrors sort and college arridactyl, 267 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 1: how to take a perfect is gone? 268 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 3: That's a little hunt the Lizzie Borderer. 269 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,680 Speaker 2: Word up, Jerry. Okay. So when we left off, homech 270 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:17,960 Speaker 2: was starting to take off, and by the nineteen twenties, 271 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 2: the USDA, the Department of Agriculture, had created the Bureau 272 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 2: of Home economics, and when you create a bureau dedicated 273 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:29,960 Speaker 2: to a new field, that's that's when the field has arrived. 274 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 2: If you're a band and weird Al has done a 275 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 2: cover of your song, that's how you know you've arrived. 276 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 2: If you're a field of study and someone opens a 277 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,120 Speaker 2: bureau dedicated to it, that's how you know your field arrived. 278 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 2: But it became the country's biggest employer of women's scientists, 279 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 2: which is pretty significant at the time. 280 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 3: That's right. Their mission, of course, was education, and it 281 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 3: wasn't just you know, how to cook obviously, it was 282 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 3: meal planning, it was budgeting. There was a lot of 283 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 3: science behind it because they got into you know, nutritional 284 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 3: values like in any you know, nutritional tag that you read, 285 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 3: and in fact, any like clothing tag that you read. 286 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 3: I'll go ahead and get ahead of that one. That 287 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 3: all was born out of the science of this new 288 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 3: bureau that was founded. They were testing mildew proofing for fabrics. 289 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 3: They were servicing military service members, like you know, trying 290 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 3: to come up with better things for the US military 291 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 3: to eat, and of course school lunch programs all over 292 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 3: the country were dependent on the science. 293 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where the square pizza was invented. 294 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 3: I suspect they should have a monument to that. 295 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 2: Well, one of the I agree one of the other 296 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 2: things about that though, in addition to the square pizza, 297 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 2: the square pizza is actually an excellent example of this pizza. 298 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 2: It comes from Italy, and if you've ever seen an 299 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 2: actual like Neapolitan pizza, it does not resemble the square pizza. 300 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:56,560 Speaker 2: The square pizza at lunch is the Midwestern americanized, much 301 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 2: blander version of it, although I agree with you it's 302 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 2: quite good. And this is where American food as we 303 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 2: think of it today was founded. All the ethnic food 304 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 2: got pushed out as the immigrants were kind of brought 305 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:13,160 Speaker 2: into the home ech world, and that bland Midwestern American 306 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 2: food took over. That's where that came from. 307 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 3: And this also coincided with the birth of radio that 308 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:20,200 Speaker 3: we seems like we've talked a lot about that lately. 309 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 3: But because of that, of course you're going to have 310 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 3: shows on the radio about this kind of thing. The 311 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 3: Bureau of Home Economics in the twenties had a show 312 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,040 Speaker 3: called Housekeeper's Chat that ran for a couple of decades. 313 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 3: Started in nineteen twenty six. Not Uncle Sam, but Aunt 314 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 3: Sammy was the host of that one, or I guess 315 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 3: not the host, but it featured her and she would 316 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 3: have like household tips and recipes and stuff like that. 317 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:46,560 Speaker 3: A lot of the brands got in the game, General 318 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 3: Mills and Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air. You know, 319 00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 3: it's another radio show sponsored by General Mills. And again 320 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 3: the Bureau was like helping to get all of these 321 00:16:57,800 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 3: things launched on the airwaves. 322 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 2: One of the other examples of what the Bureau of 323 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,960 Speaker 2: Home Economics was doing that had a huge sweeping impact 324 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:11,160 Speaker 2: in addition to founding like the mass produced food movement, 325 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 2: was they came up with the poverty line. In fact, 326 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:18,240 Speaker 2: Molly or Shansky did. She was a statistician who studied 327 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 2: how much a house spent to come up with a 328 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:26,399 Speaker 2: basic nutritious diet that could keep you alive. They multiplied 329 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,119 Speaker 2: that by three and they came up with the federal 330 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:29,919 Speaker 2: poverty line that's still in use today. 331 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you've ever seen, you know, astronauts eating 332 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,680 Speaker 3: lasagna out of a what looks like a toothpaste tube 333 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 3: or something like that, you can thank Home Economics and 334 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,680 Speaker 3: Science for that. Because a woman named Bee Finkelstein, great name, 335 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 3: she was getting food together for the very first astronauts 336 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,920 Speaker 3: in the Mercury Project, which is pretty great, that's right. 337 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,719 Speaker 2: And then one of the other things that struck me 338 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:56,919 Speaker 2: too that I didn't realize was that a lot of 339 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 2: those recipes that you find on like a food label. 340 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,200 Speaker 2: One of the most famous ones is Campbell's Cream and 341 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:09,040 Speaker 2: Mushroom soup labels have a cream bean casserole recipe, and 342 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:12,560 Speaker 2: that was created by a home economist who worked for Campbell's, 343 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:16,960 Speaker 2: Dorcas Riley, And she's a good example of what was 344 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:19,360 Speaker 2: happening at this time. Starting in the twenties thirty four 345 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:23,160 Speaker 2: and continuing on, these companies like General Mills and Campbell's 346 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 2: were setting up home economics departments, and one of the 347 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,439 Speaker 2: things that these home economists were being paid to do 348 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:34,400 Speaker 2: was to figure out new uses for the products made 349 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 2: by the companies they worked for so that people would 350 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 2: buy more of that stuff. And then they put those 351 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:40,160 Speaker 2: recipes on the label. 352 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,439 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, if you love rice Krispy Treats, you 353 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,600 Speaker 3: can thank the home economics program and Matilligens and Mildred 354 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,240 Speaker 3: Day at Kellogg's there for that and Chex Mix. This 355 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 3: wasn't a sort of an internal team. But chex Mix 356 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,000 Speaker 3: was actually a contest and it was in I believe 357 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 3: the nineteen fifty when they just had a contest like 358 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:06,440 Speaker 3: what can you do with check Cereal? And someone submitted 359 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 3: chex Mix, and like it's the same recipe basically that 360 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:12,560 Speaker 3: everyone enjoys today, Like all of these. 361 00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:15,679 Speaker 2: Are did your family make chex mix around the holidays? 362 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,720 Speaker 3: But not a time that Emily's family really did though, 363 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,159 Speaker 3: so she still makes you know, that same recipe, that 364 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 3: chex mix recipe. 365 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:24,439 Speaker 2: It must be so high. Oh then because my family 366 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 2: did as well. Yeah, but that's a good example of 367 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 2: how like these companies farmed out the task of coming 368 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 2: up with stuff because homech had become so widespread, the 369 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:37,479 Speaker 2: average homemaker out there could do the same thing in 370 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 2: a lot of ways that some of the homech workers 371 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:43,360 Speaker 2: working for the company could do too. I think that's 372 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:44,120 Speaker 2: pretty neat. 373 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 3: Talk about efficiencies, like if you're baking a cake from scratch, 374 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,280 Speaker 3: or making pancakes or something like that, or a gravy 375 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 3: from scratch. There were women in homech's homeck departments at 376 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,359 Speaker 3: companies saying like, hey, we can make this. You know, 377 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,239 Speaker 3: there's a lot to do, so what if it if 378 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,199 Speaker 3: this stuff was all kind of pre mixed in a 379 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,199 Speaker 3: box and you could sell them like well, I was 380 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,399 Speaker 3: about to say, like hotcakes, and they did. And you 381 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:10,880 Speaker 3: know that these were things that were real time savers 382 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 3: in the kitchen. 383 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 2: For sure, And that was the point remember of homech 384 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,680 Speaker 2: is saving time, being more efficient. And then as food 385 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,720 Speaker 2: companies were concerned making tons of money off of this 386 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,879 Speaker 2: stuff too, So that's kind of going on in the 387 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 2: corporate world the government world. Simultaneously, there's that whole thread 388 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,120 Speaker 2: of homech being taught in high school in middle school, 389 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,439 Speaker 2: and there was a time in the twentieth century up 390 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 2: into the eighties and nineties, and I'm sure beyond again. 391 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,960 Speaker 2: These these classes are still out there, but nothing like 392 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,280 Speaker 2: they used to be, where you could go into a 393 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:48,399 Speaker 2: high school or middle school and there was a simulated 394 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 2: kitchen in one of the rooms with a bunch of 395 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,919 Speaker 2: different stoves and ovens and refrigerators, and people would be 396 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 2: in there cooking and learning to sew, and maybe taking 397 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,920 Speaker 2: care of a fake baby and in some cases taking 398 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 2: care of a real baby too, because this stuff got 399 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 2: intense sometimes. 400 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, the baby thing. I don't remember our high school 401 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:14,880 Speaker 3: class ever, delving into that. I do remember the egg babies, 402 00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:18,360 Speaker 3: like where you would I never had to take part, 403 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,399 Speaker 3: but I saw other kids in school carrying around the 404 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 3: egg and yeah, sort of in the seventies and eighties, 405 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 3: they would give you a raw egg, you know, in 406 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 3: the shell, and because some people will be like what 407 00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:30,719 Speaker 3: the heck is he even talking about, they would give 408 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,240 Speaker 3: you an egg. And the whole idea was you have 409 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 3: to care for that egg without breaking it for a 410 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:36,000 Speaker 3: couple of weeks. You got to carry this thing around. 411 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 3: It sounds easy just to not get that egg broken, 412 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 3: but it's really not. You know, you have to really 413 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:46,639 Speaker 3: think ahead about everything. And that's the whole idea, is 414 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:48,440 Speaker 3: that when you have a baby, you can't just make 415 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:50,399 Speaker 3: decisions on the spur of the moment. You have to 416 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 3: kind of pre plan everything. And the egg came along 417 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 3: after they'd used real babies from orphanages. 418 00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently it's some of the colleges that were teaching 419 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:05,360 Speaker 2: home they would borrow babies from orphanages for the students 420 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:09,520 Speaker 2: to just basically practice on. And apparently there's a writer, 421 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 2: a historian named Danielle Drellinger who wrote a book The 422 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 2: Secret History of Home economics, And she said that for 423 00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 2: adoptive parents who would go to a foster home, they'd 424 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,359 Speaker 2: show up and be like, you got any one of 425 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:22,480 Speaker 2: them babies that's been in the home economic classic? Yeah, man, 426 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 2: because the reasoning is, these babies spent some of their 427 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 2: earliest days being cared for just with complete attention and 428 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,959 Speaker 2: care by women who were working in like the cutting 429 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:37,840 Speaker 2: edge of child rearing, so they were much more desirable 430 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 2: than the non homech babies. 431 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:43,280 Speaker 3: It turns out, yeah, for sure. I mean before I 432 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,960 Speaker 3: even read that part of this, I was thinking in 433 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,639 Speaker 3: my head, like, oh man, you want that baby for sure? 434 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 2: For sure. Apparently those eggs would get on custodian's nerves 435 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 2: enough that they switched to flour or sugar, which also 436 00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:00,439 Speaker 2: had the added benefit of heft. And I saw in 437 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 2: a like some educational magazine I can't remember, but they 438 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,200 Speaker 2: would put pantyhose of different colors to simulate multicultural skin 439 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 2: tones over the flower sugar, and that sometimes if you forgot, 440 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:15,440 Speaker 2: like your kid, whether it was an egg or a 441 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,240 Speaker 2: sack of flower or something in your locker, you might 442 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,560 Speaker 2: be forced to like write a paper on child abuse 443 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:22,879 Speaker 2: or something like that. So the whole point was to 444 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,760 Speaker 2: just teach high school kids you don't want to have 445 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,400 Speaker 2: a baby at this period in your life. Maybe ever, 446 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 2: like if the class was hard enough, maybe they're like, 447 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:35,000 Speaker 2: I'm never having a kid, but certainly not through my 448 00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 2: teen years. That was the point. 449 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of funny. I think they kind of 450 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 3: sold it to you as like, here, it'll teach you 451 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:45,399 Speaker 3: like how to kind of care for a baby and 452 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 3: how much goes into that. But what they were really 453 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 3: saying is police don't have sex kind of kind well, 454 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:54,080 Speaker 3: I mean one of them in the nineties they came 455 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,840 Speaker 3: along with a more of a like a baby simulator. 456 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 3: It was called Baby Think it Over. I mean they've 457 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,680 Speaker 3: flat out seted it that point. Yeah, Like I think 458 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,120 Speaker 3: we all know what think it over means. 459 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 2: Sure, And I don't know if it worked or not, 460 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 2: but it was a great attempt at the very least 461 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,439 Speaker 2: for sure. So by the middle of the twentieth century, 462 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,160 Speaker 2: I think nineteen fifty nine, half of all American girls, 463 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 2: half of all the girls in America were taking home 464 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:21,919 Speaker 2: mech courses in school. And then just suddenly it just 465 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 2: dried up. It wasn't like a faucet got turned off 466 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 2: or a light switch was turned. But it started to 467 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:33,400 Speaker 2: go downhill pretty fast in about the early sixties. And 468 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:35,360 Speaker 2: let's take a break and we'll come back and talk 469 00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 2: about where Homech went after. 470 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:50,720 Speaker 1: Well, the break, I want to learn about a terrors 471 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:52,920 Speaker 1: ort in college, horedactyl, how to take a bird, a 472 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 1: rectal gink is gone, that's a little. 473 00:24:55,080 --> 00:25:00,080 Speaker 3: Hunt, the Lizzie everything, joh. 474 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 2: S word up, Jerry. 475 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,400 Speaker 3: All right, So Homeck is on the decline. And there's 476 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,760 Speaker 3: a bunch of reasons for this that kind of all 477 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,400 Speaker 3: kind of steamrolled together at a certain point. But one 478 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,400 Speaker 3: of the biggest ones was when the United States really 479 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,800 Speaker 3: got into standardized testing, which came along mostly with the 480 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,479 Speaker 3: No Child Left Behind Act, Because all of a sudden, 481 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:27,920 Speaker 3: a school's funding was tied to test scores. And if 482 00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:32,400 Speaker 3: there aren't any Homech questions on these tests and the 483 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,919 Speaker 3: testing is tied to funding, then what's the point of 484 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,360 Speaker 3: even teaching that stuff. I don't agree with that, obviously, 485 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,240 Speaker 3: but that was sort of the thought, and so a 486 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,040 Speaker 3: lot of those classes started to just slowly go away. 487 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,119 Speaker 2: Yeah, and there was an article on father Lee written 488 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,359 Speaker 2: by a guy named Cameron LeBlanc, and he traced it 489 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:51,359 Speaker 2: back even Further, he traced the origin of where the 490 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,480 Speaker 2: emphasis on STEM came from the eighties and the Vocational 491 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:59,640 Speaker 2: and Technical Education Act that Ronald Reagan signed, where it said, 492 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 2: cater's colleges, you're no longer responsible for figuring out what 493 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:05,720 Speaker 2: we want to teach our kids. We're going to hand 494 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,320 Speaker 2: this over to business and industry so they can tell 495 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,600 Speaker 2: us what they want us to teach, so that we 496 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 2: can basically train workers. That was the point from that 497 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 2: point on for school, train workers as much as you can. 498 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,000 Speaker 2: And then eventually universities got in on the act and 499 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,640 Speaker 2: they're like, let's also make these like pipelines to colleges, 500 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,399 Speaker 2: so like that's the point of high school is to 501 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 2: get into college, and we're going to charge them out 502 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:31,600 Speaker 2: the yin yang. So standardization of testing was a huge 503 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:33,639 Speaker 2: part of it, but that was not the only part. 504 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:37,680 Speaker 2: Like you kind of touched on earlier, Betty Fridan's feminist mystique, 505 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,480 Speaker 2: which kicked off the second wave of feminism, as very 506 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,520 Speaker 2: often cited as a huge chilling effect or having a 507 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,920 Speaker 2: huge chilling effect on home mech classes being taught in 508 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:47,560 Speaker 2: high school. 509 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, a lot of people started dropping those classes, 510 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 3: saying it was, you know, sort of symbolic of a 511 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 3: woman's confinement to the home in the kitchen. The Vocational 512 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 3: Education Act of nineteen sixty three all of a sudden 513 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 3: gutted or at least reduced funding that that Smith's Hughes 514 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,480 Speaker 3: Act had brought about. So it was, you know, shop 515 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:11,600 Speaker 3: class suffered kind of the same fate around the same 516 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,600 Speaker 3: time for the same reasons. We didn't have shop at 517 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 3: my school. We had Industrial Arts, which I took, and 518 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,439 Speaker 3: I bet you anything, those have kind of lessened over 519 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 3: the years as well. Now that I think about. 520 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,000 Speaker 2: It, is an industrial arts the same thing as shop. 521 00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 2: Is it different? 522 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,680 Speaker 3: No, shop is like like autoshop class. 523 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,639 Speaker 2: Oh no, I think that's different. I think shop is 524 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 2: like drill presses and lathes and stuff like that. 525 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 3: Well, it depends on your school. A lot of schools 526 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 3: had autoshop class, yeah, like where they taught you had 527 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,840 Speaker 3: to change oil and work on your carburetor. 528 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,679 Speaker 2: For sure. My high school had that. My middle school 529 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 2: had shop class in home. 530 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,680 Speaker 3: Mac what they call the autoshop class. 531 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 2: I don't remember. I don't remember, but I saw it 532 00:27:55,119 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 2: written somewhere as like automotive arts or something like that. Really, yeah, 533 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:03,840 Speaker 2: somebody said it so I get to repeat. 534 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 3: It the art of changing oil exactly. 535 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:09,199 Speaker 2: But now I knew a couple of kids who were like, 536 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 2: I'm going to be a mechanic, That's what i want 537 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,600 Speaker 2: to do after school. I'm not going to go to college, 538 00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 2: so it's great, I'm getting this education starting now in 539 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,480 Speaker 2: high school, Like it would give them a huge leg 540 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:25,119 Speaker 2: up to either becoming apprentices or going and taking like 541 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:31,440 Speaker 2: classes at a technical trade school. Right that went away, 542 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,200 Speaker 2: vocational education just really took a huge hit, and again 543 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 2: high school became a pipeline for college. Homech still kind 544 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,040 Speaker 2: of stayed around. It saw the writing on the wall, 545 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 2: but it rebranded itself as Family and Consumer Sciences, I 546 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 2: think because homeck just had such a folksy, old timey 547 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 2: name that seemed to reinforce gendered stereotypes. Family and Consumer 548 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,320 Speaker 2: Sciences is new, it's fresh, it's nineties, right, And they 549 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:01,880 Speaker 2: had a bigger emphasis on careers, helping people start careers 550 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:07,719 Speaker 2: outside the home, like interior design, nutrition, elder care, culinary arts, 551 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:09,880 Speaker 2: like you could become a chef, get a huge leg 552 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 2: up taking high school classes. About that. So that's still 553 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:17,120 Speaker 2: around today. But one of the biggest problems that Family 554 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,400 Speaker 2: and consumer science classes still have that started around this time. 555 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 2: Is finding qualified teachers to actually teach the family and 556 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,440 Speaker 2: consumer science classes that are still around in the US. 557 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I mean if you didn't have, you know, 558 00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 3: if these classes started to go away, then kids aren't 559 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:37,680 Speaker 3: going to be interested in that. They're not going to 560 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,320 Speaker 3: you know, develop those skills and take those classes in college. 561 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 3: And so without universities training these teachers, you're just going 562 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 3: to have a shortage of professionals teaching it at the 563 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 3: high school level. And that you know, that's still going on. 564 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently the enrollment rates are very difficult to find. 565 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,280 Speaker 2: Olivia helped us with this, and she dug up a 566 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:02,200 Speaker 2: twenty thirteen report that said about three and a half 567 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 2: million high school kids took family and consumer science classes 568 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 2: classes in the twenty eleven a twenty twelve school year. 569 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 2: And that still sounds kind of impressive to me. That 570 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,880 Speaker 2: was a forty percent drop from just the decade earlier, 571 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:21,800 Speaker 2: the aughts, the two thousands, and that they were still 572 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,880 Speaker 2: pretty much divided among gender lines sixty five percent girls 573 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 2: and thirty five percent boys. So they're still out there, 574 00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 2: they're still around. They'd just taken such a massive hit, 575 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 2: and yet there's a lot of people who are like, Okay, 576 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,360 Speaker 2: I get why HOMEAK, you know, took a massive hit. 577 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 2: It needed to regroup. It's regrouped now. And we're also 578 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 2: seeing the fallout from what happens when you don't teach 579 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 2: middle and high school kids basic life skills. They grow 580 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,600 Speaker 2: up to be adults who don't know how to do 581 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,720 Speaker 2: basic life skills. And that seems to be happening before 582 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:56,520 Speaker 2: our very eyes. 583 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, especially you know when it comes to any kind 584 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 3: of like home finance, like passing basic sort of home 585 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:11,400 Speaker 3: financial literacy or even financial literacy, it's really declining. I 586 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,600 Speaker 3: think there was a study from the World Economic Forum 587 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:16,120 Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four that found that the majority of 588 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 3: Americans can't pass a test of financial literacy. So if 589 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,280 Speaker 3: you ask your average you know, recent high school graduate 590 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:28,000 Speaker 3: and even college graduate sometimes like, you know, tell me 591 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 3: about interest rates, what do you know about inflation or 592 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 3: investing or compound interest or home loans? You might get 593 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 3: that gen z stare back in your face, and you know, 594 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 3: this is the stuff that homek was teaching. You know, 595 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 3: I don't remember so much learning sort of the nitty 596 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 3: gritty of that stuff. But I certainly learned about, you know, 597 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,200 Speaker 3: banks and how to get a bank loan, and how 598 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 3: to balance your checkbook and how to kind of keep 599 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,120 Speaker 3: up with personal finances. 600 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 2: Exactly, or maybe even do learn how to do basic taxes, 601 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 2: like a simple ten forty form. Again, life stuff. And 602 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 2: in addition to finance stuff, they would learn things like, 603 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 2: you know, how to tell if a chicken breast was underdone, 604 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 2: or maybe a few recipes to cook. And if you 605 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 2: don't teach people even basic stuff like how to cook, 606 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 2: you can't really blame them for eating takeout constantly or 607 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:21,400 Speaker 2: eating nothing but prepackaged foods. Right, So some people say 608 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 2: that this has led to the obesity epidemic that the 609 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,720 Speaker 2: United States is facing, at least in part. It's probably 610 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,200 Speaker 2: a little full blown to say, yep, that's what happened. 611 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 2: We did away with homech and now that's the problem. 612 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,200 Speaker 2: The biggest problem is that's the food that's out there. 613 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,160 Speaker 2: But some people are saying, like, we're not. These people 614 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,600 Speaker 2: don't have any idea how to cook at all. The 615 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,720 Speaker 2: parents didn't take up the slack when the home mech 616 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 2: classes went away, and so that's part of the problem 617 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,040 Speaker 2: that came from doing away with home mech. 618 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 3: Yeah for sure. And there are people saying that we 619 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,360 Speaker 3: now have generations coming up that don't know how to 620 00:32:55,440 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 3: adult properly, just sort of basic chores and you know, 621 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,280 Speaker 3: ironing and doing laundry and just sort of the things 622 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:06,000 Speaker 3: that you need to do to survive on your own. 623 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:09,800 Speaker 3: They found that younger generations just you know, they weren't 624 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 3: taught that stuff as much, partially from home ech, partially 625 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,080 Speaker 3: because they weren't made to do chores like we were. 626 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:18,840 Speaker 3: There was a study from twenty fourteen from Braun Research 627 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 3: that said eighty two percent of parents did chores as children, 628 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 3: but only twenty eight percent have their children doing chores. 629 00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,080 Speaker 3: And I think a lot of that is just I 630 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:31,880 Speaker 3: don't know, we had to do a lot of chores, 631 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 3: and I think, like, I don't make Ruby do as 632 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,160 Speaker 3: many chores as I should, just because I remember what 633 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 3: a drag chores were. Okay, But I'm also trying to 634 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,200 Speaker 3: think ahead of like, no, I need to teach her 635 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 3: these life skills as well, So maybe try and mix 636 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,240 Speaker 3: some more of that stuff in would be a good idea. 637 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 2: I was wondering where that what the cause was of 638 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:54,520 Speaker 2: that disconnect. Yeah, so is that as simple is that 639 00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,080 Speaker 2: you just don't want to make your kid unhappy. 640 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 3: I mean not that we're perfect fine with unhappiness. So yeah, 641 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 3: it's definitely not bad. 642 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 2: But that's what I'm saying, Like, and I'm not asking 643 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,600 Speaker 2: you to just speak for yourself but speak for parents today. 644 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,480 Speaker 3: I'm speaking for myself. No, it's very important that kids 645 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,680 Speaker 3: experience all the full range of emotions. So that's that's 646 00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,239 Speaker 3: definitely not it. It's just I don't know. For me. 647 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,760 Speaker 3: I think it's just like chores are such a drag, 648 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,200 Speaker 3: and you know, and she's like, you know, nine and 649 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,000 Speaker 3: now ten years old, so I think chores will get 650 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 3: a little more ramped up here in the tween and 651 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:31,480 Speaker 3: teen years. 652 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 2: You should buy her a straw hat and some overalls 653 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 2: for Christmas and be like, this is the year you 654 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 2: get started. So one of the other things you might 655 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,600 Speaker 2: be saying is like there's an app for everything, Like 656 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,799 Speaker 2: like if you can't cook, it doesn't matter, get door 657 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,400 Speaker 2: dash or somebody's going to make food for you and 658 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:53,320 Speaker 2: we'll bring it to you just have to give them money. 659 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:55,799 Speaker 2: And it's that you just have to give them money thing. 660 00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:00,319 Speaker 2: That's kind of a problem right now because wages haven't 661 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,239 Speaker 2: kept up, and debt has just continued to increase. In 662 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 2: the second quarter of twenty twenty five, America had one 663 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,279 Speaker 2: point two to one trillion dollars of credit card debt. 664 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,600 Speaker 2: The average American had almost sixty five hundred dollars of 665 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,480 Speaker 2: credit card debt on their card at the time. So 666 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:20,680 Speaker 2: it's not like there's just some some easy solution, Like 667 00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:23,040 Speaker 2: maybe there will be is stuff like that becomes cheaper, 668 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 2: But right now there's just a whole grab bag of 669 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:30,920 Speaker 2: problems that you can trace back to if not coming 670 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,239 Speaker 2: from homeck, not being taught homech being taught could have 671 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,200 Speaker 2: solved them or could solve or prevent them in the future. 672 00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:39,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I guess a good thing about these 673 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,200 Speaker 3: days is you know, there's a YouTube tutorial. There's a 674 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:45,359 Speaker 3: thousand of them for every single task you could ever 675 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,439 Speaker 3: want to accomplish in life. Yep. So in that case, 676 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:50,800 Speaker 3: it's good to have an app for that, because I 677 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 3: don't think necessarily younger generations are like, I don't know 678 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,239 Speaker 3: how to plug in an iron, So you know, I 679 00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,279 Speaker 3: think they'll they'd look that stuff up on YouTube and 680 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,600 Speaker 3: teach themselves. But you know, it's also good to learn 681 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:03,640 Speaker 3: that in the classroom setting. 682 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I'm really glad you said that, because 683 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:09,480 Speaker 2: this could so easily slide into well, when we were 684 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 2: in school, we learned all this stuff and look at 685 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,280 Speaker 2: how great we turned out. It could just be people 686 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:18,600 Speaker 2: who are proponents of HOMECH not understanding where the country 687 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:20,720 Speaker 2: is going, where the culture is going, and it's going 688 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,919 Speaker 2: away from HOMECH in a different direction that will take 689 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,920 Speaker 2: care of itself. It's not like homech is the solution 690 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,000 Speaker 2: to every problem. So that's a really good argument against it. 691 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:35,680 Speaker 2: There's others too, like do we if we bring back 692 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:41,440 Speaker 2: like vocational education, does the US need jobs like that? 693 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,680 Speaker 2: And you can make an argument against that argument and 694 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,520 Speaker 2: that yeah, we do, especially hands on jobs like trade 695 00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:52,960 Speaker 2: skills like plumbing and electricians. Jensen Wang, the CEO of Nvidia, 696 00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:55,400 Speaker 2: said the next generation of millionaires are going to be 697 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:57,880 Speaker 2: plumbers and electricians because it's so hard to replace that 698 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:01,640 Speaker 2: with AI. So there's like argument one way or another, 699 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 2: but it's you just have to be really careful not 700 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,040 Speaker 2: to slip into the back of my day things were 701 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:07,839 Speaker 2: better kind of mentality. 702 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean, because that will and rightfully get 703 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 3: smack backed in your face if you're like, well, how'd 704 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 3: you learn to steam a shirt? You didn't take homech 705 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,959 Speaker 3: and this like TikTok bruh, like get out of my face. Yeah, 706 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,360 Speaker 3: we do things differently now and we don't have to 707 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:25,279 Speaker 3: do it the way you did it. 708 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,799 Speaker 2: That's right. Like I can't set a table properly in 709 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,920 Speaker 2: like the exact way it's supposed to be, but our parents' 710 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,480 Speaker 2: generation probably learned how to do that. It doesn't matter 711 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,839 Speaker 2: because the culture evolved in a way that didn't need 712 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 2: that anymore. 713 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, just put the soup bowl down, cup your hands 714 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 3: and go to town. 715 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,640 Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah, I don't think we can do 716 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:48,479 Speaker 2: any better than ending on that, Chuck. 717 00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:49,719 Speaker 3: Who thank you. 718 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:52,279 Speaker 2: So if you want to learn more about homech go 719 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,120 Speaker 2: find a homech class and take it and then let 720 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 2: us know what you think about it. If you take 721 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:58,520 Speaker 2: home mech, Now get in touch and tell us what's 722 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:00,880 Speaker 2: going on there, because we want to hear if you 723 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,279 Speaker 2: got your finger on the pulse of homec And since 724 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,280 Speaker 2: I mentioned pulse, that means it's time for listener mail. 725 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:10,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're like, what are you using for babies these days? 726 00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,319 Speaker 3: And they're like, we're just using the babies that we've 727 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,400 Speaker 3: had bring them into school. 728 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:17,640 Speaker 2: They didn't get to us in time. 729 00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 3: This is a Roquettes thing. I think we ran our 730 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:25,880 Speaker 3: Rockettes episode as a select recently because tis the season, 731 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 3: and we heard from Santa Claus. You, guys, hey just 732 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,719 Speaker 3: wanted I didn't know Santa was a listener, but it 733 00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,200 Speaker 3: turns out he is just listened to the selects on 734 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,000 Speaker 3: the Rockettes. You did a wonderful job, or heard you 735 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:39,680 Speaker 3: say you hope a Roquette writes in which, by the way, 736 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,480 Speaker 3: did happen back then when we first released it. I 737 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 3: may not be a Roquette, but I'm lucky enough to 738 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,319 Speaker 3: work very closely with these ladies six days a week. 739 00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:49,200 Speaker 3: I've been Santa Claus in the Christmas Spectacular for the 740 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 3: past four years. To say these women are the greatest 741 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 3: stage athletes would be an understatement. Not only are they 742 00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:58,680 Speaker 3: the best in their field, but even off stage, they 743 00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:03,200 Speaker 3: are gracious, intelligent individuals, and many have other unique passions 744 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 3: outside of dance. This year is quite special as it 745 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 3: marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Roquets, not the 746 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,960 Speaker 3: Christmas Spectacular that'll be in twenty thirty three, but if 747 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:13,719 Speaker 3: you guys want to come see a show, let me know. 748 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,720 Speaker 3: I'll give you my Santa schedule and get you some tickets. 749 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 3: My wife and I missus Claus a door Stuff you 750 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,080 Speaker 3: Should Know and we're at your last New York City 751 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,960 Speaker 3: Live show. Thanks for everything, and that is from Santa 752 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,520 Speaker 3: Claus Adam. 753 00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,399 Speaker 2: That's sweet. Thank you, Santa Adam. That was a really 754 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:33,319 Speaker 2: great one. And thanks for the offer too. We're gonna 755 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:34,479 Speaker 2: have to take them up on it, Chuck. 756 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,359 Speaker 3: I've always wanted to see that show, so maybe maybe 757 00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:38,120 Speaker 3: we'll do that one day. 758 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,040 Speaker 2: That's pretty great. Thanks again, Sanna. And before we sign off, Chuck, 759 00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:44,920 Speaker 2: this episode comes out on UM's birthday, so I want 760 00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:49,840 Speaker 2: to say happy birthday you MEI. What's your birthday the thirtieth? 761 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:53,080 Speaker 3: Oh? I thought it was the thirty first. No, I wonder. 762 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:56,719 Speaker 3: I'm always a daylight, but you're not a dollar short, Chuck. 763 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:57,560 Speaker 2: You always come. 764 00:39:57,480 --> 00:39:59,480 Speaker 3: Through, all right. Well, have your birthday, Yumi. 765 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:02,080 Speaker 2: Thanks and if you want to get in touch with us, 766 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:04,399 Speaker 2: like Santa did, you can send us an email too 767 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:10,160 Speaker 2: at stuff Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. 768 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,600 Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 769 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,800 Speaker 1: For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple 770 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,400 Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.