We all, boys and girls alike, had to take all the home-ec, shop, art, stuff. We couldn't opt out. It was fine. I didn't really learn how to sew, but I can do a practical button sewing, hemming (not that well, but well enough). I'm not entirely sure I learned it in home-ec, though. I have a general idea about how to handle powered tools safely, so, that's good. Also, I made a set of bookends in shop that my sister still uses, so I was pretty amused by that some thirty years later. Also, my batik bird got hung outside the principal's office.

Our typing class was pretty evenly matched, gender-wise. It was mainly a vo-tech class, which track seemed pretty well balanced from what I could tell.

I took home-ec in jr. high cuz it seemed like fun. And my senior year of high school, I chose physics over typing. Then they re-worked the schedule a couple weeks into the school year, and a section of typing opened, so I grabbed it. I could type well enough to type my own papers in college, but I' a better file clrk than sectretary.

Secretaries don't really type anymore, though. Most people type their own stuff and we edit and format. I only type my own projects.

Incidentally, does any one know the deal with iOs and spell-check?

My mother once told me that she considered taking a typing class in high school, and her mother told her not to, because once an employer found out that she could type, the only thing they'd hire her as would be a secretary.

Typing was the best class I took in high school. It meant I could type my own papers in college and not have to pay someone else to do it for me. I think I still have the Brother manual typewriter that I received for high school graduation. (Yes, I went to college before the days of word processing.)

Seriously, except for e-mails most of what I type are process documents for the office and lots of spreadsheets.

But, yeah, I know what you mean, Hil. I ran into that even in the military. Despite the fact I was a trained electronics technician, they tried to assign me to full-time office work at my first command. Uh, no.

Oy, askye, that is a sucktastic day. Feel better!

When I run the world, some sort of home-ec class would be manditory. How to sew a button, fix a hem, read a simple recipe, and the stuff I WISH I had been taught: how to balance a checkbook, how to keep track of your credit, how to read/negotiate a lease ... Basic "adulting 101" stuff. Some of which I still am super-wobbly on.

Basic "adulting 101" stuff. Some of which I still am super-wobbly on.

Seriously. I wish I had been taught all that. Also auto shop.