A recent Bachelor of Education in Home Economics graduate Breda O’Mahony wrote an article published today (6th March) in the Irish Independent (page 31) entitled: “Home Economics empowers students and gives them a set of life-long skills.”

In her article, she dispels the myth of the Home Economics discipline as one for “stitchers and stirrers” to one that provides secondary school students with a wide range of essential life skills. She writes, “[Home Economics] is multi-disciplinary, encompassing a broad range of modules including culinary skills and food and nutrition, which covers matters such as diet and health…It also equips students with skills in areas of money management and consumer discernment.”

Ms O’Mahony also calls for compulsory Home Economics education, a position strongly supported by Ms Amanda McCloat, Head of Home Economics, the Home Economics Department and St Angela’s College, Sligo as a whole. She writes of a mandatory Home Economics programme in secondary school: “Compulsory Home Economics education could significantly reduce the healthcare costs in regards to diet-related disorders,” she concedes it could take a number of years to see the impact of such a change in educational policy, “Recent proposals to reform the Junior Certificate have missed an opportunity to educate the future generation to understand and apply lifestyle habits that promote wise decision-making and a focus on achieving healthy lifestyles.”

The full article is available in today’s Irish Independent.

Source: O’Mahony, B. “Home Economics empowers students and gives them a set of life-long skills.” Irish Independent, 6th March 2013, p.31.