I am past fifty, two years shy of being a Senior Citizen. At my age today, there is one subject in the elementary and high school that I fondly remember: Home Economics or H.E. Not because it was my favorite subject because it was not, but because of its benefits and learnings that I have not forgotten until now.
I remember learning about puberty and good grooming, safe periods and menstruation, social ethics, grace in dining, dating, proper way of dishwashing, meal planning, simple cooking, baking, sewing, et cetera. The list is too long, we had it in 5th and 6th grade, and in high school.
I miss our room that was in a building with complete parts of the house. The house seemed of a standard architecture just like the Gabaldon buildings of the 1920s, which are easily recognized for its features. This made me look out for the story behind such home model via Google. I remember that a Facebook page, OST Tayabas posted an H.E. building that looked similar to our H.E. building in Lopez. There must be some explanation, but I haven’t found anything as of this writing.
Then I remember our teachers. In our time, teachers were given so much respect. We didn’t have social media, not even individual phones, so all communications were made personal and face-to-face, mostly during class hours. But we learned. We learned a lot and never forgot the lessons, especially because lessons from H.E. were mostly applied practically in our everyday lives. Well, except for sex education, because our generation was the reserved type. We were focused in our studies and afraid to disobey our parents who were mostly the strict type. Plus, we were afraid to explore life outside the confines of the school. Boldness and independence came late, in college. Not even, for others. Because the rule of our time was graduate first, have college education as much as possible, because love can wait.
We learned a lot about homemaking and managing the home in H.E. like domestic science and art, not realizing that we will benefit from those elementary and high school lessons until old age.
I know that the subject has evolved by now. It must be a lot different from our time in late ‘70s, but the basics are still the same. We still wash the glass first, before the spoons and plates, and cooking pans last. We still wash fruits and vegetables before slicing. Because somehow, some things never change in this life. There are basic lessons that don’t change through time.
I will still keep looking for the explanation why Tayabas and Lopez’s H.E. buildings are the same. To find explanations to the questions that need to be answered is another lesson that I learned in my H.E. Now, that is my assignment.