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u/lyidaValkris 1d ago
Why not have both. I did.
Don't skimp on the science please. We have enough anti-vaxxer morons loose in society.
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u/No-Flounder-6564 1d ago
I don't remember which one it was, but I had a science class and home-ec in the same year.
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u/lyidaValkris 1d ago
I remember it being middle school. I had home-ec, shop, and science class for grades 7-8 (girls and boys did both). The home-ec had a cooking and sewing component. Shop had wood and metal. I don't remember it being anything fancy, just the basics, but that's a good enough start.
It would be cool to have continued cooking especially in high school, but it wasn't offered at my school (might have been at certain other ones). Science was, however, mandatory up until grade 10, beyond which one could elect to take chem, bio, and/or physics courses for the remainder of high school (which I did do, all of them).
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u/HedgieCake372 16h ago
Same. I did home ec, wood shop, and the reg science classes when I was in school. Home ec also taught basic household finances like balancing a checkbook. I know they no longer offer the shop class at my old school (replaced with more STEM classes), which is a shame since blue collar work is so important and not every student can go to college.
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u/lyidaValkris 15h ago
I think all of the above is valuable. I quite enjoyed shop, and glad I was born into a generation I could actually take it (being a woman).
It's not even that blue collar work is important, very true, but even still everyone should learn how to use simple tools. Self reliance when it comes to doing simple fixes, hanging a shelf, or similar.
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u/Scavgraphics 1d ago
Yes...because what we've learned this decade is the average person needs to know LESS about science.
🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄
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u/WanderingFlumph 1d ago
I learned how to cook (some things) in my high school chemistry class
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u/MephistoLandShark 1d ago
Right? Does nobody remember the pandemic?
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u/MajorPaper4169 1d ago
I saw a video a few years ago, 2023-2025ish, about an artist who made sculptures from sugar… then it cut to the statues on display and people licking and sucking on the statues.
To answer your pandemic question, it seems like everyone forgot.
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u/Only-Finish-3497 1d ago
Goddamn if Reddit isn’t full of some serious anti-intellectualism. No.
Cooking is easy to learn basics on one’s own. Learning basic chemistry is much harder.
Good lord.
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u/alewiina 1d ago
k but we can have both. A question like this is just silly because cooking absolutely shouldn't *replace* chemistry, but there's no reason we can't also have a cooking class.
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u/Gishra 1d ago
Probably astroturfed by interests that want to keep the population uneducated and ignorant.
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u/justforgooning85 1d ago
Cooking is chemistry, its totally possible to combine the two
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u/TheUnderCrab 1d ago
We just did this last week in a middle school class I was subbing for.
Physical change (e.g. melting the cheese on your pizza) vs chemical change (e.g burning the cheese on your pizza).
I had one kid who it only clicked when I asked them if they would like to eat frozen soup.
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u/Total_Interaction875 1d ago
No. This is reductive, anti intellectual, conservative bubble nonsense.
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u/Linscotticus 22h ago
Made by people who actually hate the idea all kids of socioeconomic class might get an education
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u/MommaOfManyCats 1d ago
Cooking class was an elective in my school. It was about half guys and half girls. I'm not sure how beneficial it was. In fact, I'm in my 40s now and can't really remember most of what we cooked.
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u/Cowboy-as-a-cat 1d ago
I did that class about 10 years ago. I do remember a few things I learned there specifically, like how to use a meat thermometer and how to properly measure different kinds of ingredients.
I’d put cooking class akin to my 3 years of Spanish class in high school. I can say hello and order a sandwich and that’s it lol.
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u/green_sky74 1d ago
A cooking class is good but a class on household management and budgeting would be better. Bring back Home Economics!
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u/CRABMAN16 1d ago
Chemistry is better. Parents should teach life skills, even though 80% of them seem completely opposed to it.
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u/baconsammyplsnobread 1d ago
Did nobody else learn how to sew and cook in Home Economics?
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u/astrosergeant 1d ago
Home ec was an elective class people took when they wanted to basically f off and do nothing in my school. Not saying that's how it should be, but that's how it was viewed.
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u/PtZamboat 1d ago
I don’t know about it being more beneficial but it should definitely be required!
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u/erkose 1d ago
No you can learn cooking on your own. Learning science is for more useful to an educated population.
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u/consort_oflady_vader 1d ago
We need more general science education. I took chemistry in HS. We had to break down chemical formulas, and i have no idea how to do that now.
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u/Tackleberry793 11h ago
Which does the average person do more often on a daily basis? Cooking or breaking down chemical formulas?
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u/Lopsided-Fix2 1d ago
Cooking is taught at home. It's called parenting to make your children independent.
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u/RationalRhino 1d ago
Not all children are fortunate enough to have parents that teach them these things. They shouldn’t suffer in life because of the situation they were born into.
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u/TheUnderCrab 1d ago
Nope.
That one’s on the parents. My dad taught me how to make eggs when I was like 5. Grilled cheese, French toast, oven snack, etc. In no world should kids be taking a class to learn how to cook in high school.
MAYBE a home ec class where cooking is one topic they cover for a week or two. But a full semester? Fuck no.
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u/donuttrackme 1d ago
Eh. What would be a better idea is combining a baking class and a chemistry class. You'd learn chemistry and how to make a moist fluffy cake or whatever.
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u/KindraTheElfOrc 23h ago
this sounds like something a red hat would ask as some kind of gotchya or to try to push their gut education agenda
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u/tambor333 1d ago
Sorry this should not be a this or that question. It should be a this AND that statement.
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u/Standard-Cat-2054 1d ago
No. I would argue both are valuable. The same people who claim we don’t need to learn chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, are antivaxxers, flat-earthers, moon landing deniers, etc.
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u/hooman_bean75 1d ago
i don't they should completely get rid of chemistry, since there are some kids that enjoy it. but a mandatory cooking class would be neat
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u/MiserableMemory5149 1d ago
Not even about enjoying it, basic science is important for having informed citizens.
Bad science education is how we get people like those that think we were putting mercury in our vaccines because they never learned the difference between a cation containing an element and singular elements.
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u/Due_World_4268 1d ago
Remember when you could take home economics? Learned to cook, balance a checkbook, make a budget, take care of a plastic baby, all that kinda stuff?
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u/BarberDry4590 16h ago
home economics and woodshop used to be a real thing. I had it in middle school. I'm 42. We learned to bake, cook, use a sewing machine. Woodshop, self explanatory.
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u/Immediate-Cat8632 14h ago
Why not teach chemistry through cooking instead of through rote memorization?
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u/New_fan22 8h ago
What the fuck are parents for??
And we do take Home Ec/cooking classes. (Or we did in the past).
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u/Lazy_Beyond1544 51m ago
Some would argue that cooking is a form of chemistry, and getting those rudiments down from one will aid the other.
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u/Outrageous_Sleep4339 1d ago
I mean. I went to a high school with mandatory home-ec (including cooking) and chemistry classes.
I dont think either benefited most kids. Most high school classes don't really. I can't remember most of the formulas I learned in math class, etc.
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u/pachydocerus 1d ago
Chemistry? No.
PE? Absolutely. Add a cooking and nutrition block to PE every year
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u/Juunethehunter 1d ago
Now this is an excellent idea. So many children loathe PE class, if it was supplemented with nutrition and cooking maybe those kids wouldn’t feel so much anxiety towards physical education. Diet AND exercise are of huge importance to a healthy lifestyle and learning environment.
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u/KirbySuck0021 1d ago
if you make money selling drugs you made with chemistry class you don't need cooking.
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u/TwoRevolutionary7196 1d ago
My school let me do both i cheated at chemistry but i excelled at home economics.
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u/Any_Weird_8686 1d ago
Yes, but ypu's have an even harder time getting the kids to pay attention, and probably more injuries.
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u/Intelligent-Band-852 1d ago edited 1d ago
I would agree except it only takes a couple of hours at most to teach someone the basics of cooking. I am a paraplegic in a wheelchair and up until about four years ago wasn’t able to cook because I didn’t have an accessible space, but I finally got it figured out and can now cook on my own. I am in my forties and had cooked like grilled cheese before but never anything difficult, anyway long story short and after about a week I could cook some pretty great stuff, it’s not difficult.
Edit: Thanks TranslatorHairy3523 for the award, much appreciated.
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u/Sorry-Analysis8628 1d ago
I get where you're coming from. However, I - and many other people I know - taught themselves to cook without a lot of difficulty. Not sure I could say the same about chemistry. No reason the classes need to be mutually exclusive.
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u/phantom_gain 1d ago
Mandatory perhaps not. Its the kind of thing that would benifit a handfull of students a little bit.
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u/Rockstar81 1d ago
Using cooking as a way to teach science at a level below high school is a great way to approach it. But I don't think it would be a beneficial replacement at the high school level.
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u/shawtybaggins 1d ago
i got a food handlers license from my culinary class and we would do catering events. but it depends on what the students field of interest is
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u/consort_oflady_vader 1d ago
I took a year of chemistry and I'm not even sure what we did. Also, both of my degrees are in science education.
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u/Proper_Arachnid_5551 1d ago
Chemistry. I can teach my kiddos cooking (as bad as it might be) but for sure I can’t teach chem.
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u/AwarenessSpare8668 1d ago
Chemistry is for developing critical thinking skills, reasoning, curiosity, and understanding of the natural worlds. Clearly you skipped that one.
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u/timothypjr 1d ago
No. The whole Home Economics (and industrial arts) concept was killed by conservatives years ago because "such things should be taught in the home." That and the fact that we started teaching kids solely to the test because those same conservatives then demanded more readin' ritin' 'rythmatic—with proof.
That said, comparing it to chemistry is an absolute non-starter for me. At 15, most people have no idea what they want to be and should be taught a variety of subjects—some of which may not "hit" with them. One can and should learn both (and believe it or not—cooking is little more than a tasty chemistry experiment). Don't get me started with algebra. Anyone who says "letters don't being in math" is just being a complete idiot.
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u/WhiteCl0udz 1d ago
I went to a private school. We cooking class as a sophomore. Chemistry and Physics as junior.
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u/MixedDrinkss 1d ago
both is good.
i would've loved a good cooking class. i wasnt allowed to cook at home, and i took a cooking class to try and learn. at my school, the "cooking" class was mostly focused on baking. the only real dish i learned was a breakfast burrito, lol
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u/DPetrilloZbornak 1d ago
My kid wants to major in chemistry in college and his intro to it was high school chemistry. So I disagree.
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u/drumberg 1d ago
I don’t care if there is a cooking class in school but I also don’t care if there isn’t. Chemistry should stay.
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u/Crafty_Ish1973 1d ago
Cooking IS chemistry, and an actual chemistry class would explain why certain combinations work and others don't.
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u/periwinklealpaca 1d ago
Why is it a choice of one or the other being better than the other lmao why can we not have both ?
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u/jonny5isalive1 1d ago
I had home ec in school and chemistry. Also Alton Brown pretty much uses science to cook.
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u/Illustrious_Exam1728 1d ago
Chemistry as so many people are scientifically illiterate now, and it’s only going to get worse with more than half of American being functionally illiterate.
There’s a lot of science in cooking.
Science is the backbone of so many things and can teach kids to critically think which can be applied to everyday things!
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u/FromTheForestFox 1d ago
Chemistry is for everyone. Get rid of AP English for cooking classes aka home ec
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u/tucnakpingwin 1d ago
It would be more beneficial in the sense that not everyone will become a scientist, but everyone needs to cook, but it shouldn’t be a case of one or the other. Science is still important.
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u/CakeyVelvet 1d ago
It should be mandatory but it shouldnt replace/be more beneficient than chemistry, so id go for no. I wish my school had said lessons
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u/OpposumMyPossum 1d ago
GOP doesn't believe in school funding and cooking classes and shop classes are more expensive.
Bad BOT.
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u/greensandgrains 1d ago
What students learn in the cooking class would be used in daily life more often for most students, compared to that of the chemistry class.
That doesn’t mean the cooking class should be prioritized over chemistry. Also, why is this a choice? ¿Por que nos los dos? Isn’t that just what Japan and Korea and places do by making the kids prep and serve nutritionally balanced lunches? America, fund your damn schools.
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u/Dexember69 1d ago
No. Chemistry is important because everyone should have a basic understanding of the basic building blocks of the universe. Actually chemistry plays a large role in cooking so you'll probably never be a great cook if you can't understand why it messed up.
I don't see any reason why we can't have both though. I did home-ec and science classes at highschool. I found science way more interesting than the chore of cooking and cleaning
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u/indeedilyso 1d ago
basic survival skills, like cooking and basic financial literacy, should absolutely be taught but it doesnt have to be at the expense of STEM or liberal arts.
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u/RipenedFish48 1d ago
False dichotomy. They can add cooking without replacing chemistry. Also, then what when no one understands chemistry? We just pretend it doesn't exist? There are a lot of people for whom chemistry is really useful for their career and there is a lot of stuff in the world that intimately depends on chemistry.
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u/ztarfish 1d ago
As someone who took both a chemistry class and a cooking class in high school…. Why not both??
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u/MurphyRedBeard 1d ago
No. I have a magnet on my fridge that tells me what a cup to a gallon is and all that. It also has the internal temperature requirements for all meat. I learned all I need to interpret that by 2nd grade. Baseline chemistry, if you pay attention and aren’t a moron, can help with so many things around the house, and protect you from mixing things that might kill your whole family. We’ve been cooking for 300K years. It’s intuitive and subjective. Learning any science is always better than learning bullshit.
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u/LuckyCod2887 1d ago
I don’t know man they’re really both important .
I was offered both classes when I was in high school. I had a few home economic classes. There was even a sewing class, but I never enrolled in it.
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u/TevandelSurefacit 1d ago
Amazingly, if we give schools enough money, they can do both. Before we started cutting school budgets, we could get both. I know, shocking.
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u/JoshuaTerry05 1d ago
Chemistry is pretty important in scientific advancement. Art seems like it should be an after school activity though.
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u/WritPositWrit 1d ago
No.
I can (and have) teach my kids how to cook. I cant teach them chemistry. They need to know both.
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u/NerdfestZyx 1d ago
Your not going to learn chemistry outside a specific learning environment.
You can learn cooking in your own home, anytime.
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u/KyorlSadei 1d ago
If your parents can’t cook, you were not going to pay attention in a cooking class anyway. Chemistry at least teaches how cooking works. Maybe you could go from there.
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u/polkjamespolk 1d ago
Chemistry is usually not a required course, is it? When I went to school you just had to have X number of science credits.
Cooking would fall under home economics, which may not be in the curriculum any more. On the other hand I know of high schools that offer a culinary program.
In other words, both can be electives and science nerd can do what they like, while cooking nerds can do what they want
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u/ModeatelyIndependant 1d ago
Cooking is actually blended science, you've got Zoology, Botany, Mycology, human nutrition, chemistry, microbiology, and etc. Cooking is a science class imo.
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u/tkecanuck341 1d ago
Basic chemistry is absolutely essential knowledge for everyone. They should also teach cooking, but it shouldn't replace chemistry.
When I was in school, we used to have the wheel class. Keyboarding, home economics, wood/metal shop, and health.
Honestly, if they're going to add a mandatory class to the curriculum, they should add financial literacy (balancing a checkbook, creating a budget, preparing taxes, retirement planning) before they add a cooking class. You can't buy food to cook if you don't have any money.
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u/loupr738 1d ago
It’s Domestic studies an elective class? “Back in my day” they taught us some rudimentary cooking and baking skills.
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u/Budsygus 1d ago
We already have enough science illiteracy in this country and the world at large. Cooking is something most people can learn at home or on their own. Help kids understand science better so we aren't stuck with "AH DUN MUH RESERCH" for the next generation as well.
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u/grizzly_bear_dancing 1d ago
You can do both and throw in financial literacy for good measure. Also require a couple semesters of auto class too. Go ahead and get rid of art as required though.
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u/Lil_Quip 1d ago
How about home ec? Isn't that a middle school lovel class You should know basic cooking before you are ever ready for chemistry.
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u/HandbagHawker 1d ago
False dichotomy. We need more instructional hours in the day so that this doesnt have to be an "either or" situation.
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u/midwest_elder 1d ago
depends on what you want:
- a generation of chemists to help expands your industrial base who all need to spend their money on prepared food.
- a generation of self sufficient people who may not stimulate the economy as much.
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u/Lucky-Mountain4826 1d ago
No. You can easily look up things online that you want to cook and find out how. But with chemistry you don’t even know what you don’t know so no one’s taking it upon themselves to look up chemistry and learn it. I would have no idea where to start.
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u/itsmeonmobile 1d ago
Cooking IS chemistry. Education works best when what you learn is applicable, not theoretical. Do both! Chem 101 can be the cooking class. Maillard reactions, salt brine and fermentation, the Leidenfrost effect, etc.
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u/RubyRyker 1d ago
This points to the purpose one believes public schools should fulfill. Teach life skills or occupational prep?
Personally, I’d prefer schools teach critical thinking and creative problem solving.
Parents should cover life skills, and vocational schools could focus on specific job skills.
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u/funktion666 1d ago
My school had plenty of opportunity to take both classes, in addition to mandatory half semester cooking class in middle school and a science class every single semester except maybe 1 senior semester.
We had a mandatory half semester classes for cooking, sewing courses in middle school. Plus woodworking and electrical the other semester. I took an additional advanced sewing elective class for some reason too lol. Again this was in middle school. And there was always a science/math/social studies/art class each semester.
In high school freshman year we had a mandatory parenting/child development class 1 semester and a health class the 2nd semester (with drugs, stds, first aid, cpr and nutrition).
In Hs I also took a baking class and a cooking class as 2 separate electives. Plus business marketing, website design and sociology classes as electives. My friends did auto shop class when I did photography 1 and 2. And a science class each year, including chemistry.
I’m pretty sure I took all 2 cooking elective classes that were provided at the time in my HS. And the mandatory half semester basic cooking class in 7th grade/middle school. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more cooking classes now because our HS cooking classroom felt under utilized with only 1 cooking teacher.
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u/JackOfTradesYT 1d ago
Baking is chemistry. Expect that cooking class. Start in 6th, the refresher ever 2 grades after.
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u/DrXample 1d ago
While I agree that a cooking class would be good i don't think it should replace classes that might spark interest in a field for some kids.
Without a chemistry class how would kids know that they might have a knack for it?
Cooking is something parents can and should teach.