Living skills such as cooking, ironing, and sewing are fairly simple tasks.
Many people learn them at home, in fact, and are therefore armed with basic knowledge on these skills for the rest of their lives.
But some people don’t get to learn those tasks, which puts them at a disadvantage when they grow older.
This is why many schools offer living skills classes that provide students with additional knowledge on basic everyday chores that they will likely need to know in the future.
In the Montecastelo School of Spain, located in Vigo, not only is there a class meant just for this that students can take, but it is also focused on offering these lessons to all students – especially boys.
Many young men face negative stigma for doing these basic tasks, and this school seeks to break that stigma, enforcing gender equality and encouraging boys to learn these crucial skills.
The school’s slogan, which states that equality is learned through action, serves as the root behind their decision to host this initiative.
The decision to go forward with these additional classes was made in 2018 and involved the addition of home economics lessons to all students, especially male ones.
Apart from the standard lessons in plumbing, carpentry, electrical fields, and masonry, students would be taught how to cook, iron, sew, and more.
These classes are taught by school campus representatives, teachers, and even fathers, who all volunteer to head the classes.
The establishment’s coordinator, Gabriel Bravo, spoke to a local newspaper about this initiative.
He stated that it was deemed useful that students are educated on the correct way to perform these tasks for their futures.
Not only are these tasks essential for anyone’s life, but Bravo states that they are also crucial for when these students eventually form families.
He believes that these young men should realize and understand the foundations of a household are built on two people, not just one.
This means they will be more aware of the fact that cleaning a home, ironing clothes, and doing dishes is not a women-only job.
This idea came to fruition after administrators of the school began to discuss possible ways to help educate their students on gender equality.
Further discussions were then held with the school’s students and their parents – and parents certainly didn’t mind the fact that their kids would be learning these life skills!
Students were, at first, quite uncomfortable with the idea of ironing and sewing.
But as they attended classes and learned these skills, they slowly began to understand how simple and basic these types of work are.
They also realized that anyone, regardless of gender, could learn to do these tasks.
Many students held an iron for the first time ever in that class, and they had a lot of fun through the education experience.
School staff and teaching volunteers were surprised by their eagerness, and parents were thrilled with the results.
What are your thoughts on these classes? Would you be happy for your children to take one?
