Course Helps Promote

Happier Families

To the Editor:

This is a tough year to make budget decisions for our schools. I was disheartened to see that the middle school’s only position in family and consumer science may be eliminated.

As a registered dietitian and a certified teacher in family and consumer science, I can assure you that this is a bad decision. The nutrition illiteracy in this state is a major health and personal wellness problem. I have been teaching nutrition at the University of Connecticut for the past six years. I find it almost impossible to teach label reading if the ingredients read like a list of unknown chemicals. Students no longer know that enriched flour comes from wheat nor do they understand that egg whites are low in cholesterol.

At the high school level, nutrition is an elective; at least teach family and consumer sciences at the middle school level to every student. The belief that sewing is a quaint old-fashioned skill led to the elimination of the textiles unit at the middle school years ago. Future clothing and interior designers need to be exposed to these skills to make career choices and focus their creative interests. It is true that personal finance can be taught by those certified in business education, but it must be integrated with household decisionmaking or it lacks the context to be applied in the real world. The mortgage crisis is the direct result of ignorance in interest rates, contract language, and the cost of raising a family. And finally, early childhood development is an essential course for future parents. Child abuse prevention cannot be taught in isolation in health education classes.

Knowledge of human development theory and positive child guidance techniques help parents promote happier families.

Patricia Grace-Farfaglia

42 Horseshoe Ridge Road, Sandy Hook                February 15, 2010