It was 1989, and I was struggling through the sewing project I had chosen for the final project in Home Ec that year. Not having been raised in a house with a working sewing machine had clearly stunted my growth in this area. I sewed the pocket on in the region of the armpit. At that dark moment, I turned around to see our teacher’s adorable little boy who was visiting that day pick up a pair of scissors and cut into the perfectly finished bodice of my friendemy’s nearly complete dress.  It felt a little like justice for a few moments until I saw my poor teacher’s face. She was just absolutely horrified.

Mrs. B. was sort of an unknown to me. I didn’t spend a lot of time in that class, nor did I participate fully or capably. I spent most of my time being bewildered about why my cauliflower soup had turned purple and struggling through the math required for the budget section of our class. She was, I knew, unfailingly kind in a way that I didn’t expect- she put up with my failings unlike most of my teachers had done.

I never took another class from Mrs. B, I’m fairly certain she mercy passed me out of home ec, but she continued to be one of my favorite teachers during my four years at Campion.

In the years since, and a number of years it has been, I’ve grown better at the things she tried to teach me. I’m still not a very good seamstress, but I knit, I crochet, I make things. I’m decent at what I call “freelance repair”, which may not be exactly correct, but usually works.  I know why my soups turn weird colors. I can make a budget and (mostly) stick to it. I’m very good at cleaning and organizing- and I enjoy both. And, I see meaning in all of it. And… and,  I still understand that the subject of home economics isn’t a simple thing that just anyone can do and excel at. I’m still working on that.

The decades I’ve spent my life in have seen a continued devaluing of the domestic arts- with a few years of push back here and there. Without getting deep in the weeds of the history of home economics and its many issues, without home ec, too many kids grow up incapable of what are actual life skills, needed to navigate through the every day, but also to guide us through rough patches like the one we’re in right now. For some folks, a simple haircut can’t be navigated- even with YouTube tutorials galore. Problem solving and creative ability are in short supply.

But, we have a deep history of crafting (problem solving and creative ability) during national emergencies in our country, and this time is no different. From the Atlantic–

I think of Jo March, the heroine from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, lamenting that she can’t fight for the Union Army in the Civil War but must “stay home and knit, like a poky old woman.” And yet that dismissal belies the quiet strengths embedded in every stitch. Counting the movements of hooks and needles, row after row, over the hours or days it takes to complete a project, requires patience, focus, and persistence. And these cognitive skills—to say nothing of the proven mental-health benefits of crafting—are just the ones needed to weather a disaster that’s defined by waiting.

After 9/11, the crafting industry saw a huge surge as people looked for something to do that had meaning. We were not asked to participate in any major way, other than to shop, so many of us returned to skills we had let go of, or learned new ones. We had handmade Christmases and birthdays. We started cooking decent meals and gardening. Today, we are asked to make masks- and we do. I reluctantly got out my sewing machine, fought with the bobbin, gave up, hand sewed a few masks, and ordered more from people more skilled than I. Somewhere in there, I wondered what Mrs. B would think.

I just heard that Mrs. B is retiring this year, and I hope she knows that even if it didn’t look like much at the time, she inspired me and empowered me to see the skills she taught as important and worthy- and sometimes life saving.

 

Post Script: The dress with the slice survived. Mrs. B found a genius way to cover the damage. It was a sailor dress- it got an anchor patch.