Morana Revel

My father lost a whole wagon of hay one time when bringing it home on a truck back in the 70s.

It was improperly dried before bailing and the wind rushing by started drying it quickly and creating fiction in the bales. He lost the whole wagon.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-yl_RlMomBZpZeSQifSx_zPYwC5CbxikTdhYENILwCM/edit?usp=drivesdk

They are historical shows but not all gardening.

I love studying history

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-yl_RlMomBZpZeSQifSx_zPYwC5CbxikTdhYENILwCM/edit?usp=drivesdk

They are historical shows but not all gardening.

I love studying history

I have several horns in saving to make needles with and other wool tools. I was just chasing with someone on reddit lay well about where she got her needles from.

I think we confuse what should be a teachers responsibility, what should be a parents responsibility and what should be a community responsibility.

Example
My HS biology class had an out of class project assigned to either collect 50 bugs and identify them or 50 leaves to identify. I picked leaves.  My father took my to the local herb healer who took me on a nature walk and that sparked my lifelong love of herbalism.

However, as an adult, I can get much of the same information on a community level with the local home extension service, which is a national government program. They also have many classes available as 4-H classes. Our state also had a large group of people who do nature walks to teach people to identify plants.

Parents can easily enroll their kids into 4H- but they don't. They continue to say "someone else should teach this" but they don't want to drive the kids anywhere outside of school hours or on weekends.

Another example
I was given free first aid and CPR classes at age 14 at our local hospital. Mom just had to drive me there on a Saturday morning. My brother had learned several years before me and had to perform CPR on a stroke victim at the local flea market so I was keen to learn. I've since had to do CPR  4 times.
These days, there are classes available at the red cross and other places. Some cost, some do not. Yes, it COULD be taught in school but there are other places to learn these things.

Things like sewing, cooking, basic nutrition, plant identification walks and such are all available in most communities (or they are in mine in po-dunk Kentucky) they just might not be the most convenient to attend for busy parents.

Misty May wrote:Sorry, but I don't believe any of that belongs in the school curriculum. Those are things that parents and/or community members should be teaching. We pile too much onto the plates of schools and teachers. It seems that we've forgotten that "parent" is also a verb.

I agree to a point.
HOWEVER,  I think maybe some of it could be covered as part of a biology class.

We cut up frogs. That only helps those who want to be doctors, nurses and serial killers.
We had chemistry where we spent 6 months memorizing and being tested on the periodic table. As far as I know, that helped no one because in my college class, the whole table was painted in the wall.

Biology should cover
First aid
The difference between modern medicine and where medicine evolved from
How compost works
Intro to nutrition and how to read foods labels
How things/plants grow -in general.

We didn't WAY too much time studying ancient ways to name things and how the names evolve. That should be college level.

Chemistry should cover how chemistry is used daily. How yeast forms and is used to make bread.  How baking soda and vinegar react.  An entire chemistry class could be taught in a kitchen and home based curriculum that shows how and what is used for cooking and cleaning or homes daily. Show what chemicals are dangerous and WHY and why they are in everyday products.

You can actually follow soap making recipes from the 1800s and get quality consistent safe soap.

One of my more interesting books is from the 1880 I think. By washing the soap, you clean out all of the chemicals that were not converted into soap by the chemical reaction. So extra lye and oils are removed.

Then you can just so French milling to add in extra oils to get a nicer handmade soap.

https://richearthinstitute.org/rethinking-urine/urine-diversion/

Anita Martin wrote:A question not only to Jen, but all US-Americans:
Help me understand why normal families would use disposable plates and cutlery.?

Honestly,  absolutely no idea.  I grew up in rural KY.  Cloth diapers,  handkerchiefs... the only paper in our house was TP.

We would bring home disposable plates and silverware if we went to a cookout and they were there.  She would wash them and use them if we gave food to a neighbor or took something to the funeral parlor.

"Like using the bags pet food come in for garbage"

I use my bags to set reusable bags and totes for groceries