Junior High Home Economics Classes

The smell of cookies baking would permeate the long corridors as we junior high students would scramble between our assigned classes., As seventh graders we would look forward our turn to bake, and more specially eat. Home EC as it was called was taught for one half of the school year. It was a class designed for future moms and wives. The boys took woodworking. Roles were very definitive back then.
We would learn the basics of cooking, sewing, changing diapers, making beds and all the duties pertaining to being a good housewife. In truth they were life skills, particularly modeled after the role of a good homemaker.  Some of us were lucky to have on the job training at home, but post war boomers were more doted upon as dad and mom adhered to the defined roles of their gender.
I loved the room where we were taught, with it's little kitchen tucked in one corner, rows of sewing machines in another section, and a baby doll wrapped in a blanket for us to practice our motherly skills on.
I think when you go to High School a lot is forgotten, but not what you learned in Home EC. Until this day I make my beds with hospital corners. I still have a very weak spot for Snickerdoodels which was the first cookies we baked. I was a pro at changing diapers on our pretend baby, (had a lot of practice with that at home,) and burping the baby doll brought a lot of giggles to us girls.
Sewing was a different matter for me. My first project was a pillow case. Mom bought a ugly piece of purple fabric because it was on sale. I managed to sew the most crooked seams over and over. My sense of direction has not improved over the years and I still struggle with the "simple" patterns that tax my coordination to no end.
Fast forward to this decade; who uses diapers, who makes bread, who bakes from scratch, who sews their own clothes?  The times they have changed, the skill sets needed are a lot different and yet, there are somethings that never change; pride in what you are doing, keeping a home that is warm and inviting, providing meals that are wholesome and delicious, and I would also say making a bed with a nice tight hospital corner.