Family Consumer Science classes are growing in popularity among students because they help students learn about their daily living for now and in the future.

    These classes teach students how to care for children, cook and much more. 

   “If I were to take a guess, I would guess a 300-400% increase over last year,” counselor Tyler Richardson said about the increase in students taking FCS classes. 

   “Everything I teach can or will be used later in life. The courses I teach are practical arts, meaning practical life skills,”  FCS teacher Kim Pate said.

    WHS offers FCS courses in foods, culinary arts, apparel, interior design, and child development. The apparel course is new this year. The classes are going to teach how to sew clothing and properly form a piece of clothing. This subject is new to the classes because sewing has not been in the curriculum for years.

  These classes are used for more than just learning how to cook and raise a family. Food classes teach such skills as cutting, cleanliness, finances, etc. The curriculum is developed to make sure the students are ready for the real world. 

   According to FCSED.net, FCS classes include instruction in areas of culinary arts, hospitality, and tourism; education and training; food science and nutrition; health management and wellness;housing and interior design; human/child development and family relations; personal and family finance; and textiles, apparel and retailing.

    From a student perspective there are many things that a student doesn’t even think they need to know that are taught in these classes. 

   “The classes indeed help me with cooking at home and trying out new recipes. I’ve learned how to make cookies, pies, cupcakes and more,” freshman Jordan Brown said. 

   Foods classes most recently participated in a cupcake war. Groups were involved in the planning and creating of themed cupcake displays. These displays were judged by school administrators.

  Child development students mostly enjoy the session of learning about child development because of their hands-on equipment that makes it very visual to be in a pregnant person’s shoes. Many of them experienced the use of the empathy belly recently.

   “A pro is that it educates you about the feeling of being pregnant. A con is that it’s really heavy and hurts your back, “ junior Tatum Bohl said.