This is the case to have home economics restored and mandatory 6th grade and up. Teach knife skills, more knife skills and even more knife skills, recipe reading, then basic cooking like omelettes, steamed/sauteed vegetables and grilled meats, shopping skills, reading nutrition labels, effective use of a freezer, home gardening and home canning.
After all, once everyone graduates and no longer have access to these wonderful cafeterias, what are they going to eat?
I loved home ec in jr high but my mom had already taught us sewing and cooking. I was on FB with some nieces recently. I told them that when I was learning to make fudge, it would be so runny sometimes that we ate it with a spoon and other times, we could have used a sledge hammer. But, we learned-—eventually. Great memories. When we made messes, we cleaned them up, too.