When I got the award in 1968, at Fort Atkinson High School in Wisconsin. it was a rather unusual situation. The only Home Ec course I had was a mandatory semester in 8th grade. My high school schedule was "packed" because I took both college prep and business classes, usually with no study halls.. My award is a charm, I think pewter? I know it's here but would take some effort to find! The Home Ec teacher presented the award during an assembly when all awards to the senior class were announced. I always felt like it was a disapointment that the award didn't go to one of her students. Like another reply to this question, I also won a National Merit Scholasrhip. I remember taking the Betty Crocker test specifically because of the potential scholarship. My yearbook also had a photo of me sitting at a sewing mchaine.
My education was part 4-H but mostly from my mother. As the oldest of 5 children, I learned to cook and bake from an early age. I specifically remember burning my hand quite badly taking a cake out of the overn when I was 11. That's also when the youngest child was born and my mother had some health problems after that. (She had utuerine fibroids which were miserable but the only hospital in the area was Catholic and would not allow hysterectomies until age 40 apparently.) She finally had the surgery (plus bladder repair etc.) the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. In addiition to all the things I was already doing, I had to run the entire household -- keep track of what the other kids were doing, plan and prepare meals, ironing (one task I especially hated but spent many hours at) and grocery shopping. As Mom felt better she gave me advice about things as needed. The grocery shopping was done by my father driving me to the store, and waiting to write the check and haul the bags around.
The reason I'm telling you this is because I've always felt the experiences I had at home, especially that summer, were key in the score I got on the test. There were questions about things I don't think were covered in Home Ec classes.
1. Choosing the most reasonable priced meat -- comparing the price per pound, waste due to weight of bone and fat, and what I want to make, like pot roast or hamburgers.
2. At what age does a baby double his weight. (I can't recall now -- 3 mos? At the time I knew from taking care of my baby brother)
3. How many yards of fabric is enough for a dress? (3 yards - we wore them pretty short by then but sometimes instead of a simple "shift" we wanted a fuller skirt.)
4. How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? (3 I think) Tablespoons in 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) Ounces in a cup (8) etc -- liquid measures like cups in pint. pints in quart, quarts in gallon. At the time I thought some of that was dumb, and the home ec students may have learned those better than I did, bit since then of course it has been helpful.
5. Different types of leavening and what they are used for -- baking soda, baking powder, yeast -- My mother baked all of our bread, 5 or 6 loaves at one time, so I took that over for the summer. I've always liked to bake bread and got 4-H awards for breads I made other than plain white bread and rolls.
6. Questions about doing laundry -- sorting by colors, water temperature and detergent. I hung our laundry outisde. I was glad to get out of the house in the fresh air. Guess I'm out of space!! *********************