My sweet momma INSISTED that I take Home Ec in the 9th grade. I sooo had my heels dug in to hate it, but had the most wonderful teacher who taught me to sew... tried to teach the cooking and other stuff, but I was bored with that... love it now, of course, but could not get interested in it then.
I think they call it "Family and Consumer Sciences" or something like that these days.... there are some really great teachers out there teaching kids the skills we knew as "home ec."