I am a Home & Careers teacher, as they now call it, and teach approximately 400 eighth graders a year. It is a class taught over 3 quarters: one quarter being career / financial literacy oriented; one quarter cooking; and one quarter sewing and yes we teach machine sewing!!! This is a class taught to both girls and boys and I can say it is quite difficult teaching 25 students to sew on machines at one time in a class that the parents tell them "doesn't matter." Why should it not matter? It is a class that can lead to a career and it is an important skill to know to mend and keep clothing maintained. In addition it provides the students with background on chosing clothing fabrics and how to clean vaious fabrics. My class is NOT an "easy, do nothing class"! It is jam packed with activities like learning hand sewing stitches, making a hand sewn quilted potholder, sewing on buttons (with holes or shank), ironing a shirt, threading a sewing machine, making machine stitching samples and making a fleece hat. It is also a graded class -- not Pass / Fail and students who take it lightly occaisionally do fail. Education seems to resort back to what parents think are or aren't important. Parents: Let's make our students think that everything is important!! After all, you never know when they may need these skills or may need to use them to earn a living!!