[frellus]

Absolutely. My wife is Japanese, and they still teach "home economics" there (and no, it's not sexist .. both boys and girls have to attend classes). They learn the following, basically life skills:

* proper nutritional eating

* balancing a budget (saving, spending)

* simple skills like how to stitch and sew their clothes when there is a hole or button needs to be fixed

I looked at their text books and my jaw hit the floor. All up to date, amazing pictures and instructions, little anime characters teaching life skills in a fun way. I was blown away, it was both practical and fun.

My daughter got a class like this in her charter school, they learned how to change a tire for a car and such. She absolutely loved it. They ran scenarios like, "if you made $<x> amount of money per year, and you want to live around $<y> how could you do it?", and she learned how she would get a roommate, how to split rent effectively and make a monthly budget.