When choosing a topic for this research paper, I wanted to pick something that had personal meaning to me. I toyed with the idea of researching the difference between rural and urban schools in British Columbia, as I attended a very small high school in a very small town in BC. My high school was grades 8 through 12, and had approximately 240 students; I graduated with only about 50 other students. I was interested in the difference between rural and urban schools because I always felt like I was not able to take the classes I wanted due to lack of interest and enrollment. However, I discovered that finding primary sources for this project was a very daunting task, and decided to think of another topic.

My second thought was to research the French Immersion program in BC, as I was in French Immersion from kindergarten to grade 3. I was interested in the development of the program but once again, I had troubles finding relevant sources. Most of the articles I found were in reference to the effectiveness of the program, rather than its history. In addition, I am not able to read French, and a number of sources I found were in French rather than English. So once again, I decided to go back to the drawing board and find a new topic.

I’ve always been interested in the idea of home economics and the idea of girls and boys being taught a separate curriculum. When I was in school, we had the option of taking cooking, but it was in no way mandatory. Boys and girls were both welcome to take the class, but there was the majority of students were girls. I never took a cooking class in school, and I’ve kicked myself for this as an adult. There have been many times in my life I’ve wished I knew more about cooking or maintaining a home, things that were taught in home economics. This realization prompted me to do some research into the history of the program, and thus began my academic journey into researching home economics in British Columbia during the 20th century.