Newspaper article: Southern Baptist seminary to offer academic program in homemaking

The article, “Southern Baptist seminary to offer academic program in homemaking,” is an atypical article. Well, honestly, I am not so surprised about the subject of this article because of where it takes place. In southern part of America it’s even more difficult to establish women anywhere other than home. This article is informing that in Nashville, Tennessee, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is introducing a program in homemaking only for women. This program will teach seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and "clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family.” It will offer a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour concentration in homemaking. The program is only open to women (French p1). So we women need to have a degree which will prove us as women if we accomplish this course. I really would love to see anyone proudly walk on their graduation day holding this degree and feel like they have found their achievement. I would really want to hear someone say this is what they wanted to do since they were a little girl!
Seminary officials say the main focus of the courses is on hospitality in the home -- teaching women interior design as well as how to sew and cook. Women also study children's spiritual, physical and emotional development (French p1). This institution is trying to bring women back to their home. They are stating that women belong inside the house and that is their place. Why is this course offered only to women? Why it is not offered to men? Are they not allowed to cook? Are they not allowed to feed themselves? Starting from fast food restaurants to five star restaurants majority of the chefs are male. Where did they learn how to cook? Obviously from a cooking institution and they each have certificate which certifies them as professional cooks. Then why is this institution offering this course to only women?
If you watch the show in lifetime channel ‘Project runaway’ all the designers are a mixed sex. Did they have to learn how to sew the clothes they design? Yes they had to learn, than why is this Seminary offering the course to women only? Also there are so many brand name clothes out there like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, George Armani etc. are all designers and they are male. They had to make their dresses before they became known in today’s phase. Also where did they learn how to sew? Once again they had to either learn from a school or maybe from their parents.
If you watch HGTV, which is a house decorating channel, you will come across multiple male interior designers who are successful in their field. Where did they learn to decorate? Obviously, if you are a decorator in this channel, that means you are a professional at your field. This means all the decorators have certificate which certifies them to decorate the interior of the house or reconstruct the house as whole.
Unfortunately, biologically, men can not get pregnant and give birth to a child. Putting that fact aside, a man in a family turns out to be a father. This means that they should know how to raise a child because they would have to interact with a child just like a mother would. Maybe they might not be as involved as the mother would be but they are part the child’s life so they should learn how to raise a child too. Then why is this Seminary merely offering this course to women? So they are trying to say that men are born with the knowledge of how to be a father but women are so imperfect that they need to be taught how to be a mother? A child is always influence by their surroundings, which means that they will be affected by both the parents. Moreover not just the fact that they will be taught but they need to achieve a degree which will declare them as a pro at what they do. Is this the image we, as society, want to imply on our generation that women should be locked up at home with their house chores, which they don’t get paid for, but men should be out there earning money; where a woman is well capable of executing the same task a man would embark on? No matter how much others try to tie women down but they are not home caged any more and neither would they give in to that pleasure for men. There were other Baptists who did not agree with such course which should be part of the institution. Surprisingly they are men who are raising a voice against this matter. Even men, in today’s period, know that it takes both male and female to run a society successfully. So this is a friendly advice to those back dated, hard-headed people, try hard but don’t die hard in the process!