OneOfMany, actually people put more importance on pushing girls to have careers, use up every single minute of their spare time, keeping them busy all the time, and turn young girls into future super women. So I disagree. Any one of our wonderful bnos yisroel probably has too much information packed into their brains, and most of it they will never use again after High School.
In all honesty in all my years post High School, and I am a bubby of quite a few at the moment, I never had to know any of the “mi amar l’mi” post High School ever again. Nor did I have a need to know any dates, that we were tested on through the 4 years. There were thousands of bits and pieces of information that I never had to use again. On the other hand, I totally regret the fact that Historia was given to us in hebrew in our freshman year, 9th grade, when we were too overwhelmed and novices at taking notes, to fully comprehend and appreciate what we were being taught. That was quite a shame because had we been taught Jewish History in our Junior or Senior year, we would have had a much better appreciation and would have retained so much more about our very important heritage.
On the other hand we did take elective courses which were mandatory such as typing, art, first aid, sewing, home economics, etc. All of which were necessary life skills. It is amazing to me that first aid is no longer taught in school. It is amazing to me that young mothers and wives have no clue what to do in case of emergency and even just for basic cuts, scrapes, sprains and burns. You can laugh at the cooking and baking classes, but remember this, when you are married it is much cheaper to cook and bake on your own than to buy ready made from the store. As I mentioned earlier, knowing how to sew is a major money saver, just in hems alone. Typing, will get you through college papers and through jobs especially internet work much quicker and easier. If you were lucky enough to take bookkeeping in school then you will know how to make a budget for your family and help handle the finances aside from being able to get a job even while being in school.
So again, while you make look at these extra classes as silly or not stimulating, they do come in handy and they do serve their purpose, whether it is to give the kids a break from the stress, or for filing away these “silly” skills for later in life.