Family Studies has been a course at Hays High for quite a few years and really seems to spark student’s interest to take the class. Taught by instructor Cathy Kuhn, the class can also be quite informative about parenting and future family circumstances.

“Family Studies is all about structures,” Kuhn said. “Some schools call it parenting which pretty much sums up the course curricular.”

Although the course is about learning how to parent and cope with young ones, it is also basically a preschool for kids anywhere from ages three to five years old. Students are paired up with a preschooler and get the opportunity to work and teach the kids about everyday obstacles as well as managing a positive attitude with everyone.

“Preschoolers each have their own little personalities which set them apart just like my ‘big kids’,” Kuhn said. “Fortunately I can learn the names pretty easily.”

With Kuhn teaching for over 35 years in this particular department, she has seen a lot change over the years with the course. It hasn’t always been “Family Studies.”

“We use to have a course titled ‘The Developing Child’ and it was a combination of parenting and developmental skills,” Kuhn said. “However, just a few years ago the Department of Education decided to split the class into two separate classes: Family Studies and Human Growth and Development.”

Behind every teacher, most have a particular reason as to why they decided to teach the class in the first place. Kuhn said the wonderful part about teaching any of the family and consumer sciences courses is all of them are so interesting.

“Hays High has lots of exciting components and I was fortunate when I first started teaching at Hays High,” Kuhn said. “The family life courses really intrigued me and I was able to teach whichever courses I wanted.”

Considering the course has really changed over the years, Kuhn says the course now is just right.

“It is a great program with lots of opportunities for students to learn,” Kuhn said.

16hbaxter@usd489.com