784512 (X) Feb 19, 2011:

and then add geography into the mix Agreed re: Nicole's comment on so-called "Home Ec".

784512 (X) Feb 19, 2011:

With Susa, but... There's also a temporal relevance issue here. As a (relative) youngster, the terms I am used to may be different to what anyone 10 or 20 years older than me might have known at school. The subject has become an issue of gender politics - prescribed ideas awbout what practical skills boys or girls should be learning.
This I think is what has prompted the move toward calling everything a "Technology" (to give cooking equal respectability to non-advanced but impressive sounding "electronics"). The general field when I was at my girls' state grammar school around ten years ago was Design Technology, and we covered Textile Technology, Food Technology and Construction Technology. Sexist, still, since the connected boy's grammar did not do Food Technology, but instead "Electronics" (without the Technology adjunct). The word "Crafts", in my exposure at least, no longer appears to be used. Perhaps due to the gender politics (girls do crafts, boys do technology), or the fact that new subjects like Electronics can't really be called a craft.

As Susa says, depends on what the school itself includes in its curriculum. I would however be inclined to believe Penny has the answer

Helen Shiner Feb 18, 2011:

Handicrafts? Is this too old-fashioned a term? We called it needlework at school, but then we didn't get involved in paper making or such like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicraft

Mech White Feb 18, 2011:

What about 'fibre crafts' which would make it quite clear, that it does not include wood or metal working, but is broader than needle work and could also include felting paper making etc.

Susanna MacKenzie Feb 18, 2011:

The definitions seem to vary from one school to another. The aim of the subject is to give students the possibility to explore their creative side using a variety of different materials.
The only way to know whether the customer's school included or excluded woodwork or only needlecraft in "Textiles Gestalten", would be to ask him directly.
Apart from that, bearing in mind the objective of the translation, i.e. show the students level of creativity, the term "crafts" represents it fairly well. I do like the term "technology"in Penny's suggestion, which elevates it into a more artistic sphere, rather than simply "homely" knitting and crochet (no offense to knitters, puleeeze, I like it myself :) ) - can't we find a combination of both terms somehow?

Nicole Schnell Feb 18, 2011:

"Crafts" won't do. German middle schools and high schools have a separate class for that. It is called "Gestaltendes Werken", where girls and boys together build stuff from wood, plastics, card board and whatever materials that might fall victim to their efforts to build little mechanical devices. Knitting, sewing and such is not included.

Nicole Schnell Feb 18, 2011:

Tricky question In the US this is part of Home Economics, where the girls also have classes in cooking and such. In Germany "Textiles Gestalten" refers to sewing, knitting, weaving and crocheting only.

Kim Metzger Feb 18, 2011:

http://www.realschule-wasserburg.de/de/eltern/antraege/Einsc...

Coqueiro Feb 18, 2011:

Textiles Gestalten definitely

Mech White Feb 18, 2011:

I believe it stands for 'textiles Gestalten', wich means needle crafts, many hits if you google the term together with Realschule