In my school the girls got cooking and the boys had a choice between woodwork or metalwork. I was told I would do woodwork. So I spent two years learning how to make a toilet roll holder for mummy and the girls made food that would then eat. I was then expelled.
It wasn't bleedin' fair. Or fare.
I guess I was fortunate - my junior high school blended them all together into a "life skills sequence" or something like that. If you chose that class, you did 8 weeks each of woodworking, home economics (sewing and cooking), typing, and something else that I forget at the moment...though I don't remember anything about how to use a sewing machine.
There was also a class I took in 8th grade called "food for fitness," taught by the home ec teacher, where we learned basic nutrition and how to cook healthily.