Badge #2
Agriculture Education: A Necessity in a Small Town
For over a generation now high school students have been told since they can remember that to ensure themselves a well paying career they must go out and get a four year college degree. From statistics we see that four year college graduates make, on average, more in their lifetimes then those who just graduate high school. Unfortunately there are two problems with the strategy of pushing all of our young minds into four year universities; the students that do not want to pursue a four year degree are often labeled as lazy or failures. Pushing our brightest minds towards four year colleges has also exposed another glaring problem; when the student graduates from college what jobs are available to them back in their small home towns? Many times, other than an education degree, there are very limited job opportunities to a bachelor’s degree holder in small towns, meaning that the best young minds in the community are being pushed out not because they want to but because they have to. The solution to both of these problems lies in agriculture education here at the high school.
Agriculture is a diverse field that often gets labeled as just farming, nothing can be further from the truth. Engineers, food scientists, educators, communications directors and veterinarians all play a huge part in agriculture and for the four year college bound student our ag program can be the tool that gives them that baseline knowledge they will need for college. For the student that does not want to attend a four year college I believe the ag program and our FFA chapter are keys in the development of these students that are often overlooked. We give the student a general knowledge of possible careers in different trades including welding, carpentry, construction, plumbing and electricity. These are all well paying careers found here in our hometowns where these students can stay, raise a family and stop the massive exodus of young people from small towns across the nation.
The ag program is more though than just a place where students can find their future career though. In our classes we teach parliamentary procedure on how to properly run a meeting, record keeping, financial literacy, entrepreneurship and job interview skills. What does this mean to the community and the school district? Many of the subjects I just mentioned are skills that are disappearing in our tech world. If we can teach the young people of the community these skills then the community will benefit from having a trained workforce that can take over from the older generations.
In conclusion, the ag program has benefits for all students, the students that are going to four year universities will find what they want their major to be, the students that do not want to go to college will find a well paying career for themselves. The community as a whole will benefit from young people that will have the skills to be productive members of society whether that be a member of the school board or member of city council. FFA brings the community together like the sports programs and sheds a positive light on what the school district is trying to do, preparing these students for a better future and building our community.
Badge 2 Reflection on Philosophy
Looking back on what I presented at the beginning of the term not much has changed in what I had written but I would now add a lot more to my philosophy. I would talk about the advantages of the SAE system, the ownership that it instills in students and the investment students make into local business’. Giving ownership in a project or another form of SAE gives the student pride, pride that is then reflected in the community. The economic value towards the community is also an important aspect that I would include in a new reflection. Using AET to show that my students invest their money into local business’ throughout the year is a very strong tool in supporting the relevance of an agriscience program. If 100 students just spent $100 on their SAE projects through local business’ that’s $10,000 a year that’s being removed from those business’.