By Dr. Emily Buck
Professor
The Ohio State University
If anyone had looked at me when I was 12 they never would have thought I would be standing in front of people teaching everyday.
I was a shy sheep girl who kept to herself. My agriculture teacher changed all of that!
I will never forget my first state FFA convention on Ohio State’s campus. The mass of blue jackets walking around High Street, sitting in the auditorium watching as the state officers shared their retiring address and kids win awards for their dedication to agriculture. My ag teacher turned to my friend and I and said, “that will be you.” At that moment I knew I was going to be involved.
Three years later as I prepared to graduate from high school I had another memorable state convention. I can’t tell you which I am more proud of: receiving the state degree, winning the state sheep proficiency, or being elected state treasurer.
The FFA had set me up to be successful in all I did from there on out. Because of that I strive every year to help or give back to the organization that gave me so much. I was in 4-H and loved it, but FFA is what made me who I am.
The nights at FFA camp raiding the kitchen as a state officer, dancing on stage at opening session of “my” state convention, to the long drives to national convention in Kansas City, they all had an impact on me.
Buck was elected as State Treasurer for the Ohio FFA Association.
A visit to Washington DC.
As State Treasurer of the Ohio FFA Association, Buck visited high schools around the state.
I owe a great deal to an FFA instructor who did the same for me. Thank you Emily for a great story and for encouraging my daughter into the college of ag at OSU. Teach on!!
Dr. Buck may have thought in her previous years that her life was only going in circles and leading to nowhere. But that’s not the case and this may bring to mind a branch of philosophy known as “epistemology (from Greek ἐπιστήμη, epistēmē, meaning ‘knowledge’, and λόγος, logos, meaning ‘logical discourse’) which is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge… a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand…epistemology addresses such questions as ‘What makes justified beliefs justified?’, ‘What does it mean to say that we know something?’ and fundamentally ‘How do we know that we know?’.” In her case, this form of reasoning may have began when her ag teacher said, “that will be you,” no questions asked, while attending the FFA convention held at OSU. Socrates’ Socratic elenchus may prove a point that leading people in circles can mean bad business. “The elenchus remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. Plato’s Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the field of epistemology, and his ideologies and approach have proven a strong foundation for much Western philosophy that has followed.” *
* Wikipedia