Agricultural Education Fills a Growing Need

Carolyn N. Moyer
Northern Pa. Correspondent

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Food and fiber are two basic necessities that we, in an industrialized society, seem too often to take for granted. Our store shelves are stocked from floor to ceiling with everything from potatoes to chocolate year-round and consumers have infinite choices of wholesome, fresh foods.

As our nation moves from being a society of producers to a league of consumers, we are leaving behind a basic understanding of how our food is produced. That is why, according to MeeCee Baker, agricultural education coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, there is a great need for agricultural literacy for both students and adults.

“As more and more people are removed from their agricultural roots, it’s difficult for people to understand the science behind the profession,” said Baker.

Baker, Secretary Dennis Wolff and others in the Department of Agriculture are strong supporters of agricultural education in our schools. A qualified agriculture education program does more than teach students how to be farmers or to work in one of the numerous related professions; it can prepare them for leadership roles in the community, and give them practical, hands-on training that directly supports academic lessons.

There is also a documented need for agricultural professionals in everything from veterinary science to environmental sciences.

Teaching people about agriculture is a primary concern of the Department of Agriculture. One of their Websites, marketplaceforthemind.com, contains entire lessons that match state standards in science, math and English. There are now more than 10,000 downloads from that site each month.

Chris Weller is the state adviser for agricultural education in the Bureau of Career and Technical Education in the Department of Education. In his position he helps to oversee the requirements for an approved agricultural education program.

“Programs can get state approval from the Department of Education if criteria in Chapter 339 in the school code are met,” said Weller. “If those programs are approved, then those schools can receive an educational subsidy to help pay for the programs.”

Subsidies are given because the state knows that the cost of a technical education program extends well beyond the cost of a teacher and a room. There are additional expenses for equipment and field trips.

Today there are 170 agricultural education programs in the state. One-third of them are in vocational-technical schools. The current requirements call for 360 hours of technical education in a year which equals approximately three periods a day in an eight-period day.

But some school districts, strapped with meeting increasing demands on both their dollars and time, are opting to discontinue their programs. To those districts, Weller says to wait until the revised standards are published.

“We’ve had long discussions with the secretary of agriculture and the secretary of education about the standards,” said Weller. “We’re developing different ways for the school districts to meet those hours.”

One solution is to count the student’s SAE (supervised agricultural experience) as hours worked.

“Schools could give a credit for that type of program and the credit would equal the amount of hours a credit is worth at that school,” said Weller. “There has to be some student-teacher contact. It has to be agricultural education.”

The departments are also working together to align more traditional academic courses with agricultural education.

“For example, horticulture falls under the agriculture cluster. If you have a program approved for horticulture, a chemistry class may be used for some of the hourly requirements. It would have to be a specific chemistry class, however,” said Weller.

What Weller tries to stress is that schools should put together a variety of courses to allow a student to get a job or to go on to college.

FFA is an equally important part of agricultural education. “To be an FFA member students must be enrolled in agriculture,” Said Weller. “FFA is not a club, it’s an integral part of the curriculum.”

Weller says that agricultural education can also bolster students’ understanding of basic academic concepts, which, in turn, can raise overall test scores on the Pennsylvania State Standards Assessment (PSSA) exam.

While some agricultural programs are being sent to the sidelines, others are being initiated and are growing by leaps and bounds. Two new programs, Annville-Cleona, in Lebanon County, and the Bedford Career and Technical Center, will be honored Monday, Jan. 7 at the 2008 Pennsylvania Farm Show. Other active programs across the state will put up displays and enter contests during farm show week.

The agricultural program at Canton Junior-Senior High School will be well represented during the farm show. Members have logged many hours constructing a landscape display that they will set up in the Farm Show building and will serve as volunteers on Sunday and Monday.

Today there are 30 members in Canton’s FFA representing ninth through 12th grades, but Canton’s program was not always active. In the 1990s, the program was cut from the curriculum. Only after the community raised its collective voice in favor of agricultural education, was the program reinstated.

“We went without an agricultural program for eight or nine years,” said advisor Tom Hojnowski. “Our community had a big interest in agriculture and a number of people wanted to see the program come back and that’s why we have it.”

Hojnowski was already teaching science in the school when he returned to college to become certified in agricultural education. As an agriculture teacher, he works closely with the community to provide opportunities for the students.

One of the requirements of having an approved program is having a local advisory committee. That committee meets more than once a year to give advice to the program, to help determine curriculum and to determine what’s needed locally.

“The advisory committee helps to guide the program for what’s needed locally and to give help to the teacher. The teacher might not have all the resources but teachers can get kids out to see the new modern dairy farm or to go to the machinery dealer to see new equipment,” said Weller.

As a former vocational agriculture teacher, Baker initiated the Partners in Active Learning Support (PALS) program in which older students served as mentors for younger students.

Even schools that don’t have an approved agricultural education department can encourage agricultural literacy among its students by integrating agricultural concepts in the curriculum.

“It’s fine to know the pure academics,” said Baker, “But, sometimes to see how that raw academic material is applied in real life and make a difference on a standardized test. In agricultural education, students don’t just know something, they can do something, and our society needs doers. That, in a nutshell, is why agricultural education is important.”