Agriculture Educator In May of 2010 a group of students dressed in blue corduroy jackets came to Athens Christian School to visit during a chapel service. Georgia FFA state officers, Cain and Filipe, spoke about the endless possibilities one could enjoy while in an organization called FFA. These state officers spoke with confidence and excitement as they talked about agriculture playing a vital role in the lives of students. One major concept they spoke about was how in order to be in FFA one has to be enrolled in an agriculture education course. The following year Athens Christian School had a new agriculture education program with Mrs. Sara Hughes teaching the middle school and high school classes. She is still a current asset in this program, and her hard work is very evident. Mrs. Hughes will be quick to tell anyone that although a career in agriculture education is challenging the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Just like every kind of teacher in order to begin teaching they have to obtain a certification. According to an interview with Athens Christian School’s agriculture education teacher, Sara Hughes, she said that an agriculture educator has to have, “At least a Bachelors Degree normally in Ag Ed, and pass the Georgia Assessment for the Certification of Educators (GACE) in the Ag Ed field” (Hughes 1). The GACE is a testing method in Georgia that has been used for several years. According to gace.ets.org, “The purpose of the GACE assessments is to assure that the knowledge and skills acquired by prospective Georgia educators are aligned with state and national standards for educator preparation and with state standards for the P–12 student curriculum — the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS)” (GACE ... ... middle of paper ... ... a valuable employee once it's time to enter the workforce. These skills include agriculture mechanics, plant science, animal management and nutrition, as well as forestry and natural resources. Agriculture classes have fueled my passion for the agriculture industry and have inspired me to follow my father’s footsteps and one day teach agriculture as well. Whether I teach agriculture in a classroom or on the mission field in another country, I am well prepared and equipped because of the knowledge gained from my agriculture classes. I would not be the person I am today without them” (Thomason 1). Anyone can see from this statement that agriculture education has proven to be useful in life of one student, because of an agriculture educator doing his or her job. Although a career in agriculture education is challenging the benefits clearly outweigh the disadvantages.
FFA is known by most people in the world today. Today, there are 579,678 FFA members, ages 12‒21, in 7,570 chapters in all 50 states including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It all started in 1917 The National Vocational Act started providing money to states for educational courses. Then in 1925 Virginia Tech agricultural education teacher educators Henry Groseclose, Harry Sanders and Edmund C. Magill and Virginia state supervisor of agricultural education Walter Newman meet to discuss an organization for boys in agriculture classes.
Originally, education was only attainable through wealth and the established schools were limited to teaching language and religion, also known as classical education. However, this act changed the precedent and provided an education at a reduced price to the lower and middle class citizens of America. The education from this act also met the demands of the growing, industrializing nation because it supplied educated scientists and engineers to help diminish the growing deficit the country had been experiencing since it was founded (Loss, C.). Many people seized this opportunity and their success in the land grant schools have significantly changed the way agriculture currently works. For example, it is common for farmers of today to account for the effects environment, rate of photosynthesis, respiration, and water consumption have on their crop yield, but without the students that attended the land-grant colleges established by the Morrill Act, this information may not have been found until many years later (Edmond). The evidence students witnessed in their studies was then used to provide a basic understanding of the different regions that crops and animals were better suited for. For instance, Arizona is best suited to grow winter wheat and sheep because of the arid environment, according to The Magnificent Charter.
Corn soon became the crop of choice to Iowa farmers. They found that it was more resistant to disease than the other crops they were growing, such as barley, oats, wheat, and apples. With this newfound “wonder crop”, Iowans found that farming had become the ideal way of life. Working on the farm involved all of the members of the family, which brought them together and made them stronger through hardships and great opportunities.
Many students who are enrolled in FFA are already heading in the right direction to a bright future. FFA has many career benefits within the program. Any of the career development events (CDE’s) have something that will tie to a career in agriculture or to a career of other sorts. According to the National FFA Organization, “FFA members embrace concepts taught in agricultural science classrooms nationwide, build valuable skills through hands-on experiential learning and each year demonstrate their proficiency in competitions based on real-world agricultural skills”(“Statistics”). There are so many careers that tie into FFA, and many of them have to do with agriculture. Not every career that has to do with agriculture is about farming. There are so many different aspects of the agriculture industry that many people never think twice about. Most people are not interested in agriculture because they think it is just about farming or
In the beginning, there were basic schoolhouses to fulfill the needs of a newly industrialized society. The subjects taught had the sole aim of the student being able to secure a job with the ultimate goal of creating a large enough workforce to fill the new societal needs, creating a stigmatization that any subject that does not help to secure a job is useless. Now that that goal has been met, the bases of classical higher education have been fighting their way into primary education while trying to destroy the previously mentioned stigmatization against non-career-oriented subject matter. Only after hundreds of years, humans as a whole are figuring out that the only subject of education should life and all of its manifestations with no other distractions. Because of this, the main ideas of education should be few, but very important. The ideas taught should be applicable to many scenarios and students should be thoroughly taught their application in life. A...
Debertin, D. L., & Goetz, S. J. (1994, January). Differences in rural and urban schools: Issues for policymakers. University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AgEcon/pubs/res_other/schlurvr.pdf
Case, Larry, and Kathryn Whitaker. "What Is FFA." CALS. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 1998. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.
Corn has always been an essential to American agriculture. Yet the corn grown by our ancestors is unlike the corn we grow today; corn has changed in its quality, quantity, usage, and its inherent compromise. The age of industrialization provided new technology and techniques for farming. Agriculture became modernized in response to increased demand in the job and food markets. However, farming is no longer a way of life but a business. It has begun to attract those more interested in gain than in those actually interested in preserving the American heritage of agriculture.
Becoming a teacher takes more work than one may think. Each state holds extremely different rules in order to obtain a teaching license. When graduating from an education program there is a test that is needed to be taken that is called the praxis. When passing the test a teaching license is then received. Every state is
The greenhouse gases are those that absorb the Earths radiation and thus contribute to the greenhouse effect, but water is also a major absorber of energy. Where there is an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (as with CO2 due to the burning of fossil fuels) this results in an enhanced greenhouse effect - which is of concern as it could lead to climate change (i.e. global warming).
The collection of scholarly essays, Rural Education and Training in the New Economy: the Myth of the Rural Skills Gap, was the single most useful and relevant resource I came upon.
Agriculture is quite possibly the most important advancement and discovery that humanity has made. It produces the one thing that we need the most: food. It has been around since 9500 BC, and can be the oldest sign of mankind’s acumen and the development and evolving of our minds and creations. Agriculture has been mastered throughout hundreds of years and is one of our most important resources on Earth, along with water and fossil fuels. Although the older farming methods from ancient times seem somewhat mediocre and barbaric, they were very ingenious and advanced for that time period. Over thousands of years, we have improved the way agriculture is used, how land is cultivated, the various techniques of farming and irrigation, and the tools and mechanics used. Numerous things that we see as aboriginal today, such as using a hand plow, were extremely contemporary in ancient times, and played key roles in the development of man and society, since quick labor was not abundant before this time. We are now extremely advanced in agriculture and irrigation and the tools used to farm and grow and harvest crops. We have learned from our past and ancestors how to grow and evolve in our methods and have advanced forward greatly.
One of the most clearly seen and common aim of schooling is to develop individuals ‘who have skills an...
Future teachers will all have to reach a certain level of education and certification. Educational requirements can vary greatly depending on the state, but all states require completion of an approved teacher training program and a bachelor’s degree. Many states may require a minimal GPA and additional technology training including, a set number of education and subject credits. A small number of sates necessitate a master’s degree taking up to two years more of schooling than a bachelor’s degree. Other requirements could be student teaching which a lot of colleges offer. Usually for a semester student teachers will work beside an experienced teacher by observing and helping children in ...
Agriculture is the industry that I am choosing to reflect upon that is one of the top industries in the United States and therefore I felt it to be a good industry to focus on.