Abstract: What the agricultural industry was, is now, and will become shapes all of our thoughts about agricultural education. As the agricultural industry changes, agricultural education programs at both public schools and higher education levels change to prepare youth for careers in agricultural occupations. In the past, pubhc school agricultural education focused on preparing youth for careers in production agriculture - farming. That this also helped prepare youth for other agricultural occupations was a bonus. With fewer youths growing up in a farming environment, and fewer still choosing farming as a life time career, agricultural education began to focus more on nonfarm agricultural occupations. Programs must now not only help prepare youth for farming and other agricultural occupations, but they must also be attractive to youth who do not plan for careers in the agricultural industry. Public School Agricultural Education The four-year Vocational Agriculture I, II, III, and IV program so familiar to many is not designed for the future of public school agricultural education programs. The design needs to conform more closely to the way courses in other subjects are listed and offered. This would indicate that the agricultural course program should be made up of stand-alone courses which do not serve as prerequisites to each other. While it would be good to have as a beginning course one on agricultural occupations with emphasis on home-owner agriculture and agricultural mechanics, even this course should be available at ajay point in a student's high school program. The other course offerings could each focus on a specific area with content relating to the agricultural industry of the area in which the school is located. Course titles should reflect specific content. Some courses of this kind may already be in place in some schools, given the creativity of the many fine teachers of agriculture. Useful titles could be: Science in Agriculture, Business Management in Agriculture, Agricultural Mechanics, Crop Production, Livestock Production, Fruit Production, Vegetable Production, Greenhouse Operation, Landscaping, Agriculture and the Environment, World Agriculture, and Specialty Crops. Courses such as the management and production courses could be combined into a single course if that seemed desirable. A course in Consumer Agriculture might be attractive. In addition to preparation for entry positions in agricultural occupations, these courses could serve well as introductory courses for college majors or technical school study. A restructured program of such courses would better meet the needs of students who plan to pursue a specialty in a large agricultural operation where the individual devotes full time to a single aspect of the operation such as machinery operation and maintenance or livestock operation. The student planning to return to a general farm would select the courses having the greatest application. Having a supervised experience program as a part of each course would make the instruction more meaningful in an occupational preparation sense. Agricultural Education for All Agricultural education has rightly focused on preparation for farming and other agricultural occupations. As the percentage of the population engaged in farming and other agricultural occupations decreases, agricultural education should include courses to provide an educational experience about agriculture for the student population in general. There is no field of knowledge which has a greater impact on the daily life or every person than the field of agriculture. Courses such as Science in Agriculture, Agriculture and the Environment, and Agriculture as a World Industry could be offered also in schools having no production agriculture programs. Courses need to be designed and opportunities found for offering them. Teacher Education Agricultural education programs for teaching methodology have been only a small portion of the college program of a student. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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