The Agricultural education magazine

The early 1980's was a tumultuous time for education, and specifically agricultural education. President Regan's A Nation at Risk report (United States National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) raised concerns about educational preparation of American students. Declining profitability and international competition were affecting the agriculture economy and there was a laundry list of competing forces that were impacting the enrollment in secondary agricultural programs. These production agriculture and agricultural education challenges caused the U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and Education to charge the National Research Council to study and make recommendations. As a result, in 1985, a committee on agricultural education in secondary schools was established to assess and make recommendations to maintain and improve agricultural productivity and competitiveness. Disciplines Agricultural Education | Agriculture | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Comments This article is published as Retallick, M. S. (2019). Fulfilling the vision for SAE: A 30-year process. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 91(6), 19-21. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ageds_pubs/68

The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, also referred to as the National Vocational EducationAct, promoted vocational education in agricultural and industrial trades and home economics in an effort to provide skilled employees during a time of labor shortage and rapid industrialization. While much of the vocational education promotion was targeted towards industrial education, Congress included agriculture within its definition of vocational subjects. Preparing youth for jobs resulting from the Industrial Revolution and offering teacher training in each of the offered fields was a key aspect to the Smith-Hughes Act. The Smith-Hughes Act was victorious in its effort to spread vocational education throughout the country; however, enrollment rates leveled off, and remained lower than what was hoped for. Critics of the program targeted the fact that job training provided in these programs tended to lag behind the actual needs of the industry (Steffes). A gap between classroom curriculum and industry needs is not only seen during the time of the Smith-Hughes Act, but in present day agricultural education as well.I remember being a high school student, tasked with the enormous responsibility of choosing which path I would take next. The weight of making a decision lingered over me, as high school came to a close. I knew I wanted to be involved in agriculture, but I felt unsure of which path within the agriculture realm I exactly wanted to take. Ultimately, I felt ill prepared to make this life changing decision, and yearned for industry and career knowledge. Deciding one's career path should not be taken lightly nor left up to fate. Students should be informed with proper knowledge, opportunities, and necessary prerequisites in order to make this decision.The passage of the SmithHughes Act not only provided funds for vocational agriculture courses but also was an integral cornerstone in the development of the National FFA Organization. The National FFA Organization prides itself on making a difference in students' lives through developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Through the FFA mission, we are reminded to develop students in preparing them for a successful career within the industry. FFA provides career experience and connections through the Supervised Agricultural Experience section of the agricultural education program model. Through the Supervised Agricultural Experience, students are given the opportunity to explore and consider multiple careers, workplace behavior, and develop skills within an industry, while applying classroom knowledge.In order for agricultural educators to instruct industry related curriculum and advise Supervised Agricultural Experiences, instructors need to obtain the proper knowledge and resources themselves before teaching others. As stated previously, during the time of the Smith-Hughes Act, trainings focusing on the offered fields were made available to vocational education teachers. If we are to prepare our students for entering the industry, we first must ensure our teachers are given the proper opportunities and resources to do so through professional development and in-service training seminars (Slusher, et.al, 2011).Once teachers are informed and knowledgeable on technical skills needed for various career opportunities within agriculture, the classroom curriculum should reflect industry-relevant instruction that results in observable skill attainment. Providing students a curriculum in which they are able to acquire technical skills applicable to industry careers is a high school program necessity. Career clusters are one possible way to set a course of offerings in which students are given the opportunity to specialize in a specific career interest area. Career clusters serve as a channel for curriculum delivery, to include necessary skills for employment (Slusher, et.al, 2011). Just as the Smith-Hughes Act aimed to fill industry jobs during a time of labor shortage, we as agriculturalists are facing our own challenges to fill jobs within our industry, in order to provide for and educate our population. …

School-based agricultural curricula are currently being pushed in multiple directions. Programs have been turning towards various guiding principles, including career training, agri-science, and post-secondary preparation as well as agricultural literacy. The pressure to teach agriculture from any of these directions (or worse, from no direction at all) comes from a variety of influences. The work of school-based agricultural education is guided at the federal and state levels by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. The focus of this legislation is career training and post-secondary preparation. However, local programs are also guided by initiatives within their states, communities, and from agricultural industry. For instance, the CASE (Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education) initiative has become popular with some programs because of either local or state influences. Yet, CASE is not universally popular because not all states believe that agri-science is the best principle of school-based agricultural education. The cumulative effect of these pressures is a patchwork of agricultural curriculum and possible confusion for teachers as they try to effectively deliver agriculture programming.While our current context (era of accountability and continued urbanization of America) is unique in the history of school-based agricultural education, the situation of teachers having a variety of differing guiding principles to choose from is not new. Agricultural teachers before 1917 were in much the same situation. Before 1917, school-based agricultural education curriculum was not guided by federal legislation. Agriculture teachers were free to choose their own principles to guide their program. This was also an era of tremendous growth for school-based agricultural education programs as thousands of local communities decided to include agriculture as a part of their school curriculum. The focus of the agriculture curriculum varied greatly from school to school.So what were some of the guiding principles of school-based agricultural education before 1917? We do not have many records of what agriculture teachers taught in those days; however, if we turn to the agriculture textbooks available at the turn of the 20th century, we see a variety of principles that are still being taught today such as problem solving, vocational value of agriculture, and experiential principles in agricultural education. Other published principles are not normally found in textbooks today, such as the importance of having moral education, universal peace, aesthetics, and liberal education in agricultural education.For example, many of the textbooks talk about how school-based agricultural education can be utilized to develop citizenship skills in youth. The school and agriculture program represented a crucial agent of change in the local community. The community could be built-up through developing the leadership skills of students, improving of quality of life in a community, connecting with community stakeholders, developing community infrastructure, and contributing to universal peace. Many of these ideas are linked to the time period of rural communities and agriculture before 1917, including the role of the progressive era, Country Life Movement, and outbreak of World War One (Martin & Knobloch, 2005). …

Reprinted from The Agricultural Education Magazine Feb. 1987, Vol. 59, No. 8, pp.8-10arbara Mandrell sings a song titled I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool. Back in 1917 many agricultural teachers could have sung a modified version of that song, I Was An Agriculture Teacher Before SmithHughes. Many people believe the teaching of agriculture was started with the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. The fact is, the teaching of agriculture was well established before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act. the 1914-15 school year, a couple of years before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, agriculture was taught in 4,390 secondary schools to 85,573 secondary students (U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1916). This article describes the development of agricultural education before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act.When was Agriculture First Taught?When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, they knew little about the Massachusetts soil or crops. Squanto, the Indian, knew both and came to the aid of the Pilgrims by teaching them how to plant corn and fertilize the crop. He told the Pilgrims, In these old grounds corne without would come to nothing. He also taught them when, where, and how to get the fish (Stimson and Lathrop, 1942, p. 178). One could claim that this was the beginning of the teaching of agriculture in America.To identify when agriculture was first taught in a more systematic, scientific fashion, one would look to Georgia. Before sailing for the new world, James Ogelthorpe planned a definite system of agricultural education for the colonists. The plan provided for:1. Using the agricultural practices of the Indians who inhabited Georgia.2. Establishing an experimental farm for trying out new crops and discovering effective cultural methods.3. Providing special instructors and training in agriculture for all the colonists.The plan was followed. Tomochichi, leader of the Yamacraw tribe, taught the colonists how to grow maize, beans, melons, and several types of fruit. A 10 acre experimental garden was established in Savannah. The trustees of the Georgia colony in 1732 selected three Italians to settle in Georgia and instruct the people in the production of raw silk. These men were the first to be hired as teachers of agriculture. They arrived in Georgia in 1733 and proceeded to instruct the people in the production of silk, primarily through an apprentice system. They received $125 per year and were given 450 acres of land at the end of four years of service. The three Italian teachers were followed by men hired to teach indigo production and grape culture (Wheeler, 1948).The first agriculture to be taught in a school setting occurred in 1734 in Georgia. The Salzburgers established an orphan's school near Savannah where agriculture was taught. This was followed by another orphan's school in 1738 at Savannah that . . taught pupils to work so as to be able to earn their own living from farming (Wheeler, 1948, p. 12). Most of the agriculture teaching in schools during the remainder of the 1700s and early 1800s was primarily in schools for orphans or in missionary schools.During the latter part of the 1700s, agricultural societies were established in many states, the first two being in Philadelphia and South Carolina in 1785. The societies promoted the study of agriculture through a variety of activities such as discussions, experiments and publications (Ellsworth, 1968).In the early part of the 1800s, the teaching of agriculture emerged in a number of private schools. The Gardiner Lyceum, a school devoted exclusively to agriculture, was established in Maine in 1821. Agriculture was also taught at the Rensellaer School in New York which was established in 1824 (True, 1928).Agricultural instruction in private schools and through agricultural societies flourished during the first half of the 19th century but declined during the War Between the States. …

A powerful coalition by several key organizations was necessary to support the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. By the turn of the 20th century, it became clear that strong federal vocational legislation was needed to promote the educational system in the United States of America. With such a dire need for vocational funding, the legislation would need support from not only education and agriculture groups, but also from members of Congress. It only makes sense then, in the 100th anniversary of the National Vocational Education Act that we pay homage to the two men who carry the bill's namesake.Dudley Mays Hughes, avid Georgia agriculturist and later democratic politician, was born in Jeffersonville, Georgia, and resided there until he attended college at the University of Georgia. Interestingly enough, he never completed his studies in Athens, and instead returned home in the middle of his senior year to try his hand at agriculture. Hughes was masterful at the modern methods of agricultural principles. After a trial run on his grandfather's farm in Laurens County, his grandfather rewarded the young man with one thousand dollars for his excellent work. Hughes used this money to purchase and establish his Danville farm into one of the section's most profitable plantations.Being from a rural area, Hughes also realized that in order for agricultural operations to prosper, that railroads were an absolute necessity. Dudley Hughes was never a fan of politics in his early life; however, seeing the needs of the community prompted him to take action. With the help of his father, also a local politician, Hughes used his influential stature and prominence to bring railroads to his community to help struggling farmers. With his community behind him, it wouldn't be long until he traded in overalls for business suits.Although his first run at political office proved unsuccessful, realignment of the districts in the state soon turned in his favor as he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he would win coveted seats on the House Military, Agriculture, and Education committees. Perhaps the single greatest honor of his political career was when democratic president Woodrow Wilson appointed him to a presidential commission to explore the viability of federal funding of vocational and agricultural education in public schools in 1914. It would be three years later until his work was finally recognized in the form of a bill, alongside another prominent Georgian, Hoke Smith.Across the hill, Hoke Smith served in the U.S. Senate from 1911-1921. However, he first led Georgia through its progressive movement as Governor of the State from 1907-1911. Originally hailing from Newton, North Carolina, Smith later moved with his family to Chapel Hill, where his father was a professor at the University of North Carolina, before eventually relocating to Atlanta. Hoke Smith came from very humble beginnings. He took a job working for Atlanta Public Schools before eventually reading for a law firm. …