Why agricultural education is important

These students often go on to join their local Farm Bureaus, which typically partner with and support 4-H and FFA programs in their respective states and communities. March 28, Learn why agricultural education is critical to the success of the next generation of farmers and ranchers. Related Posts. Ag Economics. In the Soroco agriculture program, students learn about animal science, agribusiness, food production and processing, natural resources and environmental systems, plant science and power, structural and technical systems.

This is equivalent to approximately 17 percent of the civilian workforce that is involved in some facet of American agriculture. Only 2 percent though are actual producers; the other 15 percent are the workers who further process or transport goods, which eventually land on dinner tables across the country.

Other workers contribute to the industry through transportation, conservation, fabrication and the production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The average age of the U. To ensure the sustainability of agriculture, career and technical education programs are essential to inform younger members of society.

To sustain more people it is not so much that agriculture must be changed to a growing population, but it is people who must adapt.

Without these, it would have been impossible to support a few million of our population. At present, with the ever-increasing global population, the pressure on the food production sector to produce greater quantity of food and supply the markers is enormous.

Technological and scientific advances are being decisive factors allowing the food production industry to cope up.

Among these progresses are the development of fertilizers to enhance soil fertility, pesticides and herbicides to reduce damage to agricultural crops, genetic modification of seeds to allow better resistance to pests, as well as improvement of antibiotics and growth stimulators for livestock. The system of production had similarly evolved. Over time, as farming became more popular, the United States thrived on agriculture.

It became an important issue especially to Thomas Jefferson. He was a key person in leading the agricultural development of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson believed in agrarianism and thought highly of farmers. An agriculture leader should understand why agriculture is important and how to improve and also maintain a good status agriculturally. With a society that boasts a high literacy rate, we can also create jobs in Sri Lanka for people to continue to teach these things and learn more about upcoming technologies. The program can help teach people in Sri Lanka to become advisors for farmers on what to plant more of or less of depending on the market in order to reduce waste and increase.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. As this industry grows and expands agriculture is not just farming. During the second third of the century, more emphasis was placed on the science of education, as educators came more under the influence of the positivistic philosophy that arose during that time and held sway as the predominant philosophy in mainstream education until the s.

Glen Cook, for example, writing in , continued the emphasis on both classroom work and supervised farm experience. He claimed that the ultimate purpose of agricultural education was to "train the individual to think in order that he may solve the problems, both social and economic, which he may meet, and to prepare him for complete living" p.

He then added to that list the "worthy use of leisure time" and ethical character. Stewart, in his essay "Teacher Education," explained that more emphasis was being placed on developing better teachers. He felt that "the newer trends of teacher education today tend rather to relate themselves to the more specific practices of teachers and to the improvement of their programs" p.

He maintained, however, that the local farms "constitute the natural educational settings in which problems of farming are discerned and attacked" p. As such, he supported on-farm experience. What became important within the institutions of teacher training was the improvement of the teacher education programs themselves.

An important aspect of this improvement was the development of job placement for the graduates, for those graduating from production agricultural programs knew they would have jobs. In order to attract good people, teacher training programs needed to be able to do the same. Another area of importance was the development of effective and up-to-date teaching materials. According to Stewart, "A forward-looking program of agricultural education always involves recognition of changing social and economic needs, and of the contributions of scientific and technical knowledge to the new problems arising" p.

Farmer training originally involved teaching "scientific agriculture," or the practice of applying scientific principles to agricultural problems. Then came technical science teaching, then social and economic training. From these came the "professional" aspects of agriculture. As a profession, Stewart explained, specific materials had to be developed, sorted, and evaluated in order to train teachers.

What was needed were "more and better materials and methods and more focusing of attention upon what is to be done in the education of the people on the land" p. Stewart also emphasized the importance of supervised training: "Supervised participation is rapidly becoming the core of agricultural education….

If the best way to learn is by doing, then the principle holds as true of the student teacher as of the student farmer. This places directed observation and directed teaching—under supervision—as the central emphasis on the professional side of a teacher's preparation.

The prospective teacher must have representative experiences, which include such things as administration, getting to know the people of the community, supervising pupil's farming programs, and making commercial contracts" p. In his essay Omer Aderhold echoes the philosophy of John Dewey, writing that "the schools, like the nation, are in need of a central purpose which will verify and guide all intellectual plans" p.

To Aderhold, a nation's education system must contribute to the "ends of the society in which it lives. Aderhold claimed that the major objectives of education should be to promote reflective thinking for the individual and to promote group living on an intelligent basis of cooperation for the group. This could be accomplished at both the individual and group levels, by encouraging the use of the scientific method of thought, that is, by drawing inferences and formulating hypotheses about problems, by testing those inferences, and then drawing sound conclusions.

In this way vocational education could help farmers attain a higher standard of living. During the s and s agricultural education maintained its status quo. The nation's economy was doing well, the country was growing in status and power, and agriculture was becoming more efficient and effective as a result of agricultural chemical and mechanical advances. Farmers were entering the middle class and moving into the economic mainstream.

Agricultural educators acted to support the scientific revolution, while at the same time keeping their own profession basically unchanged. In a essay Robert Warmbrod and Lloyd Phipps summarized changes in the focus of agricultural education from its inception until the s. They explained that, prior to , agriculture was taught as an informational or general education subject.

Following Smith-Hughes, there was an increase in the number of classes focusing on vocational agricultural and a reduction of classes oriented towards general education. This trend reflected the objectives of federal financial assistance.

Herbert Hamlin believed that this "specialization" led to an "over-simplification of public school education," while Phipps claimed that the curricula needed to be expanded and that more emphasis needed to be placed on preparation for employment in agriculture-related industries. He also argued for occupational guidance and job counseling. A survey by the Research Committee of the Southern Region also found strong support for training to help people be good citizens, intelligent consumers, and efficient producers.

Accoring to Warmbrod and Phipps the general public saw agricultural education as being of a vocational nature only. Experts in the field disagreed however, and believed that was too strict a definition. In addition, Warmbrod and Phipps stated that agricultural education should include training not only in vocational agriculture, but in those skills needed to be successful in any occupation, including preparation for advanced education.

In Congress passed the Vocational Training Act of , which provided funding "for vocational education in any occupation involving knowledge and skills in agricultural subjects" Warmbrod and Phipps, p. Since the s agricultural educators have attempted to more directly define the philosophy of agricultural education. For example, Phipps claimed that agricultural educators are pragmatists; emphasize learning by doing; emphasize individual self-awareness, work-awareness, and career decision-making; believe in the importance of leadership and citizenship development; learn how to work with people who are disadvantaged and handicapped; advocate the use of problem solving as a way of encouraging thinking; and believe in community and community service.

Kahler and colleagues also set about defining the philosophy of agricultural education for Project They listed three functions of agricultural and agribusiness education: 1 educating individuals for employment in the fields of agriculture and agribusiness, 2 avocational agricultural course work, and 3 issues having to do with the "food crisis.

This provides some insight into how agricultural educators see their world, which is, in the spirit of Dewey, as a place that is both experiential and that requires consciousness for problem solving.

It is, therefore, neither a realist-based philosophy, nor a strictly empirical one. It retains the humanist's view of the importance of the individual learner, but also points towards the importance of community at both the human and social level, as well as the environmental level. And finally, it is similar to a post-positivist philosophy in its recognition of diversity and process.

In a article G. Love compared agricultural education and general education. He described agricultural educators as being pragmatists and experientially oriented. Metaphysically, agricultural educators see the world analytically and prescriptively.

Furthermore, they believe that the "real" world is that which can be experienced with the senses. Meaning is not predetermined, it is determined by the individual within the context of his or her experiences and that of his or her community. Therefore, learning to solve current, life-like problems is the best way to equip a person to effectively solve problems in the future. Epistemologically, agricultural educators believe that both knowledge and truth stem from empirical investigation.

They also believe that both of these are temporary. A high value is placed on self-activity, association, and effect. For this reason vocational agriculture makes use of both work experiences and activities in student organizations.