Merv Pritchard listened enviously as an American expert outlined his country’s extensive agricultural education system in its high schools.
He heard that many state governments across the United States have made agricultural education a common part of the high school curriculum, producing 12,000 trained agriculture teachers in 7,700 schools serving 700,000-800,000 students each year.
But north of the border, provincial governments seem to care little about agricultural education.
“Is there anyone here from the Manitoba department of education,” Pritchard, the director of the University of Manitoba’s agriculture school, asked during a session at the National Agricultural Awareness Conference.
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No one stood up or raised their hand.
“Bingo! That’s our problem,” said Pritchard.
The conference brought together agricultural education promoters from across the country. Most are involved in Agriculture in the Classroom programs, which try to explain agriculture to people who don’t have a good understanding of the industry. Most were amazed to hear that hundreds of thousands of American high school students receive agricultural education that in Canada can only be found in universities and community colleges.
Pritchard has been trying to entice more university students to consider agriculture as a viable career area. He said his job has been made difficult by high school students’ ignorance about agriculture.
By the time they reach university, few students realize that agriculture contains hundreds of good, well-paying careers.
But the programs in the U.S. prove the task can be achieved.
“They’re making that bridge,” said Pritchard in an interview. “It’s a piece we’re really missing.”The American high school agricultural education system involves three areas.
Classroom and laboratory education happens in the schools, where students learn basic agricultural concepts in areas like soil science and animal health. They get hands-on experience by working in fields with farmers or with agricultural businesses.
Students also get leadership training through Future Farmers of America, which helps develop students who are interested in agriculture into people who will potentially lead agricultural change in their areas. The FFA has more than 500,000 members.
Doug Loudenslager, executive director of the FFA, said educating high school students would give the next generation of farmers and agribusiness people leaders they can follow.
“We want young people to be able to assume leadership positions in their communities,” he said.
“We want them to assume leadership positions in agricultural businesses. We want them to assume leadership positions in government.”
The American system is designed to alleviate the problem that Pritchard faces.
“Our goal is to prepare students for careers in agriculture and encourage students to go on to pursue higher education (in agriculture) in our two-year post-secondary schools and in our four-year colleges and universities,” said Jay Jackman, the executive director of the National Association of Agricultural Educators of the U.S., which represents all the school-based programs.
He said reaching high school students allows them to learn about agriculture-related careers.
“Not many of our students have a chance to work in production agriculture, but there are huge opportunities to work in sales, in marketing, in distribution, in processing and packaging and developing of new products,” said Jackman.
Loudenslager said some of the largest high school agricultural education programs are in Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, not just in rural areas.
Across the Prairies, few schools and school divisions offer agriculture as a high school subject. Some have begun developing programs, and a well-developed course has been available through the Saskatchewan government’s correspondence school, but a relatively small percentage of prairie students has the chance to study agriculture before university or college.
Jackman said the conference revealed to him that Canadian and American agricultural educators have almost identical concerns. But his Canadian colleagues appear to have nowhere near as much government support as his nation’s educators do.
Pritchard said Canada’s provincial governments should learn from the American example.
