If I Were Again a Teacher of Vocational Agriculture

I is recorded that some wise man ias said or written that all sad vords of tongue and pen, the saddest are these - it might have been. I am sure we can all couch for the truth of this observation; for there is no one of us who has not had the ghost of the things we might have done rise up to haunt us. It is now nearly 1 5 years since the pace in high school vocational agriculture became too fast for me, causing me to seek refuge in the sheltered halls of a college there to spend my time telling budding teachers of vocational agriculture how to do what I myself did so poorly. This requires courage of a sort but not nearly so much as it takes to approach full-blown teachers on the same mission. However, caution was never one of my distinguishing characteristics and I am emboldened to make the attempt in the hope that it may serve to bring to your minds some ideas about teaching of agriculture which may not be new to you at all. In fact you may be putting every one of them into practice. If you are, checking thru them again may renew your faith in them and encourage you in your good work. If you have failed in the practice of them it is not too late to begin now. At any rate, I hope you may read what I am about to set down even if only to disagree with it. 1 . If I were again a teacher of Vocational agriculture I would spend more time and make a more systematic effort getting acquainted with the human and material resources of my community. Of course, I used to go out and run down some prospective students in order that my regular classes would fill, just as you have done, but that, I see now, was hardly enough. I would become well acquainted with the progressive man and women of the community who are now its leaders. I would attempt to discover their interest, noteworthy achievements, and personal attitudes in order that I might be better able to enlist their co-operation and support in my program. I would locate the best herds of livestock and get to know their owners, the best farmsteads as well as the poorest, and the people who inhabit them. I would make close observations of the type of soil, the efficiency of the methods of cultivation commonly employed, and the defects or shortcomings in the agricultural practices of the community. In addition to these last named economic recourses, I would make a canvas of the cultural or recreation activities and resource of the community, noting their strength and weakness and the opportunities for improvement and expansion. 2. I would cooperate more generously and cordially with other workers in agricultural education, and more particularly with those in charge of the local farm organization's program. I would try to regard myself as a co-worker with the county agent and the clubleader in the great task of raising the level of the agricultural industry and of rural life, instead of a competitor with whom I must compete for clientele and credit. I would make a most serious attempt so to lose myself in the course of a better agriculture that all petty jealousies and personal differences would no longer operate to render ineffective so much of the energy and time we spend I blush to confess that this ideal is quite far removed from the condition which existed in my time between the teachers of vocational agriculture and other workers in the field of agricultural education. Too often we were jealous of each other, losing no opportunity to minimize the contribution of one another and refusing to assist in the other's program even when invited. I realize now how silly, even criminal, was our behavior, for not only were we attracting adverse criticism of our clientele to our prospective programs, but we were dragging our heels and retarding the wheels of progress. For progressing human affairs must come thru co-operation. There is no other way which offers a shadow of hope. Competition has been overworked and has brought disaster in its train. The history both or natural evolution and social progress clearly demonstrates that co-operation has the greater survival value than competition, and from it man may learn this lesson - Learn to co-operate or perish. …