Introduction:
Before the pandemic, I was on an airplane 2-3 times a month flying somewhere to make a presentation. Typically the person next to me would strike up a conversation and want to know what I did for a living. When I explained that I was a retired university professor who worked in agricultural and extension education and also worked with FFA and 4-H clubs, the reaction was often the same. That reaction was “I didn’t know those things still existed.”
Yes Virginia, those “things” still exist. 4-H and FFA have changed to keep up with the times but they still exist and are actually growing. Agriculture is still taught in schools but the emphasis today is much broader than farming. We teach horticulture, animal science, biotechnology, and much more. In most states, we are adding new programs – often in urban areas.
In this lesson we will explore 4-H, FFA, and Agricultural Education in the modern era.
Note. We have the NC State Leader for 4-H as a guest presenter for this lesson. Next week the state leader for NC Agricultural Education/FFA will be a guest speaker so most of the FFA content will be delivered next week.
Lesson Objectives:
At the completion of the lesson you should be able to:
- Describe modern day agricultural education.
- Explain the major provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act
- Describe why we have 4-H and FFA.
- Identify basic activities conducted by 4-H and FFA
- Discuss the history of each youth organization.
Assignment:
Visit and explore these two websites – https://ncffa.org/ and https://nc4h.ces.ncsu.edu/
The PowerPoint Presentation Used with the Lesson (in PDF format)
A pdf file with a PowerPoint Presentation about Agricultural Education can be viewed here.
A pdf file with a PowerPoint Presentation about the 4-H and FFA organizations can be viewed here.
Additional Resources for Enrichment Purposes:
The Agricultural Education Magazine (Volume 71, No. 3, 1998) has several articles that tie in with this lesson. The article “What are the Goals and Purposes of Agriculture Education” can be found on page 6 and the article “The FFA: Why Do We Have It?” is found on page 12.
The theme for the Jan-Feb 1999 (Vol. 71, No. 3) issue of The Agricultural Education Magazine is “Is Public School Agricultural Education Needed in the 21st Century?”. While there are several good articles in this issue the article on page 4 “Do We Still Need Agricultural Education” is to the point.
See how the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction describes Agricultural Education.
This link has a list of the courses taught in agriculture programs in North Carolina. But you have to have a password to access the content of the courses. Sorry about that.
The national leadership for agricultural education is provided by The Council (actually The National Council for Agricultural Education). Check out what the Council is doing. The National President is an NCSU faculty member.
In 1917 the federal government passed the Smith-Hughes Act which provided federal funding for the teaching of agriculture, home economics, and the trades in the public schools. Over the years different acts have been passed supporting career and technical education (the new term used instead of vocational education) but the federal government continues to support this type of education. Click here if you want to see the act that started it all 103 years ago.
Read the article “The First Fifty Year of 4-H” written by Van Horn, Flanagan, and Thomson from the Journal of Extension (1998).
Check out the 4-H Timeline in North Carolina.
A brief timeline of the development of FFA from the beginning to today can be found at https://exhibits.ulib.iupui.edu/sc001/exhibits/show/ffatimeline/1. Click on the next link at the bottom of each section to progress through the years.
Explore the following FFA web sites.
- The “official” FFA web site is maintained at the National FFA Center.
- Visit the North Carolina FFA web site
Explore the following 4-H web sites:
- The “official” 4-H web site located in the USDA.
- The National 4-H Council also has a web site.
- There is a North Carolina 4-H web site
A book about the FFA, “The Greenhand”, was written by the Dean of Agriculture at the University of Georgia back in the early days (1932) of the FFA. This book was made into a movie and was shown in movie theaters across the South. I spent a number of years locating this lost artifact. It can be seen at this link – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RVUuU9ve57FfHFKL-Ty4Mo1nh3gBjPsL/view?usp=sharing but be warned, it has racist content typical of the South in the 1930s. And the acting is terrible. The actors were local Georgia folks involved with agricultural education and the FFA in Georgia.