The Keynote Presenter

it was great being back at the Fountain Park Chautauqua in Remington, Indiana on Monday. This is the 5th year in a row I have presented to this group. My presentation was titled “Lessons in Resilience: Agriculture in the 1930s.” I reviewed the depression and dust bowl era of the 1930s and then compared that with the pandemic of today. There are many similarities. The bottom line is we survived the depression and dust bowl and will survive the pandemic.

On the way from North Carolina to Indiana, I had the opportunity to stop on Sunday night at the Claymour, KY Camp Meeting. This was their 118th annual meeting. Since I have a presentation about camp meetings, I wanted to experience this one since they operate a little differently than other camp meetings I have attended. It was an enjoyable evening worshipping with good ol country folks. Here are a few photos.

This week I had the opportunity to speak at the summer conference of the North Carolina Agriculture Teachers Association. Since I had taught many of the teachers it was like Brer Rabbit being thrown into the brier patch. I enjoyed the occasion but wish it had been in person instead of via Zoom. However, I think we have turned the pandemic corner and will soon be meeting live again. I spoke about the importance of balancing work and family and provided 13 specific suggestions to the teachers.

I did something yesterday I have not done in over a year. That was speak to a live audience in person. During the past 1 ½ years my presentations have been delivered via Zoom. However, there were some challenges with the live presentation. The facility in which I spoke (Brookdale Retirement Community) was older and did not have the technology that more modern facilities have. They had a microphone and that was it. When I asked if they had a screen, they were not sure. Luckily, they found one, but it was small. It was a good thing I had brought my own video projector and sound system just in case it was needed. It was needed. There is a reason I arrive 30-45 minutes prior to the start of a presentation. I did get everything hooked up and the presentation on the History and Evolution of the Outhouse went off without a hitch. I had my fingers crossed. The audience was very receptive and appreciative.

There are many similarities between the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s and the Covid-19 Era today. As the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the North Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents, I enjoyed the opportunity to share some of these insights in a presentation titled “Resilience: Lessons Learned from the Dust Bowl and Covid-19 Eras.”

Some 7,000 people died from “dust pneumonia” during the Dust Bowl era. People wore masks to keep the dust our of their lungs. Children going to school might wear goggles and masks. Today we have face shields and masks.

During the Dust Bowl Era farmers were told to kill snakes and hang them (belly up) to attract rain. So-called experts used balloons to lift dynamite into the sky. They claimed the explosions “agitated” the atmosphere and caused rain to fall. Today we have people espousing untested drugs, UV light, and injecting disinfectants to prevent Covid-19. There are those who falsely claim covid vaccines alter your DNA, cause infertility, and contain microchips. The situation is different but similarities exist.

We survived the dust bowl and we will survive Covid-19 too. We must be resilient.

Hopefully, things will be back to normal next year and I can work with the ECMC Foundation Fellows (emerging leaders in career and technical education) in person instead of via ZOOM. However, we had a good conversation about the history of career and technical education in April. I always like it when some of the participants contact me for more information.

Patrons of the Morton Grove, Illinois Public Library learned more about tomato clubs via a ZOOM presentation today. In preparing the presentation I learned that an Illinois representative to the U.S. Congress offered prizes to corn clubs and tomato clubs in his district in 1916. Winning clubs received a trip to St. Louis. Second place clubs got to go to Springfield, Illinois. I also learned there was a huge debate in 1929 in the U. S. Senate about imposing a 3 cent a pound tariff on imported tomatoes. A senator from Alabama was arguing for the tariff to “protect the girls’ tomato clubs.”

I enjoyed speaking to a group of agricultural education students at Texas State University via Zoom on Monday. The topic was the History and Development of Agricultural Education. I was asked to provide some thought-provoking discussion questions in advance. The two questions I submitted were:

1. Why was agricultural education needed in the early 1900s?
2. How is agricultural education different today than it was in Era 1 – the 1920s and 1930s?

In response to the second question, the immediate answer given by the students was that the audience for agricultural education in the early days were boys. Today it is for both boys and girls. Since the class was all female, I thought this was a good observation and validated the answer. There has been a major u-turn in the type of students in agricultural education today. The majority of the students are still male, but the majority of the FFA officers are female.

Why is the state degree FFA pin missing the eagle on top of it? The answer to that question and many other unusual questions about the FFA was covered in a presentation to the AEE 303 class earlier this week at North Carolina State University. This class prepares future agriculture teachers to be FFA advisors. I enjoyed interacting with them and sharing some of my FFA memorabilia. So what is the answer to my question? Between 1928 and 1938 the only FFA degree pin that featured the complete FFA emblem with the eagle on top was the American Farmer degree because it was a national degree. The other degree pins were local or state and did not feature the eagle. So if you find a FFA pin without an eagle, it is a pre-1938 pin.

I enjoyed sharing my views about the importance of life-work balance with the senior agricultural education students at the University of Tennessee-Martin in November. Research shows the average agriculture teacher works 55-57 hours a week. Teacher educators in agriculture do a great job of preparing prospective agriculture teachers to do their job, but we often don’t teach them about the importance of maintaining balance in their lives. As a result, many teachers burn out and leave the profession after a few years. It was great that Dr. Will Bird at UT-Martin realizes this and invited me to speak with his class via zoom about this important topic.

The Smith-Hughes Act: Its Importance for Today. That was the title of the Zoom presentation to the Greenwood (PA) High School agriscience students. Millerstown, PA. Sept. 22. It was nice to reconnect with high school students. They asked some good questions. One was have I ever regretting being an agricultural educator. My answer was never. Another question is what was my most coveted award. My answer was being selected as the outstanding graduate teaching assistant at Ohio State – and that was because it was a student-run and managed award program. There we no adults involved.