School funding cuts forced a McPherson teacher, Tiffany Pacey, to eliminate class field trips to the farm.
But, she still wanted to
introduce her Eisenhower Elementary School kindergarten students to the world
of agriculture and help them understand where their food came from.
So, she visited the Groveland
branch of Mid Kansas Cooperative and brought back different grains to discuss
with her curious students.
“I was flying by the seat of
my pants,” Pacey admitted.
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| 6-year old Jody Mead and 5-year old Colton Lauderdale, like to share their knowledge of agriculgture. They are two of Tiffany Pacey's kindergarten students who still live on a farm. |
She had her fifth grade son
Tanner Pacey, who already had developed a passion for agriculture, help out. He
brought a power point presentation of farm crops that he put together, along
with his collection of model tractors and drills to share with the students.
She didn’t realize until later that MKC would send a representative to the
classroom to talk about agriculture. “That’s what we’re going to do next year,”
Pacey said.
On a recent morning, Pacey
spoke with her students who were sitting before her in a semi-circle on the
floor, explaining to them why Kansas was known as the wheat state.
While the majority of her
class is removed from farm life there are some, like 6-year-old Jack Barrow,
who have their unique perspective on agriculture.
“My Uncle has a farm and he
cuts the wheat with the combine and puts the grain in the elevator,” Jack said.
“I liked to ride in the combine, but it got so dusty because the door broke
off.”
Faced with the challenge of
teaching her students a vital lesson that would have connected them to the
number one industry in the state, Pacey admits she had to wing it. But, she now
knows where to turn for helpful information.
Mid Kansas Cooperative is
committed to bringing agriculture to the classroom through its financial
support of such programs as Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom,
and the Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center, at Walton.
“MKC is one of our major
donors,” said Cathy Musick, executive director of KFAC. A non-profit
organization, they lost 19 percent of their budget in recent legislative cuts.
The program trains and provides extensive lesson plans and workshops across the
state to a variety of educators, and Musick, as well as the KFAC board have
come to greatly appreciate the major support from entities such as MKC.
The KFAC programs train
educators offering agricultural based, hands-on learning tools, plus they offer
a 250-page guide and lesson plans for just the cost of postage. The program
also provides summer training courses, as well as a new 2012 program, “AG
Counts,” through the Be Ag -Wise workshops they co sponsor with the Kansas Farm
Bureau. Musick and her staff go to the inter-city schools presenting hour-long
assemblies.
“We hope the teachers will
take the resource packets and model given to bring ag into the classroom
curriculum,” Musick said.
It’s even more vital than
ever, Musick says, because the children of today are generations removed from
the farm.
“They haven’t been to grandpa’s farm to see the cattle and don’t have a sense of connection to where their food comes from,” Musick said.
Even in rural areas, the
agricultural industry has become focused on one or two crops on a farm.
“I grew up on a ranch and
never went to a feedlot. I didn’t know soy beans,” Musick said. “How do we make
that connection that that they (students) understand the agricultural system we
have and the importance of how much it supplies to the state? It’s our number
one industry, what does it pay in income for the state?”
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| Chore boots and gardening gloves are part of the necessities of daily life at Walton 21st Century Rual Life Center. |
Meanwhile, in Harvey County,
at the Walton 21st Century rural life Center, field trips to the
farm simply entails walking outdoors to the school’s barn or the greenhouse to
see how things grow.
As a fourth generation Harvey
County farmer, Alan Entz is glad that his three children have had the
opportunity to experience the Walton School.
While his children are
growing up on the land that their great-great- grandfather homesteaded when he
arrived from Prussia, some of their classmates wouldn’t have had such an
ag-based background if it weren’t for the Walton Charter School.
The innovative teaching ideas
in a rural center came about as a way to save the school, said Natise Vogt,
principal. The ag based charter school was the dream of former USD373
superintendent John Morton. He saw it as a way of saving the ailing school in
the rural community that was down to 80 students in 2005.
Meanwhile, the building designed
to hold 130 students has a current enrollment of 154 students. Expected
enrollment for the next year is 160.
“The rural life center is so
popular there is a growing support to keep it, plus there is a waiting list to
get in to the school,” said Entz.
Meanwhile growing pains, and
state budget cuts to education has made the Walton Rural Life Charter
Foundation even more vital. Mid Kansas Cooperative is an important supporter of
the school, Vogt said.
“MKC is definitely helping to
sustain the school,” said Entz, a MKC member. That’s important due to state
budget cuts to education. “To keep it going we need the community backing. The
elevator at Walton welcomes the students for tours and they explain what goes
on there so they can learn different facets of farming.”
Entz hopes through the
program all the students will have leaned to understand their daily bread and
how it originates from a tiny seed.
“They learn the growing
aspect from planting and propagating in the greenhouse,” Entz said.
There is another
collaborative partnership because the facilitators at KFAC trained the Walton
faculty, many who were city slickers before switching over to an
agricultural-based charter school.
“They attended our
summer course and they were able to pick up lesson plans and use that for
planning to be an ag charter school,” Musick said. “We had a neat connection
with them one summer.”
Those courses gave Vogt and
all the staff the courage to put on their chore boots and garden gloves and
lead their students into such lessons cleaning a barn, feeding calves, hatching
chicks, raising chickens, collecting the eggs and then marketing their product.
They have even learned the
frustration of supply and demand, said Staci Schill, a first and second grade
teacher. Her students put the large red sign outside the school announcing eggs
for sale. The students even give up recess to clean the eggs and package them
in hand painted egg cartons. They sell the eggs for $2 a dozen, and have
learned to count by 12 and work in dozens.
Then, they put the money they
earn back into the school, using it for such things as buying fruit trees
and feed for the school’s sheep.
Meanwhile back at Eisenhower
Elementary School, Jack Barrow knows that at his uncle’s farm the seeds are in
the ground for next season’s harvest. And thanks to his teacher, he also knows
what grain is used to make bread.
“I like my bread with
butter,” Jack said.
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