Commentary: A wheelbarrow full of education

Ag Alert Issue Date: May 28, 2008

By Judy Honerkamp

Last week, fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bauer Speck Elementary School harvested lettuce, spinach, cabbage and carrots from our school garden. The vegetablesh--a whole wheelbarrow full--were wheeled into the cafeteria where they were cleaned and served in the salad bar for lunch. Our garden has become a living laboratory for students who need to touch the lessons in order to understand them, as well as a way to encourage nutritious food choices and foster self-confidence year after year. My students know where their food comes from. They grow it, care for it, harvest it and eat it.

I have been a teacher in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District since 1991 and currently teach at a modest campus in San Luis Obispo County, where 65 percent of our student body is of low socio-economic status.

Our 524 students generally come from disadvantaged homes with limited parental guidance. During school vacations, many students visit the parent they currently don't live with, sit at home in front of the TV or attend child care. In contrast, my siblings and I spent our spring breaks and summer vacations moving irrigation pipe in the alfalfa fields. Because of my upbringing and appreciation for agriculture, the disconnect between today's students and their food source is painfully clear to me. As an educator preparing these students for adulthood, I feel it is my obligation to bridge this essential gap.

My grandparents were among the first to farm local land with horse-drawn equipment. My parents were farmers and ranchers, who grew alfalfa and grain and raised cattle. Unlike the students I teach today, my siblings and I lived agriculture. Despite being raised in the same rural town, my upbringing is a world away from the childhood experiences of the students in my classroom each day. Our local area is still predominately farms and ranches, yet students step on to campus each fall, unaware of where their food is grown.

Like many schools, we have a tradition of annual Agriculture Day where we invite farmers and ranchers to our school along with their animals, machines, plants and local history to introduce students to the people and industry that provide so many of their daily necessities.

If you visit our school campus on Agriculture Day, you would see kindergarteners milking cows, first-graders branding, second-graders pitching horseshoes, third-graders making tortillas, fourth-graders roping steers and fifth-graders stacking hay. The students of our school experience farming and ranching firsthand, and learn from it. Unfortunately, this isn't the norm. Agriculture doesn't come from home today, as it did in my childhood. This is why it is vital that it be taught in the classroom.

Ag in the Classroom has been instrumental in my efforts to bring agricultural awareness to my students. I had the drive and the desire, but lacked the time to develop the lessons. Ag in the Classroom provides invaluable resources like hands-on activities, reference materials, workshops, conferences and an online library.

For example, my students examine cotton bolls from the San Joaquin Valley, which we tie into the study of slave trade in early America. My students construct water cycle wheels to illustrate the water cycle process and map the water route from its mountain source. When I teach plant science, we make a trip to the garden to investigate our own homegrown specimens. I believe I speak for my fellow California teachers in saying we are incredibly grateful for such effective, standards-based, quality resources at no cost, particularly in light of the inevitable 10 percent budget cut to education.

Each day I see more and more reason to instill an appreciation of farming and ranching in my students. The satisfaction of hearing an 11-year-old girl ask if she can "go get dirty in the garden" is something truly remarkable and reminds me why I've chosen this career path. I want my students to be aware of agricultural issues--including controversial issues--so they can grow up to become conscientious voters and contributing members of society or perhaps give them a gateway to agriculture-related careers.

I extend a huge thank you to farmers and ranchers who support the Agriculture in the Classroom program and who contribute to student Agriculture Days at local schools. Educators across California sincerely appreciate the partnership between agriculture and education, each relying on the other, to expand the horizons of our young people.

(Judy Honerkamp was recently named 2008 Outstanding Educator by the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom for her dedication to agricultural literacy. Honerkamp teaches fifth grade at Bauer Speck Elementary School in Paso Robles. She can be reached at jhonerkamp@king.prps.k12.ca.us.)

Click here to learn more about the San Luis Obispo County Agriculture Education Committee.