First here are links to three articles I wrote about Howe Farm
over past year, from recent to remote.
Dogs Ditch the Leash at Howe Farm
Park Work Has Perks for Humans and Dogs
Commissioners Give Nod to Howe Farm Partnership
Second, in response to comments on the story about Howe Farm and a proposal to allow South Kitsap School District to conduct agriculture classes there, I wanted to added some material that got cut from the story due to space constraints. The copy and the comments address the issue of the relative merit of agriculture education.
Here’s are the comments that raise the question:
Posted by mryan march 8
If there are limited dollars available for vocational educational
education, is a program to train people to perform work in a field
that has NO agricultural base beyond hobby farms the best use of
this money?
Posted by dahl March 8
teaching students a hobby is not my idea of educating students.
After all, gardening is a hobby and I certainly doubt whether even
one out of the graduating class will go into farming. Even if one
did, learning gardening is not going to give him/her the knowledge
to farm.
Posted by dahl March 9
What I am opposed to is a school district that complains about
unfunded mandates, low graduation rates and failing test scores
reaching out for something that won’t do the school district one
bit of good in all three categories. How about getting the school
district act together instead of spreading out into new areas
before getting the current ones to work right?
Here’s what the school district’s director of career and technical education said when I asked him about the relevance of agricultural education.
“(Thomas) Mosby said the hands-on experience students get by
studying literally in the field is important in helping them meet
state standards on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning,
regardless of whether they will pursue a career in agriculture,
because it demands direct application of knowledge, including math
and economics, to real-life situations.
The district’s agriculture and natural resources program includes
not only agricultural science, but also natural sciences,
environmental science, forestry, landscape design and
horticulture.
As to the relevance of the program, Mosby said, the burgeoning
green industry has opened up many career paths requiring a
background in agriculture and natural science. For example, he
said, students who study landscape design and environmental science
would have a good start on getting the background necessary to work
in environmentally friendly construction such as that promoted by
Kitsap Homebuilder’s Association’s Built Green program.
The school district, WSU Kitsap County Cooperative Extension, and
Olympic College are working on an arrangement that would allow high
school students to receive community college credit for agriculture
classes, which in turn could be used toward a four-year degree.
Arno Bergstorm of WSU Extension also weighed in on the relevance
of agriculture classes classes. “There is a huge horticulture and
green industry here in Kitsap,” he said. “There are jobs out
there.”
Bergstrom also noted the relevance of agricultural science, given
the increasing cost of fuel to transport food from its source to
the consumer. While corporate grocery stores still command 97
percent of the market, the “eat local” movement has at least a
toe-hold in Kitsap County, Bergstrom said. Bergstrom teaches a
class on making small farming economically viable, and it’s his
hope that “eating local” will someday move from the fringes to the
mainstream of Kitsap County consumerism.
