I grew up with two older sisters. Both were deeply involved in 4-H, FFA and agriculture. As the youngest, I often attended judging practice, 4-H meetings and fair as a small but not so quiet, shadow. 

I idolized everything my sister’s taught me from how to tie a slip knot to the parts of a cow. I was completely infatuated with all things agriculture and being a 4-H leader’s daughter, I had my hands in ag all day, every day. 

I had the opportunity take agriculture education classes when I was in junior high.

Nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. I never was a fan of school. I would have much rather been in the pasture or in the barn instead of the classroom.

Until I took an agriculture education class.

The variety of skills I was being taught was something that has always stuck with me. 

Many of our classes throughout our education are not focused on actual skills we will use in adulthood. 

I support agriculture education and the National FFA Organization in schools for so many reasons. 

While my sisters sparked my interest in agriculture it was my ag ed teacher that always kept me coming back for more. There wasn’t a day in class where we didn’t learn something I have used as an adult. 

As a freshman, we were required to participate in public speaking. Last week in my column, I explained how public speaking helps develop confidence in our youth. When you learn to save yourself, so to speak, in a life-or-death situation like public speaking, you learn the value of self-trust. Building a more confidence in our youth serves them in so many ways. They will become more employable. Having the skill set to speak in front of an audience is an advantage on many job applications. When students participate in the variety of speaking contests, they develop even more skills. In prepared speaking, students learn how to research a topic and then develop a script of the important key factors the audience should know. In extemporaneous speaking, students learn how to trust their own knowledge and feedback to prepare a four- to six-minute-long speech on a topic drawn 30 minutes before the contest.

I was in FFA back before some of the cooler programs existed, but you can guarantee, the amount of knowledge I gained from participating in judging contests may shock you. Truthfully, a judging contest isn’t just about how an expert in the field places a set of animals. Those judging contests taught us even though our opinions may not always be the same, we have the power to explain our point of view. I don’t know how many contest winners placed their animals differently than the judge but won the contest on the student’s ability to give oral reasonings as to why he or she made the decision to place certain animals ahead of the others. We learned how to respectfully advocate for ourselves and our opinions. 

We learned the value of record keeping. The importance of being able to have accurately kept records. In FFA and 4-H we kept record books to document important information pertaining to our projects. Developing record books in FFA can help young adults learn to budget and plan properly. Obviously, those are skills any adult uses. 

Today’s youth is given a jumpstart in preparing for a career by participating in FFA and agriculture education.