Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. TEACH him HOW to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
– Lao Tzu (emphasis mine)
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that the Farm to School program is more expensive this year and schools have either reduced their purchases or threatened to drop out of the program completely.
We all know fresh fruits and vegetables are better for you. We all know that locally grown produce is preferable – it helps the local farmer, and the kids get produce that hasn’t travelled hundreds (or thousands) of miles.
I’d like to know something, though. Since most school systems I’m aware of are city/county consolidated, why can’t the school systems work with the farmers and leave the “DoD bulk purchasing system” out of it? North Carolina has a decent amount of former tobacco acreage laying fallow, why not put it to work feeding the school kids? And why not include the school kids in the program? Field trips to the farm for the littles to watch things grow, and work-related course credit (and/or volunteer credit) for the bigger kids. TEACH them the connection between the land and the food on the table. There’s a vast chasm of difference between reading about what happens when you plant a seed, and watching it happen.
Urban/city kids can still learn about/plant container gardens, make arrangements with people who DO have space available, or at the very minimum take them to the local Farmer’s Market. Wrap their basic subjects around food and/or farming. We all know addition and subtraction starts with “if I have 5 apples and give 2 to Daniel, how many apples do I have left?” so why not expand that to other subjects. Food is nothing if not a historical topic (people have always needed to eat, yes?), Science is a given, there’s plenty of food/gardening related literature, paintings, music and even a play or two.
I do realize this is a radical change from the current education system and will most likely get swept under the carpet. Homeschoolers teach like this all the time, though – so I KNOW it’s a system that works.
You identified the problem in the last two sentences. It’s easier to abolish the public school system then to make it change, unless you have direct control of its funding. My experience is that the public school system has been so dumbed-down and bean-counted that even small changes, like straying the slightest from a district-approved curriculum, is enough to question one’s teaching ability. Ironic that most states are going to require a Master’s degree along with licensing to make less than $30K to start in a job that’s basically playing trained monkey (been there, done that). Anyway, I don’t know how strong FFA is out there, but they would be the ones to encourage and fight for this program in the way you discuss using it, so you might want to forward those ideas to the North Carolina FFA.
hahahahha! You are trying to apply logic to the public school system. Clearly you are delusional. Take two aspirin and go to bed. Do not get up until the urge to reason with the government nanny has been suppressed.
I think having to WOH has gone to my brain. What WAS I thinking??!!??
And are you sure two aspirin are going to be enough?
Not really, but I hated to advise you to go for the hard drugs right away. *snicker*