FFA club to continue

by Erika Young

Although there are many changes planned in the Future Farmers of America organization at the regional level, there are no plans to discontinue the club at Yosemite High School nor to stop offering agriculture classes.

There are many clubs on the YHS campus but Agricultural Science is the only 'group' that is inter-curricular, according to Steve Ecklund, the YHS agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. It is a class where students learn about a business career. Ecklund also stresses that through the agriculture classes and FFA, students learn about leadership, they learn about applied academics and they learn transferable skills. The group takes trips every year and they raise about $15,000 through fundraisers.

Ecklund says that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin is closing all regional FFA offices, including one at California State University, Fresno. She wants to move the regional staff to Sacramento and have the advisors work with them over the phone. This process wouldn't work; it is too hard to work over the phone when everything in agriculture is hands-on, Ecklund says.

Right now, the decision on the agriculture science and FFA programs is very unclear. Eastin is in her last months as the state Superintendent of Public Instruction and none of the candidates for that position have talked about what they might do about the program.

Agriculture isn't just about teaching students welding and raising animals, Ecklund points out. It teaches them many other things like math, English, and speaking abilities. The program is broken up into three different areas. One area is FFA activities, the other is classroom, and the last one is Supervised Occupational Experience Projects, which are self-guided projects.

Eastin's plan would take away two of those and just leave the classroom. Students learn differently, Ecklund says. Some will learn better in the book, but others may learn from actually doing a project. So if they take away projects and FFA activities there might not be very many students left in the program, Ecklund worries.