Where in life do we go wrong, for many of us it
starts at a very young age. I don't know everything about what happens to my
students, but what I know for sure is, that they end up here. Here, is
alternative education for juvenile delinquents; and here in this private school
is where I start my journey to help change the lives of my students through
agriculture education. I hope through agriculture education that I can
make a difference, and create hope for a better future. This place is one that
breeds contempt, that breeds hopelessness, but it is out of the children's own
lives that this air is created. Let us start from the beginning; I am an
agriculture education teacher from the Penn State. I recently finished 5 months
of conventional high school agriculture education. It DID not prepare me for
this next step.
I came here to change how many of these kids see the world. These students are very different than those in a typical High School. Many of these students have been in and out of what we call “placements” for a large majority of their lives. These students have committed crimes and have been victims of abuse. They do not know agriculture, they really don't know much about the world in general.
Their world, typically consists of what they call the block. Every now and then we get a student from a rural setting, but they seem to be rather isolated and display the same type of behavior. I think that the students come from a place that is almost like another world. What they know, what they place value in, is alien to most of us. To them, teasing or bullying comes with guns and violence; it is not some kid on the bus calling them names. Bullying to them is life-threatening. Basic teenager things are much more serious. Many of them have seen things that my typical agriculture student can't even fathom. This teaching environment will be a true test of will, an educational battlefield where college training alone won’t be enough to gain ground. While walking through these halls all I can think of is,
I came here to change how many of these kids see the world. These students are very different than those in a typical High School. Many of these students have been in and out of what we call “placements” for a large majority of their lives. These students have committed crimes and have been victims of abuse. They do not know agriculture, they really don't know much about the world in general.
Their world, typically consists of what they call the block. Every now and then we get a student from a rural setting, but they seem to be rather isolated and display the same type of behavior. I think that the students come from a place that is almost like another world. What they know, what they place value in, is alien to most of us. To them, teasing or bullying comes with guns and violence; it is not some kid on the bus calling them names. Bullying to them is life-threatening. Basic teenager things are much more serious. Many of them have seen things that my typical agriculture student can't even fathom. This teaching environment will be a true test of will, an educational battlefield where college training alone won’t be enough to gain ground. While walking through these halls all I can think of is,
“Welcome to tough agriculture.”
So how does one impact a child that has seen more
life than you, but knows so little about it? I am about to find out.
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