Throughout our lifetime, we as students have people enter our lives and make the world seem like a better place. For many of us, this person is a parent, a best friend, or a significant other. But for some of us, this person is our ag teacher.
Being an agriculture educator is more than showing up to work and teaching middle school, high school and, recently, elementary school students. It is about being a mentor who guides their students into a bright future, and therefore, should be celebrated for their support.
On Sept. 20, National Teach Ag Day is celebrated by the Future Farmers of America (FFA). They celebrate and recognize the foundation of ag in the classroom. They do this by setting aside a day each year where they honor the men and women who educate their communities about agriculture.
On this day, it is about bringing awareness to agriculture literacy, which is best described as programs that promote the understanding and knowledge necessary to communicate basic information about agriculture with students, producers, consumers, and the public. To celebrate this day, ag teachers will set up special lessons for their classes that highlight the day and reasons why it should be celebrated. Some chapters even lead rallies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Here at ABAC, students wore green t-shirts that promoted National Teach Ag Day and painted the “Teach Ag” symbol, a hand with the words “Teach Ag” inside it, on the lawn of the horticulture building to celebrate this special day. Another way ABAC’s FFA Chapter helped celebrate National Teach Ag Day was during one of their September chapter meetings.
They had students write small letters to their ag teachers to let them know how much they mean to students. By the end of this meeting, the chapter received a large pile of postcards to pass out.
