Growing with two parents as teachers, high school math and middle school Physical Education, its very difficult for most to understand why I chose to become and agriculture educator. My path to this career is simple to me. I always loved being outdoors, working in the garden, and learning something new everyday that could actually be applied to my life. Naturally, when high school started, and I was signing up for classes, God stepped in and had my high school agriculture teacher, FFA Advisor (and now long time friend) as my mentor to set up classes. My father was completely bewildered that I’d ever want to learn about “farming and cows,” but I had a genuine interest. I can honestly say that was one of the most pivotal moments of my life, choosing to be in agriculture and joining the FFA.
Yes, I often have struggles, managing all the different activities of an FFA Chapter and teaching 6 different agriculture classes each day, but I often find the variety and the time commitment very rewarding. A perfect example being earlier this week in my Orientation to Agriculture class, full of mainly freshmen and sophomore students. One of my freshmen girls raised her hand and said her mom had told her the day before that best beef comes from a 4-5 year old cow. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would not want to eat that meat. The student laughed as she was telling me and said, “Miss Novotney, can you please call my mom and tell her what you have been teaching us in the Beef Unit because she doesn’t believe me?!” I laughed and told her she did the right thing, but also showed her some resources she could show her mom to help her become a more educated consumer.
As an agriculture teacher, and as a person, my general hope is to spread some basic knowledge of agriculture to the public, in hopes that they will become more educated consumers. I don’t want anyone to become a master in meat judging, but if they take that upon themselves as a goal, I will certainly aid in the process. My hope is that we will have more people understanding why they are paying more for organically versus naturally versus conventionally produced products. I don’t want people to purchase any certain type of food, but rather, be informed about those choices they are making.
I am proud to be apart of those who educate others about agriculture!
Kathy Novotney can be found in Illinois and online at her blog and on Twitter.