The View on Agriculture in the Classroom with Beth Schaefer

I don't know if you can categorize this, but what is like maybe those most common misconceptions? Like what do you hear over and over again of like the aha moments or whatever? I mean, is there anything that's surprising? This is really general.

So can

I do a student one and a teacher one? Oh, yeah, for sure.

I think the teacher takeaway is, like, I've been in education, like I said, for over 20 years.

I've taught in the classroom.

I've worked with teachers.

And every time we do a teacher training, they are truly, I don't want to say surprised.

But that stereotype of bib overalls, you know,

not

being not being a well-rounded person or or having a, you know, a vast knowledge of different things that always surprises teachers how.

how much a farmer, how much anyone in agriculture knows about so many different things.

It also shocks people how well-connected agriculture is.

You don't get that in every other industry.

And I'm a little sheltered, I'm not going to lie, that as an ag teacher in Wisconsin, we have a really strong community.

Teachers are out there helping each other and supporting each other.

Science, they have an email that goes out, but it's not the way that our ag teachers know each other and spend time together and cheer each other on.

It's very different.

So teachers are always surprised, one.

how diverse a farmer's knowledge is.

You just have to know everything about everything.

And two, how tight our community really is and how supportive it is, both in the education realm and just in the community.

Because you guys, it's not just a Farm Bureau thing.

When we moved, I moved five years ago to the Brandon-Rosendale area from the Wausau area.

And I knew so many people when we moved because of Farm Bureau and because of my connections in agriculture that I was just like, okay, well, now we're going to see these people more.

And I know who to talk to about daycare.