Katherine_Higgins

goats and doldrums why 4-H is the ideal supplement to local schools

Katherine Higgins

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table of contents Dedications - 5 Foreword - 7 Introduction - 8 Why are California Schools so down in the doldrums? - 10 How can raising goats help students master calculus? - 16 Works Cited - 28

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dedicated to Rolling Hills 4-H: where I make my best better

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and to ysabel, ariel, chai, and chili pepper 5

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foreword

I joined Rolling Hills 4-H shortly before I turned eleven, which is pretty typical for us hicks. I was in girl scouts briefly, had danced ballet for a few years as well, but nothing really engaged me like 4-H did. I joined the Dairy Goat project in 2007, and in the Spring of 2008 I purchased my first doe - Ysabel - from my teen leader. It’s been almost five years since then, and I’ve experienced almost everything someone can in 4-H. I’ve witnessed Ysabel give birth to beautiful kids, watched those kids grow up to have kids, had an animal get sick and need emergency vet care, competed at the Santa Clara County Fair, served in several leadership positions, and I’ve presented about 4-H in a vast variety of settings.

This documentary unit was supposed to be exploratory, and I knew from the start that I wanted to use 4-H as my topic, but it felt like I already knew everything there was to know.

What I did learn was just how much good 4-H does: exactly how the people in Rolling Hills 4-H thought it had changed them as a person, as a leader, and as a student.

In 4-H we keep record books, but this far exceeds that collection of memories. The photos and writing are presented side by side in a loosely organized way. I tried to capture the structured feel of school with the free feeling of 4-H, which is similar to the vibe of Freestyle.

Research was exhausting, taking up hours and weeks of my free time. I dug through school district finance spreadsheets, SAT statistics, interviewed 4-H’ers and student leaders, as well as a teacher/former school board member. It would have been impossible without all the wonderful people I had help from - Mr. Greco, Ms. P, Gloria and Terry Higgins, Freestyle students, and all the 4-H’ers who took part in the excitement.

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introduction

The national 4-H program, officially founded in 1902, is as well established as the public school system. 4-H clubs can be found in every county of each of the United States of America, as well as in D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and American army bases around the world. Over 80 foreign countries, including the U.K., Canada, and Australia, promote 4-H as well. In America, about 11.6% of youth take part in 4-H each year - just over 6.5 million young Americans aged five to seventeen. (National 4-H Council).

American public schools are funded by the state, by local property taxes, and by private funding. In the MVLA Union High School District, the total of those funds means each student is blessed with a minimum of $13,000 worth of resources every school year (California School District). While this is about $3,500 above the state average, the sad truth of the matter is this: every school must cut corners to effectively use its pitiful budget. Without drastic change, vital programs such as the arts, AP classes, and athletics will be cut from the public school repertoire, further diminishing the worth of public education institutions.

Because the politicians who put budgets into place do not feel the painful effects of educational budget cuts schools will most likely continue need to function on as little money as possible.

If America is to keep up with the rest of the world, students will soon need to find a good alternative or supplement to a public education. 4-H provides an extremely effective alternative at a low cost, as well as opportunities that simply cannot be compared with other extra curricular activities.

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Members of Rolling Hills 4-H present project reports at a club meeting.

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California schools :

American public schools are funded by the state, local property taxes, and private donations.

In the MVLA Union High School District, the total of those funds means each student is blessed with a minimum of $13,000 worth of resources every school year (California School District). There is evidence to support the idea that a higher per capita budget leads to a better school: a basic test score and spending correlation in addition to the obvious benefit of newer technologies and more up to date textbooks in the classroom. According to American logic, these investments help improve the performance of a school’s student body more so than any other investment or improvement that can be made.

the doldrums

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down in the doldrums

As much data as can be found to support such a claim, New Jersey is just one of the many states that break that relationship. In 2009, Oak Crest High in beautiful New Jersey spent just over $18,000 per capita, significantly higher than the district, state, and national average for that year. However, the only real distinction that could be made between this high school and New Jersey’s “average high school” was an extra 20 minutes in each school day (School Report). $5,000 seems quite steep for a 20 minute boost, especially considering those extra minutes would be divided between at least twenty students per teacher.. In other words the vastly higher budget simply didn’t do much to benefit the students on an individual level (School Report).

Why can’t more money fix every educational problem?

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In my experience, not many life skills are taught in public schools.

I will be graduating in 2014, and while I will have studied math beyond a calculus level, I still won’t know how to pay my taxes. Many of the applicable skills I have gained, such as the use of deposit and withdrawal slips at a bank, I learned from my wonderful parents, who “tried to make learning something that happened everywhere, not just in school” (Higgins).

Not everyone has parents like mine who go on to serve on school boards and teach fourth grade, which means many high school graduates will go off to college without knowing how to live as an adult in today’s society.

Furthermore, students are usually not encouraged to challenge the authority of teachers and the administration. Critical thinking and passionate opinions are encouraged, as long as you stay out of the way of adults. Robert Freeman, a former Modern European History teacher, sarcastically informed his students that, “a nation has the right and responsibility to indoctrinate its children”. In his classroom, however, it was made clear that indoctrination does not prepare students for a valuable career, nor does it promote innovation. If you fully support your untraditional argument with evidence and finesse - in an innovative way - you are asserting yourself as an intelligent human being.

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Unfortunately, in many school settings - including school sponsored extracurriculars - this innovation is not encouraged or promoted. Emma Orner auditioned for the role of drum major at Los Altos after marching saxophone for two years, but ended up a section leader instead. Looking back, she’s, “really happy [she] never became drum major”. People have taken sides and, “ many of [her] fellow band members feel like [their] staff is doing an inadequate job” (Orner). The teacher has, “made it very difficult to approach him about this issue”. Now her goal is just to make it through her senior year with a good attitude because she doesn’t, “want anyone to go through what [she] experienced and [is] going to make sure that never happens” (Orner). If the students in a school’s leadership program cannot work together, their leadership programs are not teaching true, useful leadership. They are, however, teaching student leaders to act as, “teacher’s puppets” (Orner).

With all the things already going wrong,

I’m starting to think California students are doomed.

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Thankfully for students with obvious or major disabilities, the public school system here in California usually gets their educational support right. Obtaining support from doctors and other healthcare professionals - such as instructional aids who attend classes with moderately to severely disabled students - is not tragically difficult. In addition to this small victory for public schools, the brainwashed way in which schools seem to work suggests that if a student suffers from social anxiety, or is in some similar way only socially handicapped, their grades should remain independent of their handicap (Individual).

Regretfully, even in purely academic classes where no philosophical discussion or analysis is necessary, participation is sometimes counted for a significant part of final grades. While project, collaboration, and leadership skills are important for life success, they can be assessed in a far more meaningful fashion than something as vague as a participation grade. Logically enough, these skills are usually measured through partner or group projects, which unlike participation, a handicapped student may be partially or fully excused from by their Individual Education Plan (Individual)

How often do you hear about a school re-evaluating a practice based on the well being of its pupils?

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You don’t.

This is well illustrated by standardized testing in public schools, referred to in California as STAR tests. Teachers know which state standards are usually tested, and will typically ignore other standards, including the valuable skills the rejected standards focus on. If a teacher doesn’t understand or want to spend time answering a question asked by a student, it is dismissed as unnecessary because it “won’t be on the test” (Higgins). If students wanted to know the bare minimum about their curriculum - just enough to pass their STAR test - they wouldn’t ask questions.

Teaching to the test benefits only the average students, while below average students are left behind and above average students are understimulated.

This theme - aiding the average - shows up even in what classes are “assigned” to a student. Ninth grade students taking Earth Science are looked down upon, while eleventh years taking Calculus are more than a little bit intimidated.

Only the students taking average classes really feel secure in their choices and abilities, and this lack of confidence can cause slipping grades, depression, and other devastating blows to a young man or woman.

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how can raising dairy goats

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help a kid master calculus?

4-H is available to families of every race, religion, and socioeconomic status.

Basic 4-H costs are no more than $50 each year, and even those finances can be provided by scholarship. Time commitment might be hard thing, but “is just a matter of priority. If it’s something that’s important to your child and your family, then you will find the time” (Higgins).

A 4-H program, unlike school, allows its members to choose what they learn by enrolling in projects. A child can enter any project at any level - no experience is necessary - but some youth join a project with the intent of expanding his or her existing knowledge.

Projects at Rolling Hills are immensely varied, and include sewing, cooking, stop motion video making, beekeeping, dairy goats, lego robotics, mini horses, as well as various market animal projects (raising livestock for meat).

Also available through Rolling Hills are projects you might expect to be taught as a class at a local high school or community college: leadership, projects that focus on environmental science, and even computer programming. High school Junior Melissa Robell likes the 4-H approach to learning because, “you get to pick the programs you want to participate in...and you get to grow as a leader through that program” (Robell).

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learning to prepare syringes

As with the various project topics, youth enter their 4-H career at various levels of social knowledge.

When Melissa first began 4-H nine years ago, she was really shy, and couldn’t give a presentation in front of any size audience. But now she’s the Club President, “so it’s expected” (Robell).

4-H’ers will all, at some level, speak in front of an audience. These levels vary greatly, students might present in front of their project - as many as 20 people, at a club meeting consisting of almost 200 young men and women, or like Melissa, in front of thousands of people. Former School Board Trustee, current 4th grade teacher, and 4-H parent Gloria Higgins believes, “students in a 4-H project develop the leadership skills, collaboration skills, perseverance and self motivation” necessary for public speaking and success in two ways. A youth may develop vital skills directly as a project leader or executive board member, or simply by participating in project and club meeting and events.

Because “4-H is more outgoing and relaxed than school,” youth often feel more comfortable stepping out of their shell at 4-H than they do at school (Robell). They feel less pressure to be absolutely perfect at what they do, so they are more willing to try a new skill or take advantage of more interesting opportunities. “At school it’s a lot different. People are more willing to help you at 4-H, and it’s a more helpful environment in general” (Robell).

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I love the people in 4-H. And I love the opportunities that you get and that you get to pursue all your interests and the amount of stuff that you learn is just incredible.

Maya Higa

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Not only is the social environment in 4-H spectacularly supportive, depending on their education program - public, private, or home-school - a young person will either replace or supplement STAR tests with a proficiency exam for each project they participate in. These exams are individual to each state and, in some cases, each county.

In California, proficiencies are produced by the University of California 4-H Youth Development Program at UC Davis, an educational foundation funded by federal, state, and local governments, as well as private support (University of California). Unlike the STAR or similar standardized tests, proficiencies are given one-on-one with an adult leader, and at the youth’s pace. Proficiencies may be completed over a day, week, month, year, or even multiple project years - especially for higher levels. This approach to testing minimizes stress on the youth, and maximizes the youth’s opportunity for success.

In many ways proficiencies are more effective than the STAR test: they encourage growth in character and substance in a young person in addition to growth in knowledge. The kind of personal growth displayed just through three years in a relatively simple project like dairy goats is absolutely outstanding.

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Many kids at some point in their 4-H career will serve as a youth leader, as many of the higher level proficiencies require them to. These positions include Teen and Junior project leader, the club Executive Board, with positions ranging from Little Joe Rep to President, and even county representatives, also known as All-Stars.

Maya Higa, just one youth leader in Rolling Hills (and Freshman at Mountain View High School), leads our Alpaca project and serves as the Clover Leader on our exec board.

Maya!

When given an assignment in English that required her to give a three to five-minute speech to her class, Maya “even two years ago, probably would have been super nervous about it, but the speaking skills [she’s] gained in 4-H are really going to help [her] with that” (Higa). I also remember giving a speech my Freshman year, and it was certainly less nerve wracking for me as a 4-H’er than for the young man who shook so violently he ripped his speech in half before he finished.

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It’s obvious that 4-H leadership experiences directly benefit a youth’s educational experience - the 4-H expectation is that kids are learning, using, and teaching these skills themselves. The youth “get a little bit of instruction on how to do it, they get supervision from the project leader, but the expectation is students get their hands in there and they do it themselves” (Higgins).

All 4-H youth teach each other, and through that they teach themselves.

4-H’ers are, more often than not, learning how to learn. This unique experience helps develop the youth’s confidence, and they’re able to take that confidence back to the classroom. “Students in a 4-H project develop perseverance and self motivation,” from which they develop a can-do attitude that helps to eliminate the fear of failing that so many students, including myself, have felt at school once, twice, or a thousand times (Higgins).

“they develop a can-do attitude” 24

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Why can’t the public school system actually incorporate many 4-H ideas and tactics - and why don’t more kids do 4-H?

Because 4-H is voluntary, youth who attend project and club meetings truly enjoy being there. These youth show up ready to learn and participate actively and positively.

All adults who lead or supervise 4-H projects are also volunteers, allowing a 4-H club to run on a far lower budget than an average public school. This also attracts a diverse group of people, which in turn leads to a very diverse set of worldviews that youth are exposed to on a regular basis. The voluntary aspect of 4-H often provides a more energized and exciting learning environment than is usually associated with school, which keeps youth consistently engaged.

School, however, is mandatory, which, “ means a public school teacher has to be a motivator before they can even begin to be a teacher,” especially in the case of students whose parents don’t place much emphasis on the importance of education (Higgins). “If you consider the parents part of the public school system, I would really encourage parents to give their students opportunities to practice delayed gratification,” Mrs. Higgins states, often frustrated by how little her students understand how the amount of work they put into a project at the beginning is directly related to how much of a reward or payoff they receive in the future.

The other major factor in separating public schools from 4-H clubs and projects “is the scope and depth of the curriculum that has to be taught” to the youth involved. In primary schools, one teacher is responsible for all the core content areas - English, math, history, science - as additional instructors are only provided for arts and physical education programs. An elementary school teacher also has to manage the “psychology of educationwhat motivates students, what gets in the way of learning”. Teachers need to be able to work with students who learn easily - just from being in the classroom and listening to the instructions - and students who need a lot of extra support” (Higgins).

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Olivia teaches Jivan to trim his goat’s hooves

“4-H and schools both have a mission that’s centered around developing youth, but they are very different organizations and that necessarily makes them take different approaches to education” (Higgins).

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4-H is as powerful as its youth make it,

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conclusion

Although 4-H cannot entirely replace the school system that is in place across California and the rest of America, public schools certainly should be, and in the case of 11.6% of American youth, already are, successfully supplemented by 4-H programs.

The data from the eighth year of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development shows that youth in 4-H make healthier choices than their peers, regardless of all diversities recorded, including race, socioeconomic status, gender, etc. Results from the study, available online, reveal that young people involved in 4-H have “higher educational achievement and motivation for future education,” are, “more civically active” and, “make more civic contributions to their communities” (Positive Youth Development).

Young people in 4-H also report better grades, and higher levels of academic competence than youth who are not in 4-H. Mrs. Higgins was, “quickly impressed by how academic it is, and how much technology is involved” (Higgins). Rolling Hills alumni Rebekah Clarke went on to broadly study genetics at UC Davis and, specifically, genetics in dairy goats. Today she teaches science and raises dairy goats in Northern California.

One of the best ways for a student to fill the gaps in their education and go on to be a successful man or woman is through the addition of extracurricular activities, starting at as young an age as possible.

Youth who pledge their head to clearer thinking, heart to greater loyalty, hands to larger service, and health to better living contribute so much more to themselves, their club, community, country, and world than youth who don’t. As such, the families who are presented with the opportunity to join 4-H should do everything in their power to get in, get passionate, and get others involved in similar ways.

and in turn makes its youth as powerful as 4-H. 29

works cited “Adolescent and School Health”. n.a. www.cdc.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

19 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 March 2013.

Average SAT Scores - Study Points. www.studypoints.com. Study Points. 2009. Web. “California Falls to 35th in Nation in Per Pupil Education Spending”. www.sacbee.com

The Sacramento Bee, 21 June 2012. Web. 8 March 2013.

“California School District Spending and Test Scores”. www.californiawatch.org. California

Watch, The Center for Investigative Reporting. 2009. Web. 9 March 2013.

Higa, Maya. Personal interview. 18 March 2013.

Higgins, Gloria. Personal interview. 16 March 2013.

“Individual Education Program”. n.a. www.millerchildrenshospitallb.org. Memorial Care Health

System, Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. 2009. Web. 20 March 2013.

Lerner, Richard. Developmental Outcomes. 2010. JPEG file.

---. Educational Outcomes. 2010. JPEG file.

National 4-H Council. www.4-H.org. 4-H, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.

Orner, Emma. Personal interview. 25 March 2013.

“Positive Youth Development” www.4-H.org. National 4-H Council, Institute for Applied

Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, 2002. Web. 14 March 2013.

Robell, Melissa. Personal interview. 17 Feb. 2013.

Rolling Hills 4-H. www.rh4h.com. Rolling Hills 4-H Club. 2009. Web. 20 March 2013.

Roza, Marguerite. Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go?. Urban Institute Press,

2010. Print, PDF. “School Report Cards”. n.a. education.state.nj.us. State of New Jersey Department of Education.

2010. Web. 20 March 2013 Santa Clara County 4-H Youth Development Program, The. Level 1, 2, 3 Goat (Dairy, Meat,

Fiber) Proficiency. University of California 4-H Youth Development Program. 2007. PDF. ---. Level 4 Goat (Dairy, Meat, Fiber) Proficiency. University of California 4-H Youth

Development Program. 2007. PDF. University of California 4-H Youth Development Program. www.ca4h.org. University of

California, UC Davis, National 4-H Council. 2013. Web. 9 March 2013.

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