Edu Change & Student Advocacy

     I recently attended an educational event where a panel of business leaders were asked what they were looking for in future employees. Answers centered around fairly predictable responses related to timeliness, professionalism and soft skills. However, there were also several criticisms of today’s young people as being lazy, unmotivated, and generally irresponsible.      We have heard this criticism before right? I have heard it for years and even more often recently. Indeed, does it not seem like each generation misrepresents and/or misunderstands the next generation? We usually criticize their culture (music, clothing, hair styles), as well as their general ‘work ethic.”        Walk into any adult gathering anywhere with folks aged 30 and beyond, you will probably overhear someone denigrating the young people of today. It’s not only a pattern that repeats, but it almost seems to be an obligation. I know my dad did about myse...

     I was never an Agriculture or FFA student. Indeed, I have never been an Ag or FFA teacher. I have never taken an Ag Science or Ag Elective class. Actually, aside from eating food produced by the Ag industry, I’ve never even done much of anything related to the work that the Ag Community does.      However, as the former principal of Minarets High School, I got to witness and be a part of the great work that the FFA does, and has always done, that we can all learn from. In fact, it seems that much of what we are trying to do with 21st century education and skill development, the FFA has always done. When it comes to what industry and the economy seems to be demanding from our students, the FFA has seemingly incorporated all of it from day one.        When I became the principal of Minarets High School ( Minarets High School ) in 2008, the school did not exist yet. We were tasked, among other things, with having a dynam...