Date of Award:

5-1940

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Department name when degree awarded

Education

Committee Chair(s)

L. R. Hympherys

Committee

L. R. Hympherys

Abstract

Vocational agriculture had its birth in Utah rural high schools in the spring of 1918. It is a program for training present and future farmers for proficiency in agriculture. The instruction in Utah, as in most states, has been devoted to the training of all-day (high school) students.

Since 1918 considerably over one million dollars of federal, state and local funds have been expended for all-day instruction in vocational agriculture in Utah. The primary objective of the program is to train these boys to become farmers or farm leaders. From time to time the following questions have been asked: Do all-day students ever become farmers? If so, are they the poorer students of the high school? What percentage of former all-day students are remaining in rural communities? What percent of all-day students go to college?

These and numerous other questions have been asked by taxpayers, school patrons, high school principals, county school superintendents, agricultural leaders, and others who are concerned with the education of farm youth. The state director of agricultural education and the teachers of vocational agriculture in the various districts in Utah have answered these questions as intelligently as possible with the information available. Their answers were necessarily very subjective and based on personal opinion.

The state director of agricultural education and many of the teachers of vocational agriculture sensed the need of an objective study concerning former students. The vocational agricultural program had been in existence for more than 20 years, and no check up had been made in this regard. As far as the state as a whole was concerned the program was like a clock without hands; it was running, but no one knew the time in terms of results as they were related to the objectives of the program.

Checksum

e45980a5afd3833be4b6b8cd4ad7a5af

Share

COinS