Should FFA be a Sacred Cow?

What you are getting ready to read may not affect your community or you directly but save for the grace of God there could go any of us.

I got some disturbing news last week that the Lawton public schools would be cutting one of the Ag teachers in what has been one of the largest FFA chapters in the state for a number of years. The position being cut will be the horticulture teacher at Eisenhower High School. Now you might wonder why that would matter since I graduated from McArthur High School back in ‘79 and spent part of my Ag teaching career at Lawton High school and my daughter is in FFA out at Cache High School. But as I thought about it the FFA family in southwest Oklahoma is very intertwined. I’ve gotten calls from all over southwest Oklahoma about this potential cut to the program and I think everyone’s concern is very valid. And the basic concern is this: once you cut a program, even a small piece of a program it’s very hard to get it back. A great many of the people whose kids are in FFA in outlying communities were at one time FFA members when they were young. So everyone is concerned whether they live in Lawton directly or are alumnus of one of the best Ag programs in the state.

This ball started rolling with the resignation of Jeff Durham who was a former Lawton FFA member himself and was also the head of the department. I’m not completely sure what the situation was but it seemed like there was some bad blood between he and the administration at Eisenhower High School. His untimely exit created a hole that the administration of the high school as well as the superintendant at Lawton decided not to fill. Now to fully understand the Lawton FFA you have to understand that all three schools in Lawton are one combined FFA chapter. For instance, when I taught at Lawton high, I was in charge of cattle and if a kid attended Eisenhower or McArthur, they would attend class under whichever teacher was stationed at that school. And then if they showed cattle, I was the supervisor of their livestock project. Back in the old days under Marvin Bicket, who by the way, started the program in 1943, the teachers actually rotated from school to school, which exposed those FFA members to all three teachers. As the horticulture program was added, in later years, and the number of teachers went to five, the rotation became a little cumbersome and so teachers remained on their campus and each had responsibility for either a greenhouse or a certain species of livestock.

Now as I said before it may be strange to some why anyone would be concerned outside of the boundaries of their school district. Except when you start looking at the family tree of the Lawton FFA. I graduated in 1979, my main Ag teacher at McArthur was Jay Woodward who is from the Indiahoma community but also has reentered the teaching profession and is now the Ag teacher at Geronimo. Jay is obviously concerned because he has spent a great many years teaching in the Lawton program and is still very active as an Ag teacher. My daughter is the President of the Cache FFA this year, which I’m very proud of by the way, but I’m a product of the Lawton FFA and was taught not only by Jay Woodward but also Marvin Bicket and Ron Long. Three men that had a great deal to do with the development of a young kid from a broken home with plenty of excuses to go wrong.
Another interesting side bar, the new young Ag teacher at Cache is a lady by the name of Lindsay Thomas. Lindsay Thomas’ mother Melody and I, as well as Denise DeMastus, who has been the familiar face as the crossing guard at Cache for years, are all three former Lawton FFA members and we all spent many hours traveling to livestock shows together. And that’s just one class. We were the’79 models. So just that small illustration, I hope helps you understand how far reaching the tentacles of the Lawton FFA actually are. That’s just a couple of communities where people live that were once Lawton FFA members. I could write 30 pages of that family tree and show you why there’s great concern all over southwest Oklahoma about one seemingly very small position at one of the high schools. I think most realize that once you go downhill it’s hard to back up.

At the time I’m writing this article I’m just trying to answer some questions as best I can to those who have been calling. Many are concerned and I share that concern a great deal. I’m not sure what the final outcome will be but I have a feeling and I know the reason we’ll be told will be budget cuts. I could complicate this more by adding the how the state money flows to Ag chapters from Career Tech but that really would complicate things more than they need to be. The issue is an administrative decision to cut a teacher from a very viable and tradition rich program. Which from a budget standpoint probably makes sense. I don’t really think this is a call to arms although I know that could be effective. I guess at the time I’m writing this I’m trying to decide whether or not I’m willing to die in this ditch. I’d be interested in your input.

And here’s a little somethin to think about as you’re goin down the road.

No one can whistle a symphony it takes a whole orchestra to play it.
H. E. Luccock