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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1979)
^ - - •' • ~ November 19. 1979-The Agriculturist-Page v »\CATIONAL tl \ii ® a / AGRICULTURE Texas women find opportunities, challenges, success in new field By KIPP SHACKELFORD The setting was League City, Texas, in the fall of 1974. The new teacher walked down the hall toward the classroom. When she opened the door and saw the students, she real ized that everything she had been through to receive that teaching cer tificate was worth it. So began a new type of career for Anna Beth Neason, the first woman to teach production agriculture in a Texas high school. Neason grew up on a farm near Shiro, Texas, and there acquired much of her experience in agriculu- tural practices. Upon graduation from Navasota High School in 1970, she entered Texas A&M University as a chemistry major. It was in the summer after her freshman year that Neason talked with Dr. Herman Brown, professor of agricultural education at A&M, who encouraged her to change to that department and pursue a teaching career. In the spring of her senior year, Neason began work in the student teaching block. This is a 15-week program, in which she spent six weeks taking courses in the fun damentals of teaching. Neason work ed as a student teacher in Caldwell, Texas, for the last nine weeks. Upon completion of the program, she gra duated from A&M with a specialty in horticulture and a teacher’s certifi cate in hand. Neason’s first real job was at Clear Creek High School in League City, where she worked for two years. She taught production agriculture, which includes such subjects as leadership, record keeping, wood- shop and welding. Other areas of the course involved lessons in plant, animal and soil sciences. Neason also taught an agricultur al cooperative part-time training course in horticulture, which allows students to attend classes for half a day and work outside of school for the other half. From there Neason transferred to Stephen F. Austin High School in Bryan, where she now teaches ninth grade production agriculture. “I was eager to begin that first year of teaching, but was slightly unsure of myself, as this was a totally new field that no woman had ever taught in Texas before,” Neason said. Neason said she felt teaching might have been easier if she had been given the opportunity to ex perience the vocational agriculture program during herjinvn high school years. She said girls in her home town were not allowed in the agricul tural programs until 1971, a year af ter she graduated from high school. “Looking back at my first experi ences in teaching, and remembering how uninformed I was and my many mistakes, it’s surprising that I was able to accomplish as much as I did, ” Neason said. Her current job does not merely involve classroom work, but in cludes many outside activites for the students. Neason is an advisor at Stephen F. Austin for Future Far mers of America Greenhands, which are first-year vocational agriculture students. In the past nine years many changes have taken place in agricul ture. One of the most recent changes, and perhaps one of the greatest, is the entrance of women into vocational agricultural educa tion. Historically the field has been considered a male-dominated pro fession, but this attitude seems to be rapidly changing, said Brown. Today’s world constantly faces so cial change as more and more women enter into professional, non- traditional fields. This is evident from statistics which show that there are 6.25 million women in Texas to day, or 51 percent of the total popu lation, compared to less than 6 mil lion men. Predictions are that by the year 2000, the female population in Texas will reach 8.8 million, with the male population being approximate ly 8.4 million. The Texas A&M department of agricultural education is aware of these trends and also of the severe shortage of vocational agriculture teachers all over the country this year. Dr. Earl Knebel, head of the TAMU agricultural edcuation de partment, said there are more than 65,000 vocational agriculture stu dents in Texas. Seven thousand, or 11 percent, of these students are women. However, only 40 women are currently enrolled in agricultural education at A&M. Knebel said four women entered the teaching profession last year. In 1975 there were only three women vocational agriculture teachers in Texas, but this year there are 20. “Almost any agricultural educa tion student, male or female, who genuinely wants to work toward a teaching career would have an excel lent chance at being placed into the field,” said Knebel. He said the women he has seen enter the agricultural teaching field have fared exceptionally well, earn ing the respect and confidence of their male counterparts. Colleges are not only areas in Texas A&M University Dairy Science Club exhibits cows, wins awards at State Fair By LISA A. COTROPIA Twelve Texas A&M Dairy Science Club members journeyed to the State Fair of Texas in October and returned to College Station with sev eral awards. They exhibited 10 dairy cattle- four Holsteins and six Jerseys at the Pan American Dairy Competition. Two of the 4-year-old Jerseys placed seventh and tenth in their class. A 2-year-old Jersey placed fifth in a field of 18. A Holstein senior yearl ing finished ninth out the 25 entries, while a 2-year-old Holstein placed 11th in a field of 28, In addition, the Aggies entered a Jersey cow in the Milking Derby. The cows were milked twice a day for three days. Entrants with the high est dollar value of milk for their breed won the competition. A&M’s Jersey captured her class by producing 55 pounds of milk a day with four percent butterfat. In over all competition, she placed sixth out of 24 competitors. The $275 pre mium she won helped defray costs to Dairy Science Club members on the State Fair trip. Dr. Chris Woelfel, the club’s adviser, said the exhibitors followed a rigorous preparation schedule to ready the animals and themselves for the contest. In September the cattle were selected from the A&M Dairy Cattle Center herd to compete at tbe State Fair. They were housed individually to receive special care until show time. Every day, two club members cleaned stalls, fed, washed and prac ticed showing the animals until the night before the competition. Woelfel was pleased with the com petitors’ results because “the exhibi tors had little, if any, show ring ex perience. They had a lot of enthusiasm and worked real hard. I’m very proud of them, ” save which women are becoming in volved in agriculture. Female en rollment in high school vocational agriculture is rapidly increasing. In a recent agricultural education workshop conference, sponsored by A&M’s Collegiate FFA, high school students, parents and teachers eva luated the attitudes and problems facing women who anticipate careers in vocational agriculture. The majority of parents and stu dents at the conference felt that women are making slow but steady progress in agricultural teaching professions. Most of the students be lieved that women are just as qual- ifed and capable of handling jobs in agriculture as male teachers in the same positions. One problem discussed at the con ference, which women agriculture teachers have encountered, was acceptance by male counterparts in school departments. Neason said she has found three main attitudes to ward women. She said there are those who accept a qualified woman teacher with no problem. Then there are those individuals who are reluctant to accept a woman in the beginning, but who give them a fair chance by listening and trying to work out problems. Neason said the other attitude is that women do not have a place in agriculture, and nev er will have. Janet Golub, a graduate of Cornell University in New York, is currently attending TAMU. Golub, who taught vocational agriculture in Ver mont for one year, said she encoun tered some of the same acceptance conflicts as the only woman in a five- person department. Golub said the teachers were unsure at first, but eventually accepted her as she proved to be qualifed and competent in handling the job. Another Stephen F. Austin High School teacher, Sue Rodgers, gradu ated from Texas A&M in agricultural education. Rogers said she found problems during job interviews, and at one point was told that women were just not hired to teach agricul tural courses. She proved, however, that this is not the case and is now teaching a vocational edcuation hor ticulture course for handicapped stu dents. A high school vo-ag teacher in League City, Cindy Schnuriger,said she had difficulty during her own high school years in convincing counselors that she wanted a career in agriculture education. However, Schnuriger entered Texas A&M and is now teaching pro duction agriculture. Schnuriger said she and male members of her de partment are presently working together toward creating activities which will help involve more high school girls in agricultural projects. They plan to experiment in team teaching of various subjects, such as farm shop. Brown, who helped encourage Neason toward that first teaching position, said he feels that a greater percentage of women will enter into the teaching profession in the future, with the majority of male students becoming involved in agribusiness or returning to the home ranch. He said, “There are prejudices in any kind of new practice. However, I think that these problems will work themselves out because there always has been and will continue to be a demand for competent teachers in agriculture, both male and female.”