Butchering tomorrow for students

[NamVet_Farmer44]

The kids from the local highschool will be coming down to the farm tomorrow to watch me butcher a few hogs...I think it's great that the principal will let them come down here and watch how the process really happens...yeah, there's always 1 or 2 kids that are grossed out by the process, but it shows them what has to happened for them to get food on their table...some of the highschool kids are working part-time at my place for their ag co-op work release program and they've been great workers...It puts a smile on my face to be around them, they are so eager and willing to learn about farming, and you just don't see that as much these days...some of them might not be the best farmers in the world, but as I told their FFA teacher, if they are willing to learn, then i'm willing to try to teach them...there's no substitute for experience, and there's just some things the kids can't learn about farming while sitting in their FFA classroom

Do any of yall have tours and what not at your farms for the local highschools and FFA? The teachers and principal really appreciate it, and I appreciate seeing them kids get just a little more interested in farming at least

 

[Just Curious]

I was the director of a youth camp for a couple of years and we did something similar...
As part of their week at camp, we would kill a pig, butcher it and deep pit it for there grand finale dinner... The night the parents came to pick them up...
Of course there were the 10%... But as a whole, it was a very successful part of their week at camp....
You had mentioned work release program... I am assuming that this falls into the community service program through the courts????
In the town that we lived in, the Juvenile Delinquents (JD) fell into two categories... Those that violated another person's property and those that violated another person... In property issues they were simply ordered to pay restitution (At their convenence). Violation of a person got them a trip to Juvenile Hall.... But we didn't have any middle ground...
So I pitched the idea of starting a work program with the County and they went for it.
It was an interesting venture. Having spent too many years as one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, discipline was still a way of life for me.
When the kids came to me, I made it clear that they would address me as Mr. Lewis or Sir... And that I would address them as Mr. or Ms. so and so.....
When we went out to work, I worked along side of them... (Not the Cool Hand Luke type with a straw hat, mirrored sun-glasses, and a shotgun over the shoulder)
The results were amazing.... These kids loved it! We did some really dirty jobs and some the kids would go home and get their parents out to the worksite to show them what they had accomplished... I never had one repeat offender....
"Working" with kids is wonderfull.

 

[NamVet_Farmer44]

I was the director of a youth camp for a couple of years and we did something similar...
As part of their week at camp, we would kill a pig, butcher it and deep pit it for there grand finale dinner... The night the parents came to pick them up...
Of course there were the 10%... But as a whole, it was a very successful part of their week at camp....
You had mentioned work release program... I am assuming that this falls into the community service program through the courts????
In the town that we lived in, the Juvenile Delinquents (JD) fell into two categories... Those that violated another person's property and those that violated another person... In property issues they were simply ordered to pay restitution (At their convenence). Violation of a person got them a trip to Juvenile Hall.... But we didn't have any middle ground...
So I pitched the idea of starting a work program with the County and they went for it.
It was an interesting venture. Having spent too many years as one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, discipline was still a way of life for me.
When the kids came to me, I made it clear that they would address me as Mr. Lewis or Sir... And that I would address them as Mr. or Ms. so and so.....
When we went out to work, I worked along side of them... (Not the Cool Hand Luke type with a straw hat, mirrored sun-glasses, and a shotgun over the shoulder)
The results were amazing.... These kids loved it! We did some really dirty jobs and some the kids would go home and get their parents out to the worksite to show them what they had accomplished... I never had one repeat offender....
"Working" with kids is wonderfull.

The work release program I am talking about it just part of the childrens schooling, The ag program let's them get out of school around 11 a.m. and they just go out and work an ag-related job...at the end of every 6-weeks their FFA teacher comes and talks to me about how they have been working, how often they had been to work, and how many hours they work, then the teacher calculates it all out and gives them a grade which counts as 2 of their regular school classes...a handful of children at the highschool get out around 9:30 a.m. so they can still help out around their own farms. The principal and the schoolboard here know how important agriculture is for the children in our area, if they plan on living here their whole lives then it's either farming or driving over the mountains and back every day to get a job in the town, and that's quite a drive to make every day

 

[Jogeephus]

Yeah, we got the work program as well. I have used a few high school kids to help me out. Normally, I talk with the teacher and find one who is interested in showing a calf but doesn't exactly have the means to put it all together. I'll get him to "help" at the farm and in turn I pay him in cash, hay, feed or a discounted calf. Last year the boy who helped me won 6th place in state with one of my commercial calves. I in turn bought it back at the sale. We both were pleased.

It is a good program.