Three factors were at play in deciding on this Friday Footnote.
First, March is Women’s History Month. Every year, March is designated as Women’s History Month by presidential proclamation. This month is set aside to honor women’s contributions in American history. So, I wanted to recognize a woman in this Footnote.
Second, the invasion of Ukraine by Russian is in the news and on our minds daily. This is the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.
Third, GLAG 2022 had/has numerous activities occurring in March and for the rest of the year. GLAG is the Global Learning in Agriculture community also known as the Global Teach Ag Network. You might want to participate in some of their activities this year.
The woman being recognized in this Footnote is Sarah Lindsay Schmidt. Very few people today know of her. She was well known in agricultural education circles in the 1930s and 1940s. She grew up in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1900. She taught English at Sterling High School in Illinois for several years and eventually ended up at Colorado State University where she taught English for seventeen years. In a future Friday Footnote, we will provide much more information about her and reveal her connection to agricultural education and the FFA.
Figure 1. Sarah Lindsay Schmidt
Now for the Rest of the Story
During the formative years of agricultural education and the FFA the American Farm Youth magazine was the primary vehicle to reach out to the nation’s agricultural youth (in 2018 this magazine was the focus of a Friday Footnote). Each issue featured a guest editorial from a prominent American such as the USDA Secretary of Agriculture, presidents of agricultural companies such as John Deere and Firestone Tire and the list goes on.
In the May 1943 issue of the American Farm Youth, at the midpoint of World War II, the guest editorial was written by Sarah Lindsay Schmidt. Given the current conflict in Europe, her message then needs to be repeated today. Here is what she wrote in her guest editorial:
What I am about to say is not, I am afraid, an editorial at all. It is merely an account of a dream. Nevertheless I welcome this opportunity to tell you of it because I believe that dreams are the source from which spring nearly all the worthwhile accomplishments of life, and because never before in its history has the world had such need of the fulfillment of dreams like mine. Perhaps you already share it. If not, I am hoping you will. It is far more important that you should have this dream than I. For you belong to the generation which can carry it out; I to the one which no longer has many years ahead for active work. That is why as I dream, my heart and hope and faith are centered upon you.
I was not asleep when I first experienced this dream of mine. I was wide awake, listening to a speaker on the platform of the big city auditorium in Kansas City during the 1938 convention of the Future Farmers of America. I do not remember the man’s name. His remarks were brief; he had but a few minutes to tell of the work he had been doing. I am not sure now in just what countries he had been carrying it on. I think it was in Albania and in Greece; it may have been in Poland, or in Romania, or in some other agricultural country of old pre-war Europe. The place does not greatly matter. What does matter is that in a section of the world where the great majority of the people were peasants, earning a bare substance through long laborious days of work upon the land, he was organizing boys into groups of Future Farmers. Of our agricultural methods, of our up-to-date equipment for work, of our standards of living, of our educational opportunities for the development of self reliant manhood, these boys knew almost nothing. But they were pathetically eager to learn. They have a long, long way to go before attaining the intelligent self reliance of American boys. But they had assets that promised well for the future; eagerness to learn; willingness to work; great admiration for the Future Farmers of America and for the ideals for which the Future Farmers of America stood. Toward these ideals the less fortunate boys were only beginning to grope. But through them they hoped one day to attain and to help to establish in their own countries the principles of upright democratic citizenship and national leadership. It was a far vision, but a magnificent worthwhile one.
What has become of it under the ruthless crushing of Axis demons? Does it still live and burn, hidden deep in the hearts of these few foreign Future Farmers of pre-global war days. If so, are they not, even more than in former times, turning their starved faces toward America in the hopes of future help? One grows heartsick at the thought of where these boys with whom the speaker worked may be in the present-day world, if they still live at all. What that man started, what those few lads, whom he had the chance to reach, were beginning to grasp with such eager, hopeful enthusiasm is one more of the forces for good that the ruthless bestiality of the aggressor nations has temporarily smashed.
I use the word, temporarily, with deliberate intent. For I have full faith that “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.”
We hear good people talk much these soul-searing days of the war’s aftermath, of all the huge problems, that lie beyond victory in this colossal struggle in which all mankind is now engaged, of rebuilding life and human happiness in a better, freer world. Not infrequently some of these same good people speak of this task of rebuilding as almost impossible of accomplishment. With me any such spirit of defeatism vanishes when I think of the Future Farmers of America. For I believe in rural life. I believe in boys and the leaven they can work in any society. I believe in the Future Farmers of America and the principles of democracy and self-sustaining, public-spirited manhood for which they stand. Out of the soil, and out of such people as the Future Farmers of America, trained to work on that soil on sound economic principles, trained equally to serve their fellow men, much good can come. So I dream of the Future Farmers of America one day carrying to other boys of the now prostrate and starving lands, the knowledge, the training, and the ideals that have given America its freedom and its privileges. I know of no better organization to help in such teaching than the Future Farmers. I know of no better soil in which to plant its seeds than in the rural youth of other lands. I believe the day will come when the Future Farmers of America will do it, some of them perhaps in person, the others in example and support. Through the inspiration of the leadership they can help to develop in Future Farmers of Albania, of Greece, of Poland, of many other nations, can eventually come a generous contribution toward the building of the future of a better, safer, happier world.
This is my dream. Is it too wild a one? Too difficult of attainment? Or is it one that you, as a Future Farmer of America, are going to live to help make a reality of some future, happier time?
Some Closing Remarks
You might need to read Sarah’s essay very slowly a second time to fully comprehend the powerful message that is as relevant today as it was in 1943.
Did you know there is a Future Farmers of Ukraine. The Future Farmers of Ukraine (FFU) is a non-governmental (public) youth organization, which trains youth aged 14 to 18 years, teaches leadership, personal growth and career success in the agrarian sector. It was established in 2016 by the Ukrainian Agrarian Council.
Olena Yaroshynska, principal of the Ukrainian Agrarian Lyceum is the FFU national coordinator. She said “We weren’t able to integrate FFU with the high schools across Ukraine, so we created our own private establishment. We began by creating chapters in the regions where farmers and agribusinesses were willing to support our youth. We get help from the agribusinesses in each area, who help let our youth know about FFU” (quote from the University of Missouri CAFRN News).
The Ukrainian Agrarian Lyceum is an academic institution for sophomore and juniors in the Ukraine who are interested in education in agriculture. It was established in 2018. It reminds me of an area vocational school or career center in the United States.
In 2019 thirteen FFU members, teachers and a farmer attended the state FFA convention in Missouri. They were hosted by the Agricultural Education and Leadership program at the University of Missouri. The FFA members also visited several schools and agricultural businesses in the area. They exchanged flags with the Missouri FFA.
Figure 2. Members of the Future Farmers of Ukraine interact with University of Missouri students and faculty. Photo from the University of Missouri CAFRN News. May 7, 2019.
I cannot predict the outcome of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since the Future Farmers of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Agrarian Lyceum are relatively new organizations, it is highly likely that agricultural educators and FFA chapters in the United State can help them recover from the impact of the war. They may need our help.
We may be able to fulfil the dream of Sarah Lindsay Schmidt:
So I dream of the Future Farmers of America one day carrying to other boys of the now prostrate and starving lands, the knowledge, the training, and the ideals that have given America its freedom and its privileges. I know of no better organization to help in such teaching than the Future Farmers. I know of no better soil in which to plant its seeds than in the rural youth of other lands. I believe the day will come when the Future Farmers of America will do it, some of them perhaps in person, the others in example and support.
To learn more about Future Farmer Organizations around the world you might want to read an article from Dr. Jim Connors titled “The History of Future Farmer Organizations Around the World” in the 2013 Journal of Agricultural Education.