Many of the state focused Friday Footnotes follow a similar pattern. We look at the early days of agricultural education in the state and then identify some interesting or outstanding programs. This week we will journey to Michigan to start learning about agricultural education in that state. However, we are going to break the mold and start with something a little unique for agricultural education – apprenticeships.
In the late 1930s an apprenticeship program in vocational agriculture was started in Michigan. Apprenticeships are normally associated with the trades such as plumbing or electrical work but not agriculture. So, let’s learn about the Michigan Vocational Agriculture apprenticeship program.
Apprenticeships and the Michigan State Plan for Agriculture
In the December 1941 issue of The Agricultural Education Magazine Walter Rawson, the agriculture teacher in Hillside, Michigan wrote an article titled “Apprentice Training as Related to Establishment in Farming. ” In the opening paragraph he writes (p. 110):
Apprentice training in agriculture has lagged as compared to industry, not because it is new, for it is as old as agriculture itself. The only way of learning farming thru the ages has been employment on a farm with the father, other relative, or neighbor.
Rawson goes on to state (p. 110). “At Hillsdale we believe in apprentice training in agriculture as set up by the State Board of Control for Vocational Education. The youth is apprenticed to a successful farmer who is willing to give some of his time in teaching and supervising farming skills.”
At Hillside the target audience for the apprentice program was out-of- school farm youth in the 16-18 year old age group. Rawson describes the success of the first five students to complete the two-year apprenticeship and concludes (p. 111), “If one can judge from the results in a single community, an apprentice-training program can be made to work. And as we at Hillside see the program today in its relation to establishment in farming, it is of value.”
Figure 1. From The Agricultural Education Magazine, December 1941.
The article by Rawson appears to be part of a series of articles about the Michigan Vocational Agriculture apprenticeship program. Two months earlier (September, 1941) Harriett Carr, Supervisor of Publications for the Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational Education wrote an article for The Agricultural Education Magazine titled “Apprenticeships in Agriculture.” Some of the statements in her article include (p. 54-55):
- The apprentice-training program in agriculture offers an opportunity to the youth who has a desire to make farming his life work.
- The first program of apprentice training in agriculture in the United States was …inaugurated in 1938 by George H. Fern, director of the Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational Education.
- To be eligible, prospective apprentices in the Michigan program must be sixteen years of age or over. The plan includes boys who are high school graduates, boys who left school prior to graduation, those who have never attended high school, and those in high school attending the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades…
- The apprentices enter into an agreement between school, employers, and parents which covers the working arrangements, school experiences, and living conditions which shall be obtained during either a two-year or three-year apprentice program…
- While the plan does not specify the wages which shall be paid apprentices, it assumes that they shall receive board, room, washing, mending, and some remuneration.
- A minimum of one hundred hours of related instruction is required each year.
- It is recommended that a local advisory committee assist in the selection and placement of the candidates for apprentice training…
Carr cites Bulletin No. 253 “Apprentice Training in Agriculture” published by the Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational Education as the source of her information. At the time she wrote the article four Michigan communities had started apprenticeship programs in agriculture – Hillsdale, Lapeer, Big Rapids and Dowagiac.
In the History of Agricultural Education of Less than College Grade in the United States the Michigan chapter mentions the apprentice program. In 1938 the state developed a new plan for agricultural education. One component of this plan was the inclusion of an apprentice-training program in agriculture. Stimson and Lathrop write (1942, p. 228):
Apprentice training in vocational agriculture had been conducted in three schools with 21 students indentured in training. The major objective of apprentice training in farming had been defined as “to provide for progressive establishment of a person in farming.” An apprentice is a person 16 years of age or over who has entered upon an organized program of training in vocational agriculture with a written agreement approved by his employer, parents, and local school authorities, said agreement to provide for his employment in an approved program of farming, accompanied by at least 4 hours per week of organized instruction.
While I have no proof that the Michigan apprentice program served as a model for any other state or country, the following article in The Kalamazoo Gazette in 1940 about apprentice farming in France caught my attention.
Figure 3. From The Kalamazoo Gazette, November 26, 1940.
Concluding Remarks
The Michigan apprentice program in agriculture appears to have been successful but the outbreak of World War II undoubtedly resulted in a pause or end of the program. Many Michigan agriculture teachers and young men went off to the war disrupting agricultural education programs. After the war, the GI Bill was used to train returning veterans in the art and science of farming. The operating procedures for the Michigan Vo Ag apprentice program were somewhat duplicated in the GI Veterans Training program in agriculture.
So do we need apprenticeship programs in agriculture today? There are some programs out there such as the Sustainable Vegetable Production Registered Apprenticeship and the Boots on the Ground: North Carolina’s Veteran Farmer Registered Apprenticeship offered by the Center for Environment Farming Systems in North Carolina. There are apprenticeship programs across the nation such as the Rock Bottom Ranch ACES program in Colorado. A quick Google search will reveal many more apprenticeship opportunities in agriculture.
In the 1950s and 1960s it was common to find articles in The Agricultural Education Magazine about placing students on farms to gain practical farming experience. One such article published in 1953 titled “Supervised Farming Terminology” advocated “Placement for Farm Experience.” Another such article was Placement for Farm Work Experience in the July 1960 issue.
The profession slowly agreed that placement in farming and in other agricultural fields was a bonafide type of Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). Later the national FFA started recognizing student placement experiences in agriculture with proficiency awards. Over time placement as a type of SAE has become popular in agricultural education. If done correctly with placement agreements and training plans the SAE placement arrangement closely resembles the apprentice training found in Michigan in the early 1940s.