Focusing on the History of Agricultural Education and Rural America
The National FFA Organization began allowing junior high school (middle school) students to be FFA members in 1988. This was when delegates voted to open membership to seventh and eighth graders. A special FFA degree, the Discovery degree was created Continue reading What is the Mississippi Junior FFA Association? (10/10/2025)
Did this headline from 1943 catch your attention? Recently one of my colleagues who has spent most of his life in the northern part of the country contacted me. He had never heard of a Negro State Fair. To say Continue reading The Segregated Agricultural Fairs (10/3/2025)
This week we continue our journey through MIssissippi. The three guest columnists for this Footnote are Gaea Hock, Mary Helen Lett, and Gayle Crowder Clark. They will be introduced later. My husband and I (Gaea) love to go to estate Continue reading Ahead of Their Time: The Lasting Impact of Mississippi’s Agricultural High Schools (9/26/2025)
How would you like to teach agriculture in a state where the agriculture teacher was given a home to live in rent-free? If you were to teach in Mississippi in 1914 that would be the case. The State Director of Continue reading Rent-Free Home for the Agriculture Teacher! (9/19/2025)
In last week’s Friday Footnote we learned about an FFA Safety campaign in Minnesota that focused on a kernel of corn. This week we will learn how Minnesota FFA members collected thousands and thousands of ears of corn to support a worthy Continue reading Camp Courage (9/12/2025)