It is back to school time – that time of year when students hit the books in public, private or home schools.

According to a recent study, most students are getting plenty of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but very little in the way of economics. A report released this month based on the 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress test indicates that only 42 percent of U.S. high school seniors were considered “proficient” in economics.

“Economic reasoning is a skill that is essential to financial responsibility, both on the personal and community level,” said Harlan Day, director of the Indiana Council for Economic Education located at Purdue University.

No kidding; just look at the mess our elected officials have created with tax and monetary policy. The solution is to add agriculture to the curriculum of our schools.

Most Indiana students do not take a formal economics course until their senior year. Day said the importance of economics education cannot be understated. Yet, since social studies, like economics, is not part of the ISTEP test, it is left out of most school curriculum. The State Board of Education has plans to add social studies, which includes economics, to the ISTEP subjects. However, Day said, no funds have yet been allocated for that. My suggestion is to add agriculture to the curriculum. A study of agriculture would encompass biology, chemistry, math, history, and economics. Now critics would argue that, since very few students live on farms today, a study of agriculture is not relevant. Yet, as more and more Hoosiers are discovering, agricultural economics is very relevant to their lives and to their community.

Take, for example, the town of Claypool, Ind. This community of about 300 in Kosciusko County was slowly dying. The local school had closed, the bank had closed, and young people were not coming back to live in the area because there were no careers for them. Then, Louis Dreyfus came to town. A coordinated effort by local and state leaders landed the world’s largest soy-biodiesel production plant just outside of Claypool. Suddenly hundreds of millions of dollars were being invested in the community, and things began to change.

The plant, which was dedicated last week, will create 80 new jobs, but more importantly will purchase 50 million bushels of soybeans annually from local farmers. This will have an economic impact that will ripple across most of the northern part of the state. It will also bring hope and new vitality to this community. One young lady I spoke with had planned to move out of state after receiving her degree from Purdue. But now she has been able to come back home to start a career in her hometown by working for Dreyfus. I was also told that there are plans to reopen the school and let students get educated in their hometown. For them, agricultural
economics is a very relevant subject.

The Claypool scenario is being repeated across the Midwest – and not just with renewable fuel plants.

Food processing plants, livestock operations, and many other ag-related industries are revitalizing communities large and small. Some political leaders are beginning to realize this. At the Claypool dedication, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Lt. Governor Becky Skillman both stressed the importance of agriculture to the economic comeback of the state.

The teaching of economics is not a priority in Indiana or in most other states and neither is the teaching of agriculture. Yet, these subjects are impacting the lives and the futures of students today, a claim that geometry can’t make. Inculcating some agriculture along with those “Three Rs” will better educate the students of today and the future leaders they will become.

Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.

This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.