opportunity NOT's

As you all know, Matt is currently finishing up the requirements for his agriculture teaching license. He will be wrapping up his student teaching next week. I am very proud of him and he has been working very hard this spring to learn and develop teaching skills.

Now comes the search to find such a special teaching job in the area. It has been quite a challenge and I can already tell the competition is going to be tough, but Matt has a lot to offer. The local school system has opened 3 new high schools in the past 10 years, one of which is due to open next fall. Did you know that not a single one of them offers an agriculture program. How sad. Last night Matt and I attended the FFA banquet for the school he has been at these past few months. The kids had done really well. They spoke well in front of a crowd of 300 people (something that would have scared me to death in high school), and many of them received awards for their achievements throughout the year. I know I mentioned it earlier, but Matt assisted with the junior parliamentary procedure team that won 1^st in the regional competition and advances to state in a few weeks. I saw them hand out more scholarships than I ever saw awarded at a single basketball banquet my entire 4 years of High School. I had already figured out that studying, and doing well in school was going to be the only way I was going to get where I wanted to be. So it doesn’t surprise me that the last half of my senior season, I took a backseat to a younger player that “wanted it more” (and she did). Anyhow… the administrators for these new schools have told Matt they do not intend on starting agriculture programs. It just seems terrible to me that the students at these schools won’t even have a chance at the scholarships that are out there. If they had the programs, it would increase their odds of going to college and getting a degree. I don’t know if you watch the news but there have been a few changes in our economy. I’m sure that increasing the odds of students getting scholarships would be appreciated by some, but currently the don’t even have the opportunity. I know I also have my husbands employment in mind, so I might be a little bias. But hey, with all those local kids in the NFL, NBA, and getting great college scholarships then graduating with degrees, there’s little to be concerned about. Right? I’m just staying they may want to cover their bases.