Thursday, March 22, 2012
Real education!
News from WSU:
Perfect in every way.
(1) Students get their hands directly on the subject matter, which is REAL EDUCATION. Lectures and theory may have a place, but the plain fact is: Hands learn, eyes don't.
(2) Along with the major benefit of muscle-learning, these students also gain from working with soil, which will make them happier and smarter.
(3) The project depends financially on selling the product, which is also the subject matter. Disconnected and securitized taxpayers are presumably supporting salaries and overhead, but without sales the project can't continue. Closed-loop operation! If the customers don't like the product, improvement is needed. That's real research.
(4) Students in other subjects participate in designing the farm, thus striking a blow against tunnel-vision specialization.
= = = = =
Organic agriculture involves a lot of Green quackery, but the basic idea is
unquestionable. We all have to eat, and something is wrong with the typical American diet. Though I suspect lack of exercise is a bigger factor than diet, restoring the full natural content of food will undoubtedly help.
This picture, though completely unrelated to WSU, illustrates the problem.
It's from a 1992 TV news blooper reel. Old dude was probably born in 1920 and grew up on home-cooked food, sun and exercise. Reporter was probably born in 1970 and grew up on Big Macs, no sun, no exercise. Both are solidly typical of their respective generations. [Incidentally, the blooper itself didn't involve these two; immediately after this frame the cameraman tripped and fell, and the rest of the shot is mainly his shoes.]
WSU offered the first organic agriculture major in the country. The program now has almost 30 major students, said John Reganold, regents professor of soil science and agro-ecology. The organic farm provides a working laboratory for those students.
“It’s really outgrown itself,” Reganold said. “That’s partially why we need the new land: to continue to carry out the day-to-day mission of the farm.”
Reganold said the money is coming from efforts by the WSU Foundation to find donors and sponsors.
Construction on the new site, including roads, greenhouses and some croplands, could begin as early as this summer, said Laurie Mooney, a graduate student in landscape architecture who helped design the expansion.
...
The farm lost its operational grant money when Colen-Peck graduated ... The funding solution was a community supported agriculture system, as well as weekly income from a Wednesday farmers market in Pullman. A community supported agriculture system provides paying members with packed boxes of produce each week during the growing season. For the WSU Organic Farm, that season is from May through October and supports approximately 300 members per week.
“Sometimes we don’t have enough membership spots for everyone at the height of demand,” Jaeckel said.
Perfect in every way.
(1) Students get their hands directly on the subject matter, which is REAL EDUCATION. Lectures and theory may have a place, but the plain fact is: Hands learn, eyes don't.
(2) Along with the major benefit of muscle-learning, these students also gain from working with soil, which will make them happier and smarter.
(3) The project depends financially on selling the product, which is also the subject matter. Disconnected and securitized taxpayers are presumably supporting salaries and overhead, but without sales the project can't continue. Closed-loop operation! If the customers don't like the product, improvement is needed. That's real research.
(4) Students in other subjects participate in designing the farm, thus striking a blow against tunnel-vision specialization.
= = = = =
Organic agriculture involves a lot of Green quackery, but the basic idea is
unquestionable. We all have to eat, and something is wrong with the typical American diet. Though I suspect lack of exercise is a bigger factor than diet, restoring the full natural content of food will undoubtedly help.
This picture, though completely unrelated to WSU, illustrates the problem.
It's from a 1992 TV news blooper reel. Old dude was probably born in 1920 and grew up on home-cooked food, sun and exercise. Reporter was probably born in 1970 and grew up on Big Macs, no sun, no exercise. Both are solidly typical of their respective generations. [Incidentally, the blooper itself didn't involve these two; immediately after this frame the cameraman tripped and fell, and the rest of the shot is mainly his shoes.]
Labels: the broken circle
¶ 4:57 AM
