On the evening of April 1st, I found myself cordially greeted by the teacher and chef in charge of the culinary program at the Regional Career Technical Center, housed in the same building as the Dover High School. He invited us to set our things down at our table, labeled "Life Sciences," and then meander back to the kitchen to receive some tasty hors d'oeuvres prepared by students. I filled my plate with bruschetta, pita bread with hummus and swiss chard grown in the school greenhouse, a risotto corn ball topped with what I assumed was pesto, and a spring roll, exchanging mutually hospitable smiles and murmurs with the chefs-in-training standing beside their creations.
I took a seat at the Life Sciences table with two Master Gardeners, Anthony and Jacqueline, and the horticulture and aquaculture teacher, Heather Fabbri. For the next half hour, we exchanged introductory conversation and suggested ideas about how to improve Heather's horticultural operation. We listened to Louise Paradis, the director of Dover's Regional Career Technical Center, speak about the Center's programs, students' achievements, and the goals of our meeting.
Twice a year, the Career Technical Center at Dover High School holds an advisory board meeting with students, faculty, and industry professionals to address the quality of its technical programs and electives. Program facilities and curricula are exposed to fuel a dialogue between teachers, administrators, and professionals. Ultimately, the Career Technical Center would like to ensure that the education they provide mirrors as closely as possible the conditions that students will find in the field when they graduate. This year, Dover High School and the Technical Center are up for renovations funded by the state and town which makes these talks all the more important.
After Paradis's talk, Heather, Jacqueline, Anthony and I went down to the greenhouse to discuss improvements that could be made to the facilities and curriculum in the future. The horticulture classroom is something like your typical high school science room, with experiment stations all around the perimeter and typical veneered particle board tables for the students to occupy. This is where the resemblance ends, for instead of beakers and bunsen burners on the lab benches, there are fish tanks occupied by colorful ichthyes, and the classroom continues beyond closed doors into a tropical greenhouse, a propagation greenhouse, and even to a garden and (sadly) currently collapsed high tunnel.
The possibilities for a facility like this are enormous. Consulting professionals for advice on these facilities is a wise move, and I hope that acting on their advice will be inexpensive enough that it is feasible to heed. With facilities like this, the question of curriculum arises; do we want to teach students how to perform simple agricultural tasks like transplanting seedlings and spreading compost, or do we want to teach more complex biological science and encourage them to conduct experiments investigating better agricultural techniques? Education about agriculture should not be about breaking down processes regularly carried out by cheap labor, such as harvesting, planting, and weeding. It should be about producing critical thinking individuals who are interested in confronting the environmental and nutritional challenges of today's agriculture. This progress that we hope to make in the coming years must cover many avenues; plant and animal research, community organization, utilization of food, and cultivation and irrigation practices, to name a few. We must push not only for improved facilities, but for improved curriculum which addresses the appropriate goal for the good of the planet and all organisms on it.
One of the programs offered at the Career Technical Center is Fire Science.
Twice a year, the Career Technical Center at Dover High School holds an advisory board meeting with students, faculty, and industry professionals to address the quality of its technical programs and electives. Program facilities and curricula are exposed to fuel a dialogue between teachers, administrators, and professionals. Ultimately, the Career Technical Center would like to ensure that the education they provide mirrors as closely as possible the conditions that students will find in the field when they graduate. This year, Dover High School and the Technical Center are up for renovations funded by the state and town which makes these talks all the more important.
The entrance to the school.
After Paradis's talk, Heather, Jacqueline, Anthony and I went down to the greenhouse to discuss improvements that could be made to the facilities and curriculum in the future. The horticulture classroom is something like your typical high school science room, with experiment stations all around the perimeter and typical veneered particle board tables for the students to occupy. This is where the resemblance ends, for instead of beakers and bunsen burners on the lab benches, there are fish tanks occupied by colorful ichthyes, and the classroom continues beyond closed doors into a tropical greenhouse, a propagation greenhouse, and even to a garden and (sadly) currently collapsed high tunnel.
Two of the many dozens of fish in the fishtanks in the
horticulture and aquaculture classroom.
Some fresh spring strawberry growth out in the garden.
The possibilities for a facility like this are enormous. Consulting professionals for advice on these facilities is a wise move, and I hope that acting on their advice will be inexpensive enough that it is feasible to heed. With facilities like this, the question of curriculum arises; do we want to teach students how to perform simple agricultural tasks like transplanting seedlings and spreading compost, or do we want to teach more complex biological science and encourage them to conduct experiments investigating better agricultural techniques? Education about agriculture should not be about breaking down processes regularly carried out by cheap labor, such as harvesting, planting, and weeding. It should be about producing critical thinking individuals who are interested in confronting the environmental and nutritional challenges of today's agriculture. This progress that we hope to make in the coming years must cover many avenues; plant and animal research, community organization, utilization of food, and cultivation and irrigation practices, to name a few. We must push not only for improved facilities, but for improved curriculum which addresses the appropriate goal for the good of the planet and all organisms on it.
~Anne Howard
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