So Schlabach helped organize a school-wide event Monday that brought Edgewood High School students enrolled in Butler Tech’s Agriculture Education program to Rosa Parks. It was country meets city, she said.
The Edgewood students brought animals they’ve raised and many of them will be shown at the Butler County Fair this summer, including goats, calves, pigs, chickens and rabbits.
“This was a learning opportunity for our students,” said Rosa Parks Principal Anthony Comer. “It was very different for our kids. They aren’t used to this, man. They see these things on TV and hear about them. But seeing them in person makes it meaningful.”
Schlabach, a fifth-grade special educator teacher, said some Rosa Parks students haven’t been exposed to rural life, though they’re expected to know some farm vocabulary words on tests.
“It’s all about making connections,” she said. “Seeing things outside their city walls.”
The Edgewood students prepared lesson plans to teach the younger students about the animals, as well as plants and soils, said Kellie Beiser, agriculture education instructor.
Two Butler County Fair veterans and FFA officers, president Emily Ashcraft and vice president Jarrett Crowthers, said with business and industry dominating the workforce in urban settings, many of the Middletown students don’t have any connection to farming.
Crowthers, 15, a sophomore, said he hoped the students left with a “foundation of agriculture.”
Ashcraft, 16, a sophomore, said it’s important that the students take what they learned outside the school back into the classroom.
“For most of these kids, this is all new to them,” she said. “This helps them become more familiar with agriculture.”
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