And that was certainly the case when 84 Auckland secondary school teachers from 41 schools were taken on a bus tour to a range of agricultural and horticultural operations around Pukekohe.
Accompanying them was Leeann Morgan, Young Farmers’ school engagement manager, based in Hamilton, one of two positions funded through the Red Meat Profit Partnership.
“We get a lot of repeat customers,” she said.
“They go away excited about the rural sector.”
The Teachers’ Day Out trip included visits to an organic dairy farm, a dairy goat farm and T and G Global’s tomato growing operation at Harrisville. The big agricultural picture was supplied by Dr Jacqueline Rowarth and Auckland’s deputy mayor Bill Cashmore talked about the value of the primary industry to the regional economy.
“Teachers can be a critical audience,” Morgan said.
“We’re updating their impressions of the primary industries and smashing some of the perceptions they may have.”
Farmers can talk first hand about sustainable management and can correct negative images quickly.
The tours have been running for the past four years, initially just in Auckland and Christchurch, but were expanded to other regions in 2017.
Last year they were held in Auckland, Raglan, Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Invercargill with 300 teachers attending.
On the Pukekohe trip there was a mixture of science, business studies, economics, accounting, food technology, biology, horticulture, maths, technology and English teachers and some careers advisers as well.
But the emphasis now is very much on mainstream teachers who can pass the knowledge they gain to up to 150 students a day.
The information they learn on the tours can be incorporated into the curriculum in many ways so food production can be used as a context for teaching many different subjects. Classroom resources are provided at no charge to download.
Morgan also goes into schools with lessons on farming-oriented subject matter.
When it comes to choosing what properties to visit, once the main focus is decided, showing something a little crazy is a good way of getting farming’s message across.
“The more unusual it is the more teenagers love it,” she said.
“They like quirky.”
On the Pukekohe trip there was strong interest from the teachers in career opportunities for students and the paths they can point out to them.
T and G Global already has 20 staff available as speakers to talk to students about the range of jobs available from growing and picking the crop to more technical roles.
To get the message across at an even earlier age buses are also funded to take about 100 primary school classes a year on farm visits. In one instance, to see the whole production process through, their next visit was to a butcher.
Morgan, whose parents are sheep and beef farmers near Dargaville, has been in her role for the last three years.
She intended to be a teacher and after training taught economics and science in Auckland then at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton for 18 years. She completed a post-graduate diploma in agribusiness in 2015 and when the job came up she could quickly see it combined the two areas she most enjoys.
“I’m in awe of farmers,” she said.
“But I really miss being in the classroom.”
So with her twin 14-year-old sons starting high school this year she’ll return to teaching at Hamilton Boys High School. They spend every school holidays at their grandparents’ farm and might well look at agribusiness careers, she believes.
Her colleague, Mary Holmes, based in Christchurch, will carry on the good work there.
Contact to arrange the visits initially went through the TeenAg and Agrikids programmes or through advertisements in the Education Gazette.
“But now it’s mostly word of mouth,” Morgan said.
“It’s sort of snowballed. We take them to see the best in the business. Why wouldn’t they be excited?”
