MASTER FARMER

TEACHING SMALL FARMERS MANAGEMENT

BRUCE M. LANSDALE

WESTVIEW PRESS                       1986

PART VIII

Chapter 4: Dynamic Training Centers (Cont)

• What leads to excellence in an institution?
• What attributes should schools try to develop?
• Can the staff of institutions be both compassionate and businesslike?

 

STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE

According to a Middle Eastern proverb, “The fish starts smelling from the head and the rosebush from the highest rosebud.” Although everyone working in a training program should aim for high levels of excellence, the inspiration for a school must begin with the top administrator. If he does not demand excellence of himself, his department heads, and his teachers, then they in turn will not require it of their employees or of the students. Training centers are the home and training ground for farmers and young people. If they are exposed to an atmosphere of excellence at school, they will tend to take it with them when they leave. The staff of an institution must tangibly express the values that it is attempting to inspire in the trainees rather than conceiving of the school as a place that is preparing them for a future occupation unrelated to their present environment. The sentence “Education is living, not preparation for living” is engraved at the entrance to the library of the University of Rochester.

• These same high standards prevail at ISA in the Dominican Republic. One of the difficulties in vocational education is to set high standards for the capable students while also being supportive of those less motivated.

Excellence in an institution has little value unless it percolates down to the students themselves. The staff must ensure high levels of competency among trainees through their own activity in accordance with the principle, “I do, I understand.” At the Panamerican Agricultural School in Zamorano in Honduras (Escuela Agricola Panamericana) a sense of the work ethic is unmistakable, the students and staff know that in the practical departments they are expected to work, not just to learn.

• In such an atmosphere students have difficulty distinguishing between learning and gainful employment.
• Working to learn is a self-centered process in which all a student’s activities lead to acquiring either knowledge or skills.
• Graduates are easily identified in Latin America by their dedication and their ability to deal with practical problems – attributes that have grown out of the habits they acquired during their training.

Throughout Switzerland the agricultural schools share the same work ethic. The students obviously take pride in the high quality of their achievement, manifested in the cleanliness and order of their shops, in the way their farm operations are organized, and the thoroughness of their farm management studies.

Teaching excellence demands a flexible, innovative approach. Over 15 years the Farm School has organized four new programs, each of which has proved to be increasingly effective. One of the most exciting aspects of the agricultural school at Emmeloord, Holland, is its regenerative spirit. Both the farmers and instructors tend to be unusually receptive to change and innovation. This openmindedness results in part because their school is new, built on recently drained lands.

It is vital that institutions involved in development work retain staff members who think in terms of the “why” of their programs and not just the “what” and the “how.” The great US land-grant colleges and universities have kept abreast of the needs of farmers because of the innovative spirit of many of their staff. Key faculty members at such schools as the University of California at Davis, Cornell, and Michigan State University are specifically concerned with creativity, problem solving, and innovation in dealing with farmers’ problems.

A sense of order and orderliness can definitely contribute to the feeling of excellence in an institution. The Indian Meridian Vocational School had an almost intimidating sense of order. Every part of the school was color coded, so that a visitor only needed to follow a particular color to reach a destination. Each shop, laboratory, and classroom had its own rationally determined floor plan, and each laboratory submitted a daily report on lost tools. It was impressive that a school with such enormous resources was at the same time so meticulous about the loss of even the smallest tool. Maintaining control of facilities is a difficult aspect of managing training centers in developing countries because order and orderliness are not always valued very highly in a particular culture.

Attention to orderliness is very apparent at two schools operated by the Silesian Fathers in the Dominican Republic and in Ireland at the An Grianan, near Dublin, which is operated by the Irish Women’s Association. Cropped lawns, carefully kept gardens, neatly painted doors and windows, spotless walkways free of paper scraps and cigarette or candy wrappers, and attractive entrance ways to all three institutions created a favourable impression.

Long-range planning and budgeting also play a role in creating a sense of excellence. CIAT and the Indian Meridian School each have a five-year plan. Larger institutions like Michigan State University and the University of California at Davis use both five- and ten-year development plans. Long-range planning is equally essential for relatively small institutions such as ISA and the Farm School, which maintain such plans both for their school and for the outreach programs in the surrounding areas.

SENSE OF COMMUNITY

A sense of community among staff and trainees and the recognition of this by outsiders are at the heart of a successful rural development program. A definition of community, attributed to Peter Pongis, former general secretary of the National Foundation of Greece, describes this sense as “the area circumscribed by the sound of the village bell, calling the faithful to worship, to a baptism, a wedding or a funeral, where the happiness of one is the happiness of all, the sadness of one is the sadness of all, and the secret of one is the secret of all.” This feeling of shared happiness and concern between staff and trainees builds a lasting bond between them and reinforces the educational programs.

The campus of the Farm School outside Thessaloniki has the appearance of a village, and both staff and students feel themselves to be a part. The visitor can hardly fail to notice this at An Grianan (which means “on the sunny side of the house”). Ann Powers, the director, suggested some essential requirements for effective management that reinforce this feeling:

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  1. Comfortable classrooms and facilities.
  2. Good food served in a friendly manner.
  3. Hospitable and clean sleeping quarters (single, if possible).
  4. Familiar symbols, such as county names, for identification.
  5. An introductory session so that everyone feels welcome.
  6. A hostess for each course to act as housemother to the group.
  7. Name tags for identification.
  8. Activities for every evening of the week, such as Monday, introductions; Tuesday, lecture; Wednesday, free night; Thursday, recreation; and so on.
  9. A center that operates efficiently without losing its friendly atmosphere.
  10. A staff that makes the trainees feel at home.

A special dimension of warmth – expressed by the Silesian Fathers in the Dominican Republic as bondad, by the Greeks as kalosini, and the Tanzanians as ujamaa – adds immeasurably to the feeling of community. The more the trainees sense this the more they are able to relate to the center, which motivates them to return for further training. Warmth and affection pervade the whole campus at the Mtwara Agricultural School in Tanzania, a training center in one of the poorest agricultural areas in the world.

• A positive approach to discipline by all levels of the staff, which emphasizes merit rather than weakness, strengthens a sense of community in a school.
• This approach is used by the director of the Warrentown Agricultural School in Ireland, who thinks of himself more as a parent to his boys than as a teacher.
• A problem-oriented rather than person-oriented administration is an important factor in avoiding conflict within the educational community. Staff members should learn to concentrate on problems that arise and to play down personal animosities.
• It is virtually impossible for a staff of clock-watchers to create a community feeling in training centers that necessarily operate 24 hours a day.

There appears to be a complete sense of 24-hour involvement by the Silesian Fathers at their centers. They act as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters to the students. The students know this, and the institution reflects it. At the Panamerican Agricultural School in Honduras the director and staff live on campus and are therefore always available to the students.

ATMOSPHERE OF COMPASSION

A faculty with a sense of compassion, which shares the concerns and problems of the trainees, is an indispensable aspect of a good training center. At the Farm School the students feel that they are an integral part of a community that is truly interested in them and concerned about their welfare and personal problems.

Theo Litsas, the Greek associate director of the Farm School, was for many years the heart of the institution. His greatest asset was that he was totally involved with every person associated with the school – staff members, trainees, and visitors. When he was killed in an automobile accident, a Greek trustee pointed out that Litsas had brought a lightness of touch and a sense of humor to the campus – both of which added an extra dimension to outstanding development programs.

Compassion is also manifested in an organization’s concern for the whole individual: the mind, body, and the spirit. Anyone who has visited a good Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) program anywhere in the world has observed how important it is to cater to all aspects of the human being. A staff member of the Farm School resigned after three years. When asked why he was leaving he replied that the Farm School was too much like a perpetual YMCA summer camp program. This is perhaps one of the greatest compliments that the school has ever received.

Training rural people to become capable managers is not an easy task: It involves more than just teaching them the elements of leadership and related skills. Dynamic institutions require leaders that give them a clear direction and demand high standards of excellence. At the same time they must create a sense of community that leaves the trainee no doubt about the deep individual concern of the staff members. Only through personal example can the administration and staff combine these qualities in the management of institutions seeking to train master farmers.

PART TWO: TRAINING THE MANAGERS