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4-H
4-H is a national youth development program administered by the Cooperative Extension System under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 4-H provides educational opportunities for youth related to agriculture, STEM, healthy living, and civic engagement. The name of 4-H refers to the organization’s focus on developing four personal qualities among youth: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. The mission of 4-H is "to provide meaningful opportunities for all youth and adults to work together to create sustainable community change." 4-H is the United State’s largest youth development organization with over six million members nationwide.
4-H operates as a partnership between federal, state, and local authorities. Federal leadership is provided by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). State-level leadership is provided by each state’s Land-grant University. Local 4-H programs are facilitated through county-based Extension staff.
The foundations of 4-H began in 1902 with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs incorporated both public and private resources. 4-H was founded with the purpose of instructing rural youth in improved farming and farm-homemaking practices. By the 1970s, it was broadening its goals to cover a full range of youth, including minorities, and a wide range of life experiences.
During this time, researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. However, educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. As a result rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.
Club work began wherever a public-spirited person[who?] did something to give rural children respect for themselves and their ways of life[vague] and it is very difficult to credit one sole individual. Instances of work with rural boys and girls can be found all throughout the 19th century. In the spring of 1882, Delaware College announced a statewide corn contest for boys, in which each boy was to plant a quarter of an acre, according to instructions sent out from the college, and cash prizes, certificates, and subscriptions to the American Agriculturist were rewarded.
In 1892, in an effort to improve the Kewaunee County Fair, Ransom Asa Moore, the president of the Kewaunee Fair, the Agricultural Society, and Superintendent of the Kewaunee County Schools in Wisconsin, organized a "youth movement", which he called "Young People's Contest Clubs", in which he solicited the support of 6,000 young farm folks to produce and exhibit fruits, vegetables, and livestock. The fairs were quite successful. In 1904, while working for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and trying to repeat what he had accomplished in Kewaunee County over a decade before but with different intentions, "Daddy" R.A. Moore convinced R.H. Burns, then Superintendent of Schools of Richland County, Wisconsin, to have the Richland County Boys and Girls organize and assist in a corn-project activity to help market and distribute improved seeds to the farmers in the state of Wisconsin (and beyond).
A. B. Graham began one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States. The first club was called "The Tomato Club" or the "Corn Growing Club". T.A. "Dad" Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs also in 1902. Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and, by 1912, they were called 4-H clubs. Early 4-H programs in Colorado began with youth instruction offered by college agricultural agents as early as 1910, as part of the outreach mission of the Colorado land grant institutions.
The national 4-H organization was formed in 1914, when the United States Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service of the USDA by passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, it included within the CES charter the work of various boys' and girls' clubs involved with agriculture, home economics and related subjects. The Smith-Lever Act formalized the 4-H programs and clubs that began in the midwestern region of the United States. Although different activities were emphasized for boys and girls, 4-H was one of the first youth organizations to give equal attention to both genders (cf., erstwhile Boys Clubs of America). The first appearance of the term "4-H Club" in a federal document was in "Organization and Results of Boys' and Girls' Club Work," by Oscar Herman Benson (1875–1951) and Gertrude L. Warren, in 1920. By 1924, the clubs were organized as 4-H clubs, and the clover emblem was adopted. Warren expanded the scope of girls' activities under the program (promoting garment making, room decorating, and hot lunches), and wrote extensive training materials.
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4-H
4-H is a national youth development program administered by the Cooperative Extension System under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 4-H provides educational opportunities for youth related to agriculture, STEM, healthy living, and civic engagement. The name of 4-H refers to the organization’s focus on developing four personal qualities among youth: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. The mission of 4-H is "to provide meaningful opportunities for all youth and adults to work together to create sustainable community change." 4-H is the United State’s largest youth development organization with over six million members nationwide.
4-H operates as a partnership between federal, state, and local authorities. Federal leadership is provided by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). State-level leadership is provided by each state’s Land-grant University. Local 4-H programs are facilitated through county-based Extension staff.
The foundations of 4-H began in 1902 with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs incorporated both public and private resources. 4-H was founded with the purpose of instructing rural youth in improved farming and farm-homemaking practices. By the 1970s, it was broadening its goals to cover a full range of youth, including minorities, and a wide range of life experiences.
During this time, researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. However, educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. As a result rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.
Club work began wherever a public-spirited person[who?] did something to give rural children respect for themselves and their ways of life[vague] and it is very difficult to credit one sole individual. Instances of work with rural boys and girls can be found all throughout the 19th century. In the spring of 1882, Delaware College announced a statewide corn contest for boys, in which each boy was to plant a quarter of an acre, according to instructions sent out from the college, and cash prizes, certificates, and subscriptions to the American Agriculturist were rewarded.
In 1892, in an effort to improve the Kewaunee County Fair, Ransom Asa Moore, the president of the Kewaunee Fair, the Agricultural Society, and Superintendent of the Kewaunee County Schools in Wisconsin, organized a "youth movement", which he called "Young People's Contest Clubs", in which he solicited the support of 6,000 young farm folks to produce and exhibit fruits, vegetables, and livestock. The fairs were quite successful. In 1904, while working for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and trying to repeat what he had accomplished in Kewaunee County over a decade before but with different intentions, "Daddy" R.A. Moore convinced R.H. Burns, then Superintendent of Schools of Richland County, Wisconsin, to have the Richland County Boys and Girls organize and assist in a corn-project activity to help market and distribute improved seeds to the farmers in the state of Wisconsin (and beyond).
A. B. Graham began one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States. The first club was called "The Tomato Club" or the "Corn Growing Club". T.A. "Dad" Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs also in 1902. Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and, by 1912, they were called 4-H clubs. Early 4-H programs in Colorado began with youth instruction offered by college agricultural agents as early as 1910, as part of the outreach mission of the Colorado land grant institutions.
The national 4-H organization was formed in 1914, when the United States Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service of the USDA by passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, it included within the CES charter the work of various boys' and girls' clubs involved with agriculture, home economics and related subjects. The Smith-Lever Act formalized the 4-H programs and clubs that began in the midwestern region of the United States. Although different activities were emphasized for boys and girls, 4-H was one of the first youth organizations to give equal attention to both genders (cf., erstwhile Boys Clubs of America). The first appearance of the term "4-H Club" in a federal document was in "Organization and Results of Boys' and Girls' Club Work," by Oscar Herman Benson (1875–1951) and Gertrude L. Warren, in 1920. By 1924, the clubs were organized as 4-H clubs, and the clover emblem was adopted. Warren expanded the scope of girls' activities under the program (promoting garment making, room decorating, and hot lunches), and wrote extensive training materials.