When I taught in Willmar, MN which had a high Hispanic population we were able to attract a number of Hispanic girls through the Floral Design classes that I taught. They seemed to flock to that class because many of them wanted to know how to do flowers for quinceras and other activites. They were also expectionally talented in the area often coming up with highly imaginative creations or copy a design from just seeing a picture.

I was actually searching for something else and got siderailed by this topic, a good thing. There is still discussion going on about how to engage Hispanic students at the National FFA. Unfortunately, things don't move as fast as we'd all love for them too (a quality we're often not accustomed to from the classroom, we want something done, we do it and move on). Since taking my position with LPS, I've learned of the great program that's been going on in the San Antonio schools to engage Hispanic students. Besides proving that with the right amount of financial resources anyone can make a program succeed, it has pointed out some really good concepts. As someone mentioned, you really have to engage these students to make them understand that agriculture isn't just about bending over in a field all day, harvesting vegetables or whatever. That is the picture their parents have and do not want their children to participate in. Afterall, they want the American dream of more just as much as the white parents do. By helping the parents understand the non-production/harvesting side of agriculture you will increase student enrollment/participation. Second of all, you have to learn the culture that Hispanic students operate in. They are not going to allow their daughters to take overnight trips unless a parent is with you, especially a male teacher. The parents are still quite conservative and protective of their daughters. You have to visit their homes and develop a relationship with the parents, often to just get the students for a little while after school. It wouldn't hurt to sharpen your Spanish skills either. You don't have to be fluent but attempting to speak their language goes a long way toward showing them you care enough about their student to try. Just some thoughts and observations I've gathered from other teachers.

I'll share with you of one of my worst mistakes. Remember when the manual came out in Spanish for the first time? I do. I had an immigrant student in my class for the first time (still a very young teacher back then) and I eagerly ordered him a Spanish manual, thinking I was doing such a wonderful job of helping him feel comfortable in my class. To my surprise, when I presented it to him he wasn't pleased at all. He never said a word but I could tell he didn't like it. When I told him he could do the creed in Spanish he was polite but said he would rather do it in English. I even offered him positive reinforcement and bonus points for doing it in Spanish, but to no avail. I was mortified. I had gone to all the trouble to modify my strategies in order to facilitate his understanding and learning and here he was refusing my help. How dare he do that? I marched up to the ESL teacher to tell her so she could be mortified with me. Much to my surprise she laughed at me! Once I calmed down she explained, chastizingly, why he wanted to do it in English. Just because he was an immigrant didn't mean he could read his native language. In addition, by giving him that manual I had singled him out as different and that was what he wanted least. I had successfully alienated my student! Now I was distraught. I begged for ideas on what to do next. Her simple suggestion was to treat him just like I do all my students. So, I made an SAE visit to his home and met his parents, expected him to turn in all his assignments on time, in legible English, and to participate in FFA activities. Of course, this was after I asked him to forgive me. I still emember him and how he florished over the next 2 years in my class. He taught me a lot that year about engaging Hispanic students.

Make this an SAE for some student(s) in Ag Comm. My daughter developed a bilingual (Spanish/English) presentation about 4-H for our local cable TV station. She just used PP and used a website to convert the English to Spanish. A person who spoke Spanish reviewed her text and, suprisingly, the website did a good job at converting the text and keeping the message clear.