The Bluffton News

Vo-Ag Fades, Beaverdam Withdraws
Dwindling enrollment threatens the vocational agriculture program at Bluffton high school, school officials said this week.
Complicating the picture is the fact that Beaverdam high school is not sending any students to participate in the local vo-ag program this year.
"A lack of interest among our students caused us to drop the program this year," Beaverdam superintendent John Cindric said Tuesday.
Their withdrawal from the program might not be permanent he went on to say. "If interest picks up in later years we will be glad to send our boys back. It helps our youngsters and Bluffton too." he noted.
The two schools had shared in the vo-ag program since the fall of 1951 when the subject was dropped at Beaverdam after the department grew too small.
Bluffton now faces the same problem. Only 15 students are enrolled for the program while 18 are needed to earn government support. The local program has already been approved for 1959-60 assistance but this may not be continued unless the enrollment is expanded.
Beaverdam has sent as many as six students in a single year, making it possible for Bluffton to qualify for the state support.
Mr. Cindric said the lack of interest in agriculture was a national trend, not confined to the local area, and was causing concern to many educators. "The expensive first cost of a farm unless it is handed down by parents, is steering many youngsters away from farming," he said.
The growing trend towards the big farm has contributed to the decreased enrollment in agriculture classes, Bluffton superintendent A. B. Murray feels. Many students prefer to enter industry rather than return to the smaller family farms after leaving school, he said.
Decreased undergraduate enrollment will not affect the adult farm program operated at the Bluffton school.
Don Overmyer, teacher of the local agriculture courses, said he plans an expanded adult farm program this year. He said the adult courses, held in the evening, will begin about November 1.