US school teaches students to raise livestock, plant crops

A small school in Southwestern Iowa, United States, cultivates its students through letting them spoil their shirts and be real-time farmers.

Marnie Simmons Elementary in Hamburg, Iowa, has a farm and animal barn consisting of chickens, ducks, dairy cows, pigs and a goat. Students till the soil to plant assorted flowers and vegetables such as tomatoes, corn, and beans. It was even the students who built the fence that protects the farm from pests and other insects.

“We’ll be the only school definitely in southwest Iowa, maybe the only one in Iowa, that has a farm school,” said superintendent Mark Wells in an interview with KETV7 Omaha. “The city had to pass a variance to an ordinance to have livestock in town.”

Many of the students like the farming initiative because they actively learn without a pen and paper.

All the 200 elementary students have assigned tasks in the school’s farming project.

Some of the harvested products are being sold to local markets in the area while some are donated to shelters for the elderly. The students plan to launch their own grocery store in the future.

Wells dreams that this resourceful initiative to education makes his school more valuable to the society.

“The kids literally run from the bus to the front door,” Wells said. “They’re very excited to be here, and that’s what we hope education is.” Gianna Francesca Catolico, INQUIRER.net