Farm mechanics in vocational agriculture in the Saltillo High School

The problem was to determine the needs of all day boys and adult farmers in specific areas of farm mechanics and develop a program of work in the vocational agriculture departments of Saltillo High School to meet these needs.

The problem was divided into sub problems in order that a more thorough study might be made. The sub problems were:

1. To develop a procedure for determining farm mechanic needs

2. To determine the farm mechanic needs of the adult and all day students of the Saltillo Community

3. To plan the program in farm mechanics for 1954-1953

The writer feels that the farm mechanics needs of this community is increasing because:

1. The number of farms having tractor and tractor equipment at the present time is many times greater than it was when the writer went to this community in 1941.

2. More farmers and all day boys are bringing repair work to the local department to get it repaired. The writer has had to do much of this work and he feels that the farmers and boys should know how to do it themselves.

3. A personal knowledge of the situation reveals that there is a definite lack of repair facilities on the farms in the community. The writer's present program does not adequately meet the increasing needs of the all day boys and farmers. The program that has been carried out has been based on assumed needs. The writer has not been able to determine the needs and a knowledge of the situation reveals that there is a definite lack of essential jobs and skills in farm mechanics being done on the farm.

Conversations with other teachers reveal that they face similar problems. The greatest one is not being able to anticipate the farm mechanic needs so that a program can be set up to meet these needs.

The writer feels that through this study he will be able to develop a method of determining needs in farm mechanics and that a program can be worked out to help meet these needs. He feels that techniques learned in this study can be applied to later studies to determine farm mechanic needs. This will be an aid in program planning.

This study may also be valuable to other teachers of vocational agriculture. It is hoped they will be able to use the proposed procedure for determining needs. They may get ideas from this farm mechanics program that will be helpful in building their own program.