It is a beautiful Thursday here in Anaheim. We started of the day by going to the National FFA Organization LifeKnowledge breakfast. This was a press conference that allowed the National FFA to announce their LifeKnowledge program that is being implemented into schools across the nation. This had special interest to me because I was a member of the Illinois FFA for five years and this past summer finished up my year of service as the Illinois FFA Section 5 President. LifeKnowledge is basically a program that incorporates leadership into the agriculture classroom. It is not just for FFA members but for everyone in agriculture. Not only that but the program is available for any teacher Ag related or not. It is a great way to teach America’s youth how to be good leaders, not only in the workforce but in their communities as well. LifeKnowledge helps develop the skills needed for the real world that aren’t always available to teach in the classroom until now.

I had a chance to talk with some of the FFA members that had come to the press conference with their advisor Kris Elliot of the Hanford FFA Chapter, Handford, California, to talk about how LifeKnowledge has effected them.

Michelle Spoelstra is a Junior at Hanford High School as is currently taking an Ag Leadership class. Here is what she had to say about LifeKnowledge: “I think LifeKnowledge is a good thing because it means your not listening to a monotone teacher for an hour. You get to interact with other students and share your thoughts. It makes students believe that they have the ability to be a leader.”

Her Ag advisor Kris Elliott talked about how he feels about LifeKnowledge: “These are like no lessons you will ever see before. It is so easy to incorporate LifeKnowledge into my lesson plans and the kids don’t even know what hit them. They are so enthusiastic after one of my LifeKnowledge lessons they ask when the next leadership lesson is going to be.”

If you want to learn more about this story be sure to watch for my article in the Illinois Agrinews in the next couple weeks.

The trade show here at the 2006 Commodity Classic is currently being set up and the booths look amazing. In this picture you see me with a huge John Deere 8530. Yes, I’m a green fan. We also visited the ethanol booth where they had an Indy Racing Car simulator run by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Counsel. Be looking for video clips and pictures of it from either Margy or I in the near future.