As a 4-H alumni I can attest that 4-H prepares you for life! 4-H was a great experience. I have pulled an excerpt from the opinion article attached. Raising hogs, spending all summer working with them, and then selling them was difficult for most 4-H'ers...I was a kid who cried the day after the sale. You understood where they were going and you had a bond with that animal because of the hard work and time spent. You also knew that you were putting a quality protein on someone's table. Older club members would come over and give you a hug, tell you it's okay...then as you got older, it was your turn to console your friends...these are some of the skills that 4-H teaches you without realizing you are being taught... Empathy, compassion, kindness. I agree with the author...a 4-H'er is who I want when things are tough. ...And more than disappointment: In 4-H, you learn about death. While I was studying how to poultice hoofs and identify tack, my peers in other clubs were raising animals for more utilitarian purposes. Immaculate plush-coated steers, inquisitive pigs, enormous complacent turkeys were raised from birth to be judged at the fair and then sold to the highest bidder for consumption. We’d often see tears during the final separation; 4-H’ers are children — not monsters ―many of whom put their sale earnings toward college tuition. But still, lesson learned. It takes a certain type of kid to send a creature they fed with a bottle or saw hatched from an egg to someone’s dinner table. I want that kid on my dystopian survival team.... #4H #pennstateextension #youthdevelopment
My wife and I met in 4-H in Ohio 5 decades ago. The lessons we learned in 4-H helped prepare us for our service in the Army and Navy. Now that we have retired from the military, we use those lessons to help us run a small sheep farm. 4-H can help you in life, not just surviving the apocalypse. #4-H
