There's a high school in Chilliwack where summer school has a waitlist. "Every year, we have students transfer into our school to take the ag program," says Sardis Secondary School agriculture program teacher Joe Massie. "And we have 100 high school students signed up for [the summer program]. We also have 40 elementary and 25 middle school [kids] and their teachers. And waiting lists."
Kids from elementary age through to Grade 12 are clamouring for a turn to spend time working at the Sardis Secondary School farm from early July to the end of August. This eagerness to work at the farm during the dog days of summer is in addition to the popular Grade 10 to 12 agriculture programs taught during the school year.
"Curriculum-wise, lessons always stem from what's happening in the field. Opportunities like that present themselves constantly," Massie says. "We'll do the lesson based on what has to be done at the farm. We try to model it after practices in the industry."
The summer course, Sustainable Vegetable Production, runs two days a week with paid teachers. Students gain academic credits for their work to maintain and advance the five-acre farm and an existing flower greenhouse while they learn about agriculture. With middle schoolers in the summer program, it makes the transition to high school an interactive one.
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