TCFA Boosts Checkoff As A Way
To Keep Textbooks On Message

By Burt Rutherford
Texas Cattle Feeders Association

AMARILLO — School’s in session. Do you know what your children are learning?

The other day, a feedyard manager asked me to define geography. Harkening back to my schoolboy days, I confidently replied that geography was a chunk of land

defined either by political borders or by natural features like mountains, rivers, oceans and the like. We were at a meeting and, as it was a break between sessions and a small group was gathered, I stepped back to bask in my momentary

glory.

It was indeed momentary. "That goes to show what you know," he promptly replied. "You’ll be interested to know that my son’s sixth-grade textbook defines geography as man’s impact on the environment."

I was indeed interested to know that and, as he was considering pointing out this potential error to his school officials, I promised to find some information so he could arm himself with scientifically-based facts. In follow-up conversations, more details became available. Here’s the definition of geography as printed in the textbook titled "World":

"The study of earth’s environment and how it shapes people’s lives and how earth is shaped in turn by

people’s activities."

An older son informed his cattle feeder father that the definition in question applied to "cultural geography" and was correct. Now, the feedyard manager and I both were educated in a time when life was less clouded by shades of gray, so the idea of geography being the study of the environment rather than biology or another environmental science is a new concept, as is the idea of "cultural

geography" in general. But, taken in the context of what "cultural geography" seems to imply, the above definition appears fairly benign.

"However," the feedyard manager pointed out, "the book does not make the distinction between cultural geography and regular geography. So students are left with an inaccurate and incomplete idea of what should be a simple and straightforward concept — that the classical definition of geography is the study of the physical features on the surface of the earth."

That’s the rub that stirred this cattle feeding father to action. His argument isn’t so much with the definition of "cultural geography" as it is with the fact that the book used that definition to define geography in general and didn’t point out to students that there’s a difference. This intellectual dishonesty bothers him, and it should bother the rest of us as well. As he says, this

individual occurrence isn’t going to change things much in the minds of youngsters. But it may become one more idea that advances the concept that human activities are universally harmful to the environment.

Those of us who live close to the land know that is not true. So it is up to us to know what messages are being sent to our children and to provide correct information if we think those messages are wrong. And where should that

information go? The teacher? The principal? The school board? All those are appropriate. But the message also needs to be sent to the companies that publish the textbooks.

All that is being done, thanks to the beef checkoff. So, before you despair that Generation X is completely lost, remember that beef checkoff dollars have long

been working to get the word out on cattlemen’s role as environmental stewards.

Did you know that thousands of teachers have received teaching curriculums that use the cattle business as a basis to teach history and geography? And that your

checkoff dollars paid to make that happen? Did you know that checkoff dollars are working right now to provide teachers and school kids with fun, factual, science-based information on the role that cattle and beef plays in their lives?

It’s important to know what is being taught to our children. And, like the feedyard manager above, it’s important to respond when we feel the information they’re learning is short of the mark. That’s where your checkoff dollars and your membership in state cattle associations, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other commodity groups comes to the fore. The hired hands who

work for you are more than willing to help — use them for the information and expertise they possess. And that’s why it’s important to support commodity checkoff programs. The information to refute false claims doesn’t just materialize. And the expertise and time it takes to develop and implement teaching aids that show agriculture in a factual, positive light must be funded.

People nowadays are very concerned about protecting the environment, and justly so. Cattlemen and other ag producers share that concern just as passionately and perhaps more so than their urban neighbors because they live so close to the land — it is not just their livelihood, but their life. That story must continue to be told.