Just a mother and a wife

Last week I had the great opportunity of spending some time at Southwest Community College in Creston, Iowa. Mindy Dresback coordinates a Tech Prep program at the college and really works at providing all the information possible to the area youth about career options and future schooling needs. On this given day the College hosted 270 eighth grade kids from nine area schools. These kids were broken into groups and had the opportunity to listen to six different presenters about potential career pathways.

I started each of my three sessions with the same question. "How many of you want to pursue a different career path than your parents?" And the answer was quite concerning to me, about 80 percent of those kids raised their hands. I did spend a little bit of time trying to get a feel about why they did not want to follow in their parents' footsteps and the reasons were all over the board. But I am here to tell you our parents should be our role models. I understand this is a group of eighth graders and they are just now experiencing the big world they live in, but let's stop for a minute and try to figure out why so many would not aspire to follow their parents' paths.

Fast-forward one week to the Indiana Poultry Convention where I had the opportunity to speak in Indianapolis. Isabella Chism was present in the audience. In December of 2006 Isabella was elected to the board of directors for the Indiana Farm Bureau. Here is how the press release read in her local paper after the election: "Isabella Chism, a farm wife from Howard County, Ind., has been elected to become the next director-at-large of the Indiana Farm Bureau."

How many people would have allowed the local press to call themselves "a farm wife?" I first met Isabella last summer at a local Farm Bureau meeting in Renssalaer, Ind. Every once in a while I meet someone you can just tell possesses the spirit and fire to go out into the world and make a difference. The interesting thing about Isabella is she did not grow up in agriculture herself. Her motivation in becoming involved in telling the story of the United States farmer stems from her admiration for her husband. I applauded her for recent efforts and she responded, "I am just a wife and a mother." You see Isabella waited until their children were out of school before she decided to get involved in any off farm endeavor.

I take major issue with the statement just a wife and a mother. I see news stories popping up in media sources every day since the new Congress has taken seat that we are going to eliminate this old world thinking that the mother's place in the family is a care taker. Possibly that is the reason that 80 percent of those eighth grade kids desired to follow a different career path than their parents. Guess what? Not one of them indicated their mother was a stay-at-home mom.

I simply do not understand how we as a society have led ourselves into thinking that any task in this world is more important than proper rearing of our children. I know the very looming threat of no health insurance for our kids. I also know I have just painted one of the largest targets on my back by fostering this old fashioned thinking that a women's place is in the home. But you see the future direction of our society depends on getting our nation's kids off to a great start and women are not just wives and mothers. They are doing something that most men can't handle and all women who can need to proudly wear their accomplishments. I am reminded that women in North American Indian societies considered being a mother and rearing a healthy family not just another responsibility but the ultimate achievement.

Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com.

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3/5/07

1 Star WK

Date: 3/1/07

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