However Sheryl Williams-Patterson, newly appointed agricultural teacher of Planter's Hall All Age and Infant School, St Catherine, is unfazed by such posturing.
"I don't mind being called a farmer, but it is so much more than that. I think the term agriculturist would be more appropriate, because there are different areas of specialisation like veterinarians, researchers and engineers," she noted.
She said that in the early days the job was all about the soil and traditional type of farming, but today it has to do more with technology.
Right direction
"Students learn the theory, but the practical application is not there simply because there is a lack of resources. Jamaica is lagging," she noted.
Williams-Patterson also commented that the national stance of encouraging the populace to 'grow what we eat and eat what we grow, is a step in the right direction.
She said, however, that it had to start at the school level.
"We need this intervention seriously in the schools, as the 4-H clubs alone cannot suffice." She added, "Students in schools need to know about drip irrigation and the greenhouse method. Agriculture must be seen as a practical subject."
The Old Harbour High school past student always wanted to become an agriculturist. This led her to enrol at the College of Arts, Science and Education (CASE) in September, 2004. She emerged from that institution in June 2007 with an associate degree in agriculture. In that same year she gained a diploma in secondary education from the University of the West Indies.
She then joined the staff at Old Harbour High School as a teacher of agriculture in September 2007, and stayed at the institution until April, 2008. She has been at Planters Hall since the May 1.
Williams-Patterson who hails from Raymond Settlement in Clarendon, later migrated to the neighbouring parish of St Catherine. She represented her adopted parish in the Farm Queen Contest in 2006 and placed second.
She has an affinity for bee-keeping and would like to teach it during the summer, to young students across the island, starting with St Catherine. She said that there is money to be made from this kind of activity, and that youngsters tend to gravitate towards this venture. However, she added that her greatest obstacle would be raising the necessary money to fund the project.
She has also given service in other community organisations, including being a past president of the Old Harbour Police Youth Club, and a public relations officer for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Spring Village, St Catherine.
For the present, she plans on empowering the students under her care with the knowledge of agriculture. Her future ambition however, is to become a qualified food chemist.
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