-—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 10, 1976
42
Doris Bushong shares talents
Doris Bushong thinks teaching high school students the
intricacies of floriculture is a joy, and the perfect way to
share the creative talents with which she was bom.
For the past year, Mrs. Bushong, an East Petersburg
resident, has held a unique position she is the only
teacher’s aide in the vocational - technical schools. She
works with Jim Kerr, the full-time teacher in the
floriculture - horticulture class at Willow Street Vo-Tech
School, and she is unable to hide her enthusiasm for the
program.
She was hired because there were too many students for
Kerr to have as one class, but not enough to justify a full
time teacher. But she took on almost all the respon
sibilities of the floriculture side of the department.
Her background is in the practical work experience of
floriculture and not in teaching, but she has already begun
taking the steps necessary to get certification for vo-tech
teaching.
When Mrs. Bushong heard about the opening she ap
plied because “I like kids. If I can be of any help to them
I’m happy. Also I love to teach people the things I can do. ”
She also liked the idea of having her summers free for her
eleven-year-old son Andrew and her husband J. Donald.
Mrs. Bushong went on to say, “Many people are selfish
with their skills, but I feel my skills are' God-given and I
am happy to share them.”
She spent a lot of time sharing these skills even before
she began teaching at Willow Street. For five years she
worked in a florists’ shop and for two years she worked for
Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill in their design room. She taught
courses for them in sandpouring, Williamsburg bouquets,
and pressed flowers.
In floriculture she teaches the “basics of design and
color harmony.
“We prepare them for working in greenhouses or
having a small business at home,” she says.
She is also involved in greenhouse work, since this is the
first year for a greenhouse at Willow Street. She said, “We
Vi
Dale Herr, Lampeter-Strasburg Mrs. Bushong about some
senior ,and Lauren Martin (center) greenhouse plants.
Randy McCauley, Penn Manor senior and Doris Bushong look over a Lancaster Mennonite junior, talk with
wandering jew in the greenhouse.
•* J •// A f 4/
ByJOANNESPAHR
I saw Dad come around the barn with the
tobacco hoer on the back of the tractor. In a flash 1
was in the house screaming, “No, have mercy on
me, please. I don’t want to die. I'll do anything, but
don’t take me on the hoer, please!"
When that plea didn’t work, I begged out of work
by saying 1 had to write my column So, here I am,
giving my nondescript two-cents while the family
sweats and gruels out in the field I feel terrible
(but not that terrible )
I hate hoeing It leels like I’m being tortured to
death When I was young, Grandpa said that I was
just a weakling, and that all 1 needed to do was
keep practicing and my muscles would develop
then, it wouldn’t hurt anymore But, what young girl
wants to look like Mr America at the tender age of
wmmrn#.
By SALLY BAER
Feature Writer
>- ' " * -
Hate to hoe tobacco? You're not alone.
My Thoughts and Welcome to Them
Doris Bushong shows the proper way of putting
together a corsage.
Homestead Notes
13, let me ask you that 7 1 know I didn’t. So, I spent
more time making up excuses than practicing the
hoeing.
From what little I have done, it seems to me that
the ground hates being hoed as much as you hate
doing it. It seems to fight back as you push your
handles out and pull them in to go around each
plant
And, I’m notorious for taking out half the row of
plants as I go. When my hoers should be out,
they’re in, and when they should be in, they're out.
The family rarely puts itself through the agony of
looking back over a row I’ve just finished because it
hurts them to their cores to see those little
uprooted tobacco plants littered all along the row.
When I drive while my brother and father hoe,
it’s the same story. For hours they take turns
(With apologies to James Thurber)
grew bedding plants and house plants, and are basically
setting up the greenhouse from scratch.”
She added, “You have to remember, floriculture is not
all glory, and not all fun things. Many people forget there
is dirty work.”
She said the majority of her students are city kids “who
elect to come to the vo-tech school.” She said they are
helped at their home school by their guidance counselor
“Floriculture has always been popular,” she said, “but
students must have a desire to learn.”
She also cautioned that it is sometimes difficult to get
placed in the floriculture industry because in this area
many florists are family owned, with little need for out
side labor. The scene is changing, however, and students
who have learned their skills well will be in a good position
to get a job.
“Even if they don’t get placed,” Mrs. Bushong said,
“it’s not a loss. Creative things can always be used.”
Mrs. Bushong’s enthusiasm extends to the whole
vocational - technical curriculum, because “it gives
students who want to work with their hands something to
do. It helps keep them interested. It is definitely
valuable.” She recalls her own unhappy days at school
and said she wishes she had had something like vo-tech
schools to help her along.
The vo-tech program is a half-day program for students
who attend their home school for the other half of the day.
The variety of work experience in the floriculture’
department includes all the things related to growing]
plants, including lectures, exams, and dirty work along 4
with the more glamorous flower arranging and corsage
making.
Mrs. Bushong also explained that there is a co-op
program for students in the last half of their senior year.
It offers work experience “for anyone who can get jobs.”
She said people who need employees are “happy to get
someone with experience -1 don’t sense any reluctance to
hiring these young people.” Many of the part-time co-op
jobs turn into fulltime jobs, she said, for the student in
volved.
(Continued on Page 421
yelling, "Darn you, Jo, you’re taking out my row!
Get over to the other side a little further.”
Well, of course, you know what happens when I
start heading the tractor in the opposite direction -
I run over the other guy’s plants, and the whole
process starts again.
When I was young, I was mortified when they
would holler at me: it seemed that they yelled loud
enough so all the neighbors could hear what a lousy
job I was doing. But, now, I just figure yelling at me
is their way of keeping themselves entertained.
Anyway, until the money starts rolling in
somewhere in mid-winter, my heart goes out to all
the dedicated, hard working tobacco farmers out
there who still have hand hoeing, topping, spraying,
and harvesting to go through.