—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 20,1979
122
Dr.
By SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Writer
QUARRYVILLE - For
nineteen out of the last
twenty years, Dr. William
Fredd has been chaparonmg
blue and gold jacketed boys
to the Pennsylvania Farm
Show. This year the Solanco
FFA members going to
Harrisburg will be in
structed by other capable
teachers in his absence since
his retirement from teaching
this past Spring.
Dr. Fredd retired from
teaching m 1978, after thirty
years of service. Having
graduated from Oxford Area
High School in Chester
County and Penn State with
a B.S. in 1938, Dr. Fredd first
started his career at
Solanco, then called
Quarryville High School, for
a two-year period, 1938 to 40.
He then taught six more
years in the Coatesville-
Downingtown and
Downingtown High School
agriculture departments.
From 1946 to 1957 Dr.
Fredd was engaged in
farming and farm related
occupations. In 1957 he
returned to Solanco to
become department head in
1971, a position he held until
his retirement in 1978.
Continuing his education,
he received his Masters
Degree from the University
of Delaware in 1964 and his
Doctorate from Perm State
in 1972.
Looking back over his
thirty years as a vocational
agriculture teacher, Dr.
Fredd sununs it all up as a
rewarding career with many
specific highlights. The list
mcludes the Solanco dairy
club, the land judging
competitions and successes,
and working with the young
farmers and community
people.
Recalling that the Solanco
Dairy Club was started ten
years ago at the request of a
student, Dave Bitier, under
the guidance of former
Solanco teacher, Steve
Leiser, Dr Fredd explained
that for all but the initial
year he advised the group.
Pairing jounger, less ex
perienced members with
Fredd recalls 30
more experienced judges is
the key to the club’s
program, Fredd pointed out.
“The kids can learn much
faster with one of their own
classmates than with a
teacher teaching from a
book,” he explained. The
club members get several
years’ experience in giving
reasons and they get to see
many good herds all over the
East,” he added.
Fredd credits the club with
not only winning results at
judging contests but with
instilling a love for the dairy
cow and a desire to do a good
job in dairy farming among
many of its past members.
Another highlight of his
career working with young
people is his involvement
with the landjudging groups
at Solanco. Dr. Fredd said
that while he was away from
teaching in the fifties, the
land judging aspect was
added to the vo-ag
curriculum and it was
consequently a new thing to
him when he returned to the
classrooms in 1957. The
study guide for instructing
the students in land judging
was in his words, “The most
clever and useful instrument
to learn about soils and
land.”
Perhaps because of his
personal enthusiasm for this
segment of vocational in
struction, the Solanco
chapter won many out
standing awards. The
second revision of the
teaching guide, when
published included on its
cover three top Solanco FFA
land judges. The third
revision, published during
the 1976 to 77 school year,
includes input Dr. Fredd
worked out while serving as
a specialist for the state in
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Dr. William Fredd
conjunction with the
Department of Agriculture
at Penn State.
Also among the list of fond
memories was Dr. Fredd’s
seeing many young people
being established in
agriculture and his working
with the people of the local
communities.
“It is good to see a kid
start out in school, as a
freshmen and then begin to
develop, and finally see him
ten years afterward,” he
explained.
“Education is also
teaching a student that a
certain future is not for
him,” he added. “When kids
grow up in a rural area they
see the farmer running the
tractors and by the time they
are ten they want to be a
farmer. We have to teach a
realistic view of what being
a farmer is,” he explained.
In the process of teaching
vo-ag courses, Dr. Fredd
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recalls in a humorous light
how the problem solvng and
learning-by-domg activities
o£ the ag classrooms fifteen
years ago seemed to some to
be mass confusion while
such “doing” activities and
classroom procedures are
acceptable now in most
other subjects as well.
Dr. Fredd emphasized
that every child and every
family is different. “The
family still has the greatest
influence on the child.” If the
parent says it can be done,
then the child thinks it can be
done,” he noted. “If the
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parent says it can’t be done
then more than likely the
child will believe it can’t be
done.”
“I think the success of the
Solanco Ag department is
the result of the cooperation
with the families and the
desire of these children and
their families to succeed,”
Dr. Fredd remarked.
“Economic pressures
hc»v° made a change and
farmers have to analyze
their business to see that
they are producing ef
ficiently.” But inflation of
the land value in the Solanco
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Area in recent years has
allowed young farmers to
get bigger,” he explained
when asked if it was still
possible for young people to
get a start in farming in
today’s economy. Increased
land values have made
borrowing easier using the
land as collateral.
Agn-busmess accounts for
much of the future of many
vo-ag students according to
Fredd. “The leadership
roles in vo-ag education and
the rural background of the
vo-ag students build a
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(Turn to Page 123)
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