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Ethanol in the Classroom? Why Not?

Posted: September 21, 2009 at 12:33 PM CST

Last week, the Renewable Fuels Association announced a new program it has launched to provide high school students with information on renewable fuels industry careers. The curriculum will provide Future Farmers of America members with details of the renewable fuels industry.

Already, there have been grumbles from anti-ethanol groups, questioning whether this is type of information is appropriate. In response, I have one word for those dissenters: Absolutely.

This is no different than having military recruiters or representatives from local universities speak to high school classes. It is simply a way to provide students with information on their options. As a high school senior, I was singled out for a private recruitment session with a local university representative who was seeking to add more women to its engineering program. No one questioned the appropriateness of that meeting. It was a part of being a high school senior. I’d like to know if there is any industry out there that doesn’t actively recruit new members to its workforce. You can rest assured that the oil companies don’t hesitate to court teenagers in areas close to oil rigs. Students in those areas sometimes never even finish high school because the temptation to make fast cash on the oil rigs is so great. But we rarely hear those stories.

The ethanol industry needs fresh, new minds to keep making the advancements that have been the lifeblood of this industry. FFA members are agriculturally minded individuals and the majority of them already have knowledge of the ethanol industry. This curriculum simply provides them with additional information on the variety of careers that can be explored within the industry. To me, there is no such thing as bad information. Even if the information is about something you don’t agree with, it’s better to be educated to better argue against than to know nothing and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge its existence.

I applaud the RFA and its partners for providing our youngsters with options for renewable fuels careers. I often watch my four-year-old play, sprawled across the carpet with his tiny cars and airplanes, and wonder if he might someday be the engineer that makes a breakthrough to allow us to completely rid our nation of foreign oil, or to take us to the next level of energy conservation. I’d love to brag that he’s a prodigy, but most likely he will require some advanced education before he can make this type of significant breakthrough. No bad can come from providing students with information on their options, and I look forward to reporting the next generation’s breakthroughs.

-Kris Bevill