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 Back to Lesson 1Additional Teacher Background Information for Lesson 1 - Introduction to SAE 
  • SAE is a vital component of the agricultural education program.
  • SAE provides students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom in a real life setting. It is an excellent way for students to learn.
  • Students are to keep records on their SAE program.
  • The concept of SAE in agricultural education originated with Rufus Stimson in Massachusetts in 1908 at Smith's Agricultural School.
  • The SAE concept is built on the philosophy of pragmatism.
  • When the FFA awards program is coupled with SAE, a perfect example of the Stimulus-Response Learning Theory is demonstrated. The classroom instruction is the stimulus, the SAE is the response and the FFA awards program is the reinforcement.
  • Many of the FFA award programs are based on the students' SAE.
  • FFA degree advancement is based partially on SAE.
  • A teacher can require all students to have an SAE just as they require all students to do homework, take tests, and work in the agricultural laboratory. It is a part of agricultural education. The SAE can even be graded.
  • SAE programs are conducted outside of the regular agriculture class hours.
  • Teachers are expected to visit students to supervise their experience program. A goal is to visit each student twice per year.
  • The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (a federal law) required all students to have "directed or supervised practice in agriculture, either on a farm provided for by the school or other farm, for at least six months per year." This act has since been changed but it was important enough to be included in federal law. This is what made agriculture "vocational" instead of "vocal".
  • The primary reason many agriculture teachers have 12 month contracts is so they can supervise SAE programs during the summer months. The Federal Board for Vocational Education (an agency created by the Smith-Hughes Act) mandated that agriculture teachers work 12 months because the SAE was to be supervised.
  • The Vocational Education Act of 1963 (a federal law) amended the Smith-Hughes Act in regards to SAE: "any amounts allotted ... for agriculture may be used for vocational education in any occupation involving knowledge and skills in agricultural subjects, whether or not such occupation involves work of the farm or of the farm home, and such education may be provided without directed or supervise practice on a farm." This was widely interpreted to mean students no longer had to have supervised programs. However, the intent of the legislation was to expand the scope of supervised program and not limit them just to the farm or to do away with them.
  • Research at Ohio State found students possessed more knowledge of specific areas of agriculture if they had SAE programs in those areas.
  • Research at Iowa State found that the ability to keep records was an important outcome of SAE
  • There has been an evolution over the years in terminology and components of SAE:
1908 - Home-School Cooperation Plan - Stimson 

1919 - Farming Project - Stimson 

1926 - Productive Farm Enterprises - Schmidt 

1938 - Supervised Farm Practice Program - Cook 

1943 - Supervised Farming - Deyoe 

1948 - Farming Program - Beard 

1951 - Farming Program - Hammonds and Tabb 

1961 - Farming Program - Hammonds and Binkley 

1970 - Experience Program - Binkley and Hammonds 

1972 - Supervised Occupational Experience Programs - Phipps 

1984 - Supervised Occupational Experience - National FFA 

1992 - Supervised Agricultural Experience - The Council 

1998 - Supervised Experience - Various agricultural educators
  • Once upon a time it was a federal requirement that each teacher submit an end of the year report on SAE to the state vocational education officials. For each student, the type of SAE was reported along with income and yields. These reports were carefully scrutinized and a state summary was prepared and sent to Washington. The federal government then showed how much money students in vocational agriculture had made from their SAE program. Invariable, the income was much greater than federal expenditures on vocational agriculture.
  • When state supervisors visited an agricultural program in the old days, they examined the record books of students and frequently made SAE supervisory visits with the teacher. This was the norm until 1963.