Getting my school to understand

[Althouse98]

I few of my friends were confronted by our superintendent for having Farming Simulator 2013 on our school computers. Our superintendent said that we needed to take it off our computers unless we could find an educational purpose behind the game. We have gotten a couple of teachers behind the idea, but we need more people to have input on the topic so we can show the school board about this. I was wondering if people could reply to this post so we could get this cleared.
Thank you

[Farmallb]

#1 What have you already told your school?
#2 I guess you can show how farming is now, how it was done in the not so distant past, and how it likely will be done in the future
#3 You can tell, once you KNOW the game YOU individually are playing, HOW crops are grown, taken care of/weeded, and how there harvested.
#4 You can tell about the individual crops that are grown in the game, The differences between them, what each kind is goof for, for livestock, What crops can be mixed together to make a better feed than if those crops are feed separately.
#5 You can tell how individual machines operate, and how to operate them.
#6 You can tell what you've learned about the different animals on the farm.
#7 You can tell how your grandfolks might have farmed IF any of you had granfolks who farmed.
#8 You can tell the individual steps in preparing the soil from spring to harvest.
#9 You can ask your superintendant to get as many kids who do not know anything about farming, and yourselves together, and quiz the both of you and see who is smarter about how food/grains/animals are grown.
#10 Finally you can tell the Super that, IF any of you intend to farm when you are able to, that this is a eye opener as to how farming is done. and it will prepare your minds eye for getting into farming by learning what you can now.

I am 66yrs old. I thought HS was a waste of time. The only thing I ever wanted to do was farm, and ive done it for 45yrs. The only thing I got that I could use out of HS was typing, and that only because they invented keyboards.

Good luck. Let us on here know how it turned out for you.

[mrnascar]

You can also emphasize that it is a good tool to teach planning and managing. You need to think ahead as to what to plant next how to optimize your equipment usage, etc. There is a definite need to develop multitasking skills to keep it all going smoothly!

If I were a super, I'd be glad it was FS and not some FP shooter game.....

[Farmallb]

Not to mention, you, unlike me who, my nephew gave me 50 mil to whizz away, when he set me up in this game dont have that. You have a supposedly restricted amount of money. You have to plan out your expenses against what monies you have on hand, so as to be able to put in a crop, and yet keep enough to keep the crop growing, fertilized, cultivated, ect until it can be harvested.'
You have to decide whether it will be better to sell the crop, OR keep it or a portion of it after bills have been paid. You will have to decide, IF you can buy livestock, can you feed them with what you've saved until the next harvest.

AS M said, theres a lot of decision making in playing the game.

[Althouse98]

Farmalib We've gotten 3 teachers approval, and after school whenever we can get ahold of the superintendent we told her that FS is very educational, and it allows you to work around you're profits and how you have to plan ahead to expand your farm. (besides cheating in money, and I don't do that) We haven't really been able to sit down with her and explain the game to her.. All she thinks is that it's a game and you're not suppose to have them on the computers.
Grant it I farm in real life and I'm not in any sports, but my friends are town kids and they learn more from the game then anything.

[wizard4278]

While you're at it, why not push to use Grand Theft Auto to teach driving skills?!
Call me skeptical, but this just sounds like a way to play games at school.
My school had FFA (Future Farmers of America) and numerous after school clubs, including 4-H.
Granted, Fs13 demonstrates many aspects of farming, however time restraints, weather, pricing as well as
some missing and overlooked duties make it weak in actual authenticity.
If the goal is to learn about farming, there are thousands of useful Youtube videos available as well as
videos available from local agricultural bureaus. In my opinion, games are for AFTER school.

Just my opinion
~Wizard~

[Althouse98]

Wizard4278, Our plan was to play it outside of school, and whenever we have time after homework. It's just that it's blocked on our computers and we can't even access it and I don't play that much GTH honestly I don't see that much sense in that game. I get enough driving when I go to school or get parts for equipment. Besides our principle plays that online... so that's not going to fly...yes if you were wondering kids have tried to get GTH in middle school, and they were shot down that day...
So this isn't something what you think of as getting it so we can play it all the time.. It's just that some of the kids in my school want to work together and be able to do something that they can do while in the center of a town. I think of it as a way that town kids want to be able to get started in the world of agriculture, because they don't have the ability to go and work on a local farm due to sports or the inability to do the physical work that is needed.

[Farmallb]

Wiz. Our HS didn't have FFA cause our principal I think thought he was going top get his kids ready for the business world,. not the farming world that was all around him. I was president of our 4-H chapter, and found that all the dads did almost all the work, and the kids just picked the best of the crop or of the animals for show. No doubt it was different at different chapters.
IF they would have had this in the early 60s, I don't know whether it would have abated my desire to want to start farming till I could have, or if it would have inflamed that desire and made it worse.

[Althouse98]

Wiz. Our HS didn't have FFA cause our principal I think thought he was going top get his kids ready for the business world,. not the farming world that was all around him. I was president of our 4-H chapter, and found that all the dads did almost all the work, and the kids just picked the best of the crop or of the animals for show. No doubt it was different at different chapters.
IF they would have had this in the early 60s, I don't know whether it would have abated my desire to want to start farming till I could have, or if it would have inflamed that desire and made it worse.

My 4-H chapter was along the same lines. The parents did everything and the kids got the credit. I got mad and I just quit. I guess you can say I'm a kill joy cuz I'm not in any sports but hey I have a defiant future ahead of me and a community, and a state to help me due to LICA.

[Farmallb]

Your saying they LICA you?? lol

[Althouse98]

Your saying they LICA you?? lol

Haha no LICA stands for Land Improvement Contractors of America. Seeings how my family runs our own excavation business we are part of the group it is Nation wide and it's basically allows contractors to come together and share information about different experiences with excavation jobs. Each state is divided into sections and every so often we have large group meetings. Every two years we have a field day for all the equipment. here's the site
http://ialica.com/

[Farmallb]

I see where grade schools around the country are using chess to build kids ability to think ahead, and to retain memory. You could tell your pal that this game does the same thing.

[Althouse98]

Well Farmallb you asked to keep you updated on the progress. Our Superintendent declared that the game is just a "game. She said that "There is no point of getting people involved with it, because there is the possibility that kids will not get other homework done." My friends and I "Give the kids some responsibility in their lives, other than doing homework and showing up to practice what else do they have left to do? If they don't get their homework done, and you(the school) can prove that the game is the reason why the homework wasn't completed then take it off their computer, but you won't know if something will work unless you try." Well we would've gotten farther if we would of just went and bought gaming computers and done it that way. The teachers that were for the game and also out school tech guy told us to take our argument to the school board meeting and see how far we get there. So that's the next step in our plan..

[Farmallb]

Good luck to ya.

[M&M]

The teachers that were for the game and also out school tech guy told us to take our argument to the school board meeting and see how far we get there. So that's the next step in our plan..

Request the board to have a (1 months try out) as educational that you will provide to the school via your knowledge of the FarmSIM.

Then a month later,
if they (The Board) still not open mind about it and dont see any use for their school educational year schedule ,,
well thats it ,,, their lost ...

Good luck young man !