4-H (organization)

The 4-H Youth Development Program is an organization that operates under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), with a network of independent clubs in fifty other countries around the world. 4-H clubs are not centrally controlled, but they do share common goals with one another and they coordinate activities and educational programs. The purpose of 4-H is to support the development of young people by building their confidence and helping them to learn by doing, primarily through the acquisition of agricultural skills, such as farming and animal husbandry. The name of the group is taken from its traditional emphasis on the values of health, head, heart, and hands. In the United States, more than six million people participate in 4-H each year, according to the 4-H website in 2024.

Brief History

The origins of 4-H can be traced back to the nineteenth century, when agricultural clubs came into being in many locations around the country. Often, these clubs were formed when individuals concerned about youth development took a personal interest in providing opportunities for growth, such as encouraging young people to learn how to farm by sponsoring a competition in which each youth farms an acre for a season. Other such clubs asked young people to compete in county fairs to see who could produce the most crops, thereby helping both the fairs and the youth.

A side benefit of these activities and clubs was the dissemination of new information about agriculture and new methods of farming. Agriculture researchers had observed that farmers were sometimes reluctant to try new ways of doing things. Educating the farmers’ children about the new techniques was seen to be a more effective way to convince their elders. Agricultural clubs were used to teach new farming methods to young people as a way of getting their parents to give them a try. The formal creation of 4-H in the United States took place in 1914 when Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, which established the Cooperative Extension Service of the US Department of Agriculture.

The symbol used by 4-H as an emblem is a green clover with four leaves on a white background. The color white is thought to represent purity, and the color green is meant to represent growth (both of flora and of character). Each leaf bears a letter H, standing for the values of health, head, heart, and hands. The origin of the four leaf clover symbol is traced to a school superintendent from Iowa named Oscar Benson. After visiting a school where the children presented Benson with several four leaf clovers, Benson decided to adopt this as the emblem of achievement in areas such as agriculture and science. The symbol’s use in this manner gradually grew in popularity and spread around the country. As the emblem of 4-H, the symbol has special protection under section 18 USC 707, a federal law that gives the US secretary of agriculture authority to prosecute misappropriation of the emblem.

Overview

Agricultural clubs were formed to provide a forum for youth to work together and learn together by engaging with projects that helped them develop social and leadership abilities, while teaching them skills that could be put to use in their families and communities. As the benefits of such clubs rapidly became clear, the government stepped in to create the Cooperative Extension Service as an offshoot of the nation’s network of land grant universities. In effect, the federal government was able to provide the infrastructure around which county governments and volunteers could build programs pertinent to youth development.

The development of 4-H differed strongly from many of the youth development programs implemented in more recent years, which have often been implemented in response to a perceived social problem, such as drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, or teen pregnancy. Under this model, a social ill is identified and a program is developed in an effort to address that ill by reducing its frequency or impact. The clubs that foreshadowed 4-H, on the other hand, came from a desire to take all the best qualities of youth and to build upon them by giving them spaces in which to grow. Some argue that the program’s successes have much to do with the fact that it is based not on the correction of deficits but on the application of talents.

Modern 4-H programs have adapted to social change and cultural change while still retaining their connection to 4-H’s roots. The four areas of emphasis for contemporary activities are mentoring, citizenship, science, and healthy living. To support its work, 4-H relies on huge numbers of volunteers donating time and/or money, as well as partnerships with schools, military personnel, and other community organizations. In many areas, 4-H is able to help schools address their own limitations by providing after school programs for students in need of a safe place to be, and by supplementing schools’ curriculum with their own science, technology, engineering, and math activities. This type of arrangement is typical of 4-H’s goal of taking something good and finding ways to make it better. Proponents of 4-H argue that while the world has changed a great deal since the early 1900s, what has not changed is the need for people to have opportunities to work together to learn and help others.

Bibliography

"4-H Clubs." Canada's History 93.6 (2013): 9. MAS Ultra School Ed. Web. 1 June 2015.

4-H Member's Guide to Project Work. Mississippi State U, Extension Service, 2014. Print.

Bailey, Sara. "Young People Need to Find Farming. 4-H Is the Answer." Modern Farming, 28 June 2024, modernfarmer.com/2024/06/young-people-need-to-find-farming-4h-is-the-answer/. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

Borden, Lynne M., Daniel F. Perkins, and Kyle Hawkey. "4-H Youth Development: The Past, The Present, and the Future." Journal of Extension 52.4 (2014). ERIC. Web. 1 June 2015.

Butler, Kiera, and Rafael Roy. Raise: What 4-H Teaches Seven Million Kids and How Its Lessons Could Change Food and Farming Forever. Oakland: U of California P, 2014. Print.

Calvert, Matthew, Mary Emery, and Sharon Kinsey. Youth Programs as Builders of Social Capital. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2013. Print.

David, Victoria Dotson. "Boundary-Spanning Actors in Urban 4-H: An Action Research Case Study." Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 18.3 (2014): 97–104. ERIC. Web. 1 June 2015.

Eaton, Summer C., and Samuel T. Smallidge. Guide to Coaching a National 4-H and FFA Wildlife Habitat Education Program Team. Las Cruces: New Mexico State U, Cooperative Extension Service, 2012. Print.

Lepley, Toby L., and Martha E. Couch. The Lifelong Impact of 4-H: Stories from Texas. College Station: Texas A&M UP, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, 2015. Print.