UT-TSU Extension Madison County
By Susan Holloway, Volunteer 4-H Clubs
This month I greet you as a Volunteer for the UT-TSU Extension Service in
Madison County (Jackson, TN) for 4-H Club members. My responsibilities are centered
around the guidance of leadership in 4 th and 5 th Grade classes of all public schools and
some private schools as students and teacher-leaders “Learn By Doing” and “Make The
Best Better” in living skills and career choices. I am only part-time and a program
assistant to Extension Staff, Dr. Kane Reeves and Mrs. Sharon Tubbs. There are
currently over 3,000 4-H Club members in grades 4-12 in Madison County. This county
has a leading program in the state. I joined 4-H in 1962 when I was nine years old and
am not having to leave it behind yet. If your child or grandchild speaks of a 4-H Club
they have joined, visit https://madison.tennessee.edu to see how involved in active
learning they can be.
After assisting hundreds to enroll in 4-H in the past few weeks, I am concerned to
find many 10-year-old students do not know what 4-year-old students were required to
know just a few years back. That is their personal contact information such as address
and parent’s phone number. You may ask what this has to do with being healthy. It has
a tremendous impact on a person’s safety and ultimately a person’s health. National
and state requirements for teacher’s subject matter are different and have possibly left
out essential components such as verbally reciting address, phone number and learning
cursive writing. I am asking parents and grandparents to help your young family
members and neighbors learn such essentials.
I have a personal story that tells how important it is for a child to be able to tell
how to connect them with family. My only child is now 44 years old and an administrator
of St. Thomas Hospitals in Middle Tennessee. He has always been assertive and
somewhat independent. While in Kindergarten locally, he got separated from his class
one day and decided he knew the way to walk home. The distance was much longer
and slower walking than driving and police picked him up to see why he was alone. He
knew his address and his parent’s phone numbers and we were safely reunited. Of
course, they double checked our parenting skills!! We would give much less stress to
bus drivers at the beginning of each school year if every child were drilled to learn this
information. I wonder if missing children through the years, those whose picture was on
milk cartons or those for whom amber alerts sound, were able to use such vital
information to contact their families if they found an opportunity.
Good health is being safe. Good safety is planning, teaching and preparing the
knowledge to keep us safe when and if we need to recite such information as simply
knowing contact info for our caregivers. That may also apply to our elderly!
