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| Kim Sloan Pearson, pictured with her husband Arthur of 37 years, is
being honored as a Significant Woman in Oklahoma Agriculture for her unwavering
passion for educating youth about agriculture both in the classroom and outside
of it. |
Gore, Okla. - Kim Sloan Pearson lives, breathes, and teaches agriculture
every day.
Growing up on a row crop farm near the Arkansas River with
her two older brothers, Pearson said she was practically a third son.
“From the time I was a little girl I was out there working,”
Pearson said. “Dad didn’t care that I was a girl, but that was okay. I loved
every minute of it.”
Pearson laughs and says she has never been much of an indoor
person. As a girl, she preferred being outside on a tractor, raking hay or
helping her dad with irrigation.
“One of my favorite memories was raising watermelons and dad
would let us pick one to eat when we were working,” Pearson recalled. “We would
just eat the heart out of it right there in the field!”
The Sloan Family Farm is on its 5th generation
with Pearson’s nephew and continues to raise wheat, soybean, corn, and for the
first time in several years, cotton. Her father “retired” last year at the age
of 82, though Pearson said they got him a greenhouse so he wouldn’t be bored.
The Sloans have a rule in their family that you cannot come
back to work on the farm until you have gone to college and earned a degree.
“We started a sweet corn business when we [the kids] were 6,
7 and 8 years old,” Pearson said. “Dad wanted us to go to college, so we
started selling sweet corn on the side of the road and putting it away in
savings.”
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Kim Sloan Pearson has taught high schoool
and middle school science classes for 37
years and has always incorporated
agriculture in her classroom.
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53 years later, Sloan’s Sweet Corn is still in business. It
not only paid for all three children to go to college, but also for her oldest
brother’s medical school.
“Sloan Farm has always been a very visible icon in our
community,” friend and co-worker Debbie Dick said. “Every summer, people
anticipate the first day the sweet corn will be ready and for Kim and her
family to start selling it.”
The sweet corn stand is such a success and community
favorite that on their first day of being open this summer Pearson said they
sold over 300 bushels of sweet corn and had to turn the remaining customers
away.
“You can only pick so much,” Pearson explained. “It’s a
24-hour job, picking at night and selling during the day.”
They utilize two one-row pickers to harvest their 30 acres
of sweet corn in the summer. Her nephew handles picking, and Pearson handles
selling.
Pearson has always had an interest in science, so it was no
surprise that after earning her Bachelor’s of Science in Education from
Oklahoma State University and a Masters in Administration from Northeastern
State University she went on to teach high school and middle school science.
A month after graduating college, she married Arthur
Pearson, a young man who grew up only a few miles away in Webbers Falls, before
beginning her teaching career.
“We got married one month after I graduated college because
I promised my mother I wouldn’t get married until after I graduated,” Pearson
said.
Teaching was a great choice for Pearson because it allows
her to spend summers with her family. She and Arthur have two kids, Arthur and
Ashley.
Pearson just began her 37th year of teaching. She
taught for 18 years at Webbers Falls, and is now beginning her 19th
year at Gore teaching Anatomy and Chemistry for the high school honors classes and
6th grade science.
To Pearson, incorporating agriculture into her classroom is
nonnegotiable. The two go hand-in-hand together. She feels it is crucial that
students gain a real insight and knowledge of where their food comes from.
“I have always incorporated ag in my classroom,” Pearson
explained. “I try to show them field to plate, whether it’s explaining how corn
becomes cornmeal, the chemical reaction every time you cook, or why something
smells or changes colors. It is more of a hands-on learning experience.”
Pearson was thrilled when she discovered there were
resources available to through Ag in the Classroom.
“I didn’t know it existed until one night I couldn’t sleep
and I was up searching on Google,” Pearson said. “I found Ag in the Classroom
and began using some of their curriculum.”
In 2013, Pearson was honored as the Oklahoma Ag in the
Classroom Teacher of the Year. She is well respected by others in the teaching
field, and especially those who appreciate her work with agriculture.
“Kim Pearson grew up on the farm, and now the students at
Gore are able to experience the farm, even if they do not live there,” said
Audrey Harmon, State Coordinator for Ag in the Classroom.
“Mrs. Pearson uses
agriculture to teach her high school students chemistry, among other subjects.”
Pearson’s class has already made a trip out to the cotton
fields this year.
“If I do an activity with once class they talk about it to
their friends, then my other classes say “We’ve got to do that!” Pearson said.
“I may not do it that day, but I promise them we will.”
In addition to teaching agriculture in her classroom,
Pearson tries to reach elementary students by hosting an “Ag Day” in Gore. In
addition to inviting a guest elementary school and her high school students
help run the event.
“Her high school students become the teachers and use the
lessons they have learned to make ice cream with the students, explaining the
science behind a liquid turning to a solid,” Harmon said.
Pearson also uses the opportunity to open students eyes
about potential careers in the agriculture industry.
“They get to look at equipment, see the computers farmers
use and we talk about how many careers there are in agriculture,” Pearson said.
“They are amazed by the technology we use, and I tell them ‘you don’t have to
be the farmer; someone has to work on the computers a farmer uses.’”
There have been 10 “Ag Days” so far because of the Pioneer
grant that Pearson obtained.
“I try to give a history of how agriculture and harvesting
has changed through the years,” Pearson said. “I also do about 15 Ag in the
Classroom activities in that one day.”
As a result of her passion for agriculture, she spends time
during her summer break traveling with peers and Ag in the Classroom to glean
new experiences to share with her students.
When asked why she
feels so strongly about teaching agriculture to students, she simply replied,
“If we didn’t have agriculture, we wouldn’t be here. Farmers feed the world.
That is what keeps all of us going.”
