His Story
Pat Earle grew up working on farms and, in 1987, took over the agriculture program at McBee High School, the same post his father had held as a high school agriculture teacher for forty years. A graduate of McBee High and Clemson University, with a master’s degree in animal science, he first taught agronomy and animal science at Florence-Darlington Technical College before returning to McBee.
His teaching follows the FFA motto, “Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” Students use a beef herd simulation he developed, take field trips to farms and businesses, shadow a professional for a day as freshmen, and build a résumé and job application portfolio as seniors. When he asked ninth graders what agricultural education had done for them, one wrote, “It teached me to live,” and that sentence shaped his philosophy.
The results are hard to argue with. McBee’s FFA chapter has averaged more than eight State FFA Degree recipients a year for a decade, more than any other chapter in South Carolina; it has produced eleven state FFA officers in fourteen years, including two state presidents; and its seniors have placed at a rate of 78%. Seventy-four of his students have gone on to Clemson’s agriculture college in the last twenty years.
Beyond the Classroom
Earle’s students put their skills to work around town. They have maintained the school’s athletic turf, planted wildlife food plots, won tree-planting and irrigation grants, landscaped the elementary school and the town library for McBee’s 100th birthday, built soccer goals, bleachers and an outdoor classroom, and installed irrigation systems on the football and baseball fields.
He has been named South Carolina’s Outstanding Agriculture Teacher three times (1998, 2004 and 2010), the only teacher in the state to do so, and was the state’s 2009 Career and Technical Educator of the Year. He received the Honorary American FFA Degree, was one of six finalists for the National Rural Educators Association Teacher of the Year in 2007, and was one of five finalists for the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2009. His colleagues twice elected him chairman of the Chesterfield County School District Teachers’ Forum, and twice named him the district’s Teacher of the Year (1996 and 2005), the first to receive the honor twice. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan mentioned his program in a 2010 speech to the National FFA Convention.
Philosophy Into Practice
Earle writes that “it’s not enough to just impart knowledge.” Education must develop the whole student, with attitude, work habits, ethics and leadership, because employers ask about those traits more often than about grades.
He believes the biggest challenge in public education is getting parents to value a good education above good grades, and he wants the public to see more of what happens in today’s schools. “Someone is not a teacher until someone has learned.”
“It teached me to live.”— A ninth-grade student, in an essay for Earle’s agriculture class
In His Own Words
“Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.”— FFA motto, the basis of Earle’s teaching
“Someone is not a teacher until someone has learned.”— W. Patrick Earle
“Success breeds Happiness!”— W. Patrick Earle
What Others Said
“Mr. Earle is probably the most respected teacher in our 16 school district.”— Ken Buck, nominator
“I assure you there are none more so than Pat Earle.”— Keels, state agricultural education director, Clemson University
“Mr. Earle has set a standard of excellence within our school district for agricultural education.”— Colleague, McBee High School
“Mr. Earle began to encourage me, push me, and challenge me to try new and ever increasing difficult goals.”— Allen Wright, former student