Kadoka Area High School Ag Instructor Brandy Knutson Gets Recognized by Newscenter1
When you enter the Kadoka Area High School’s shop room, a few things stick out to you.
Whether it’s the walls lined with FFA awards or the seemingly endless names the students that earned them, one could say one instructor is in the middle of it all.
For nearly three decades, the school’s Ag Instructor Brandy Knutson, has been helping his students prepare for life after school.
Mr. Knutson began his career at an SDSU Extension Office in Wessington Springs, South Dakota. He uses that experience in his teaching role as well as his position as the school’s shop teacher and FFA Advisor.
He says his goal is to prepare students by teaching them the “hands on” skills that hopefully translates into their future employment plans.
“They get a chance to explore and see what they like and maybe what they don’t like,” Knutson said. “But hopefully by the time they’re seniors right now, they need to have a plan. Because we’re not, we only got a few months of school left on what they’re going to do as soon as they get out.”
During his 28 years, Mr. Knutson there’s never a time he doesn’t laugh in these classes. After all, he only teaches electives, so the students that keep coming back make it worth.
“You have to be fairly entertaining to keep their interest here ’cause they don’t have to take my classes, but yet there’s quite a few that do, so it works out well,” Knutson said.
To help his class, Mr. Knutson bought a sawmill to cut lumber for his classes in the summer time, and he says that’s where the money will go to help keep the class free to his students.