Gainesville ag teacher and FFA adviser Jon Wilson says he’s blessed to help educate future agriculturists at GHS


Gainesville High School ag teacher and FFA adviser Jon Wilson and wife April celebrated their 25th anniversary this year.

In 2020, as the Gainesville FFA observed “Dress like Mr. Wilson Day,” during National FFA Week. Bryson Martin, left, and Cooper Friend donned their best “Mr. Wilson-style” attire and mustaches.

In his usual humorous fashion, Wilson posted this photo to Facebook recently during the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis with the caption, “Everywhere I go, these kids in blue jackets follow me.”

Gainesville High School agriculture teacher and FFA adviser Jon Wilson has a signature haircut (or lack thereof) and epic mustache that makes him one of the most recognizable teachers around - but what students really remember about him goes far beyond his appearance. His personable teaching style and funny-natured personality keep students engaged in curriculum and involved in both his ag classes and with FFA.

“Mr. Wilson is a strong reflection of the FFA creed he teaches to students every year. Our community, district and students are fortunate to have such a strong agricultural advocate teaching our students. His dedication and commitment to our community and future farmers will continue to be the example for other FFA programs,” said Gainesville superintendent Justin Gilmore. 

 

An ag-centered family

Wilson lives in Douglas County with his wife, April, a resource conservationist with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. Outside of their full-time jobs, the couple also raise beef cattle at their farm. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year. 

The Wilsons have two adult children, Wyatt and Westin, who both graduated from Gainesville High School.

“Everyone in the family is involved in agriculture. April works for the USDA, Wyatt is in his senior year of college where he is studying to be an agricultural education instructor and Westin is currently studying with John Deere in the Forestry and Construction Technology Program,” Wilson said. “When the boys were in school [at GHS], they would help on the farm. Even though they’ve gone to college, they are still active and help out on a regular basis.”

 

A major in wildlife conservation, the feed industry and the final call to a lifelong career in agriculture education

Wilson grew up in Eminence and lived in rural Shannon County during his childhood and adolescence. He attended school there until his sophomore year in high school, when his family moved to Licking. He graduated from Licking High School. 

After high school, he didn’t immediately know where life would take him. He enrolled in college with a wildlife conservation major and ambitions of starting a career in that field. A few semesters into his study, though, he was not convinced the degree was his way forward in life. He decided to pause his college education and instead started a career in the livestock feed industry.

Wilson worked for several years at Tindles and MFA, but at some point, he was again drawn back to college to finish his degree.

“I’ve always had a love for agriculture, and I really felt like my purpose was to influence the lives of our youth,” Wilson told the Times. “When I went back to college, I visited with my adviser, and we began discussing the possibilities of teaching agriculture. It seemed like a good combination of both.”

With the support of his college adviser, Wilson began his college journey toward becoming a high school agriculture education instructor. He earned his teaching degree from Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) in 1999 and accepted his first teaching position at Chadwick High School. 

“The school didn’t have an agriculture program at the time. So my first year as a teacher, I chartered a new program for the district,” Wilson said. 

After starting the program at Chadwick, a teaching position in the agriculture department came open at Gainesville High School in 2000. Wilson applied and was hired for the job.

Wilson has taught agriculture education to students in ninth through 12th grades since that time. His current class lineup at Gainesville includes nine courses: ag sciences I and II, ag construction, conservation of natural resources, landscaping, greenhouse, AOE (agriculture occupational experience) and two college-credited courses through MSU-West Plains, animal science and agriculture business. 

He was named the Missouri Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association Teacher of the Year in 2012 and the Missouri Association of Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year in 2013. 

 

Two decades of classes - and the changing technology that goes along with it

Unlike Chadwick, Gainesville had a rich FFA history and tradition before Wilson joined the staff here, as the ag program has been important to the district and students for decades. 

“We’ve tried to keep those early traditions alive through the years while the national organization has evolved,” he said.

Through his two decades of employment with GHS, he says several things have remained the same while others have changed – especially centered around technology. 

“When I first began teaching, we were filling out state forms and rosters by hand. Using carbon-copy papers, we would have to handwrite all of our information and send it to the state office, “ he said. “Our state proficiency awards were pretty primitive as well,” he said, adding that the old handwritten awards process now has been replaced with digital photos and computers. 

Wilson said his record books, which also were handwritten in his early years, are now kept in digital form, and his students also benefit from learning, keeping and using digital records for their annual supervised agriculture experience (SAE) projects. 

Another big change came in 2019, when the school replaced the 1980s greenhouse with a new, computerized greenhouse paid for, in part, by $170,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The new greenhouse features digitized and automatic watering and shade controls that can be accessed through an app on a cell phone or through a computer. 

 

An honor to lead

Although as a young man, it took Wilson a few years to ultimately find his path to agriculture education, in the end he says he’s definitely where he belongs. 

“I love my job. The most rewarding thing is watching my students succeed. Agriculture and FFA provide so many opportunities for students to get out of their comfort zone and help them grow into leaders,” Wilson said. 

Many students learn and develop skills that will be needed in their lives after high school, and Wilson said he’s honored that he gets to be a part of that process.

“I challenge my students to accomplish some pretty hard things. I love to see the confidence grow in them as they accomplish those tasks. Whether it is welding in the shop, public speaking, judging events or a test over classroom material,” he said. “I love watching them develop the skills they need to enter the workforce and become functioning members of society.”

With such an engaging career, Wilson says it’s hard to pick any single experience that really stands out to him, but several yearly projects and trips are always memory-makers.

“I’ve loved taking students to Washington, D.C., and watching their reactions when we see the history in real life that they’ve studied in class. I’ve also enjoyed seeing students walk across the stage at state and national convention to receive awards,” he said. “There have been times when a student didn’t think they could recite the FFA Creed, but they did… and they did a great job at it,” he said.

Among his favorite times at Gainesville have been trips to FFA’s national convention, held in various cities across the nation. In fact, Wilson was at the 2021 FFA National Convention with his students in Indianapolis last month. 

He says he also loves SAE visits, where students take on agricultural projects outside the classroom. In this year’s SAE projects, students have been involved in raising beef cattle, cutting hay on local farms, raising rabbits and goats, mowing lawns, setting up corals, building fence and other farm-related tasks. 

 

A great group of kids at GHS

If there’s one thing he’d like local residents to know, Wilson said, it’s that the students at GHS are some of the best around.

“The parents and community members of Gainesville have really raised a great group of students and have instilled morals, values and integrity in them,” Wilson said. “When we travel, our chapter receives positive compliments on their behavior. There are several motels that ask Gainesville FFA to come stay with them because our students are always polite, kind, thoughtful and well behaved.”

Wilson said that behavior was on show during a convention event several years ago.

“When we parked our bus, we noticed a person in the parking lot with a flat tire. They were struggling to change the tire. The students on the bus wanted to help, so they piled off the bus in their official dress and changed the tire for them,” he said. 

Wilson says he often tells his students that they need to choose their career wisely and to make sure that it centers around something they enjoy doing, so they’ll never have to “work” a day in their life.

“That’s how I feel about teaching,” he said. “I get to combine the two things I enjoy, talking about agriculture and working with students.” 

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423