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On A Growth Track by Diane Silcox-Jarrett, Our State Magazine, September 2006. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

On A Growth Track

Julian Smith has a green thumb
for growing plants — and even more so
for developing his students at Chatham Central High School.

By Diane Silcox-Jarrett

Teresa Bartee is convinced Julian Smith will guide her son, Will, in a good direction. “He’s one-in-a-million,” she says. “There’s no other teacher as devoted to his students as he is.” Bartee bases her confidence on Smith’s 40 years as the agricultural and horticultural teacher at Chatham Central High School in Bear Creek, a tenure that literally crosses generations. Bartee herself was a student of Smith’s in the 1970s and now owns a florist shop in Siler City.

Smith has taught, guided, and inspired hundreds of students in southern Chatham County since 1965. It was his first job after graduating from North Carolina State University, and his devotion to his work and his students has never diminished.

Signs of Smith’s years of educating are easy to spot. The four greenhouses over- flowing with plants, the professional- looking landscape in the back of the school, and students in coveralls busy at their assignments are all confirmation of Smith’s gift for teaching. Visit one of the greenhouses, and you’re immediately impressed with the brilliant reds, purples, and yellows radiating from flowers planted and nurtured by Smith’s students. “It’s their hard work,” says Smith, looking over the plants. That’s Smith’s way; always giving credit to the students.

When the school opened in 1965, there was no greenhouse; in fact, Smith began the horticulture program with a single propagation bed he built at one end of the school. Two years later, he and a handful of students built a 20-by-14-foot greenhouse that is still in use. Inside, plants were put in a 2-foot-square wooden box and placed on a heat register so they could germinate. “It was all I had for four years,” he explains. “It wasn’t advanced technically, like our newer greenhouses, but we were able to start plants and the students learned.”

The rural school is situated on 66 acres, and throughout his years there, Smith and his students have made many improvements to the property, including a bridge, a gazebo, and a picnic area, making the grounds seem more like a park. “We are really lucky to have all this land,” says Smith. “I can look out here and think back about my students who have put their hearts and backbone into all of this.”

Today, there is even an area for forestry classes on the opposite side of the school. Forestry or horticulture, it doesn’t matter; Smith’s classes are now well known and well attended. His program usually has 75 students enrolled.

Knowing what’s important

“Mr. Smith was already a legend by the time I got to high school,” explains Bryan Jourdan, who took classes from Smith in the early 1990s and now runs a field-grown nursery in Hickory. “I was determined to learn what he had to teach me. Students might think these classes aren’t that hard, but once they’re in, they find out how much there is to know.”

First year students find out quickly. There’s more than identifying plants

by common names such as lilac and iris. Students have to learn the botanical names such as Liquidambar styraciflua. And spelling does count here. “There are over 300 plants they need to learn how to identify, and there are 600 more plants in the arboretum and conservatory they learn to work with,” Smith explains. “When I give them a test, they get five points if they know the plant’s botanical name, spelled correctly, of course! They only receive four points if they have a spelling error. Correct common names get four points also. They are tested on 20 plants every week. If they have a hard time spelling, they can at least get an 80,” he notes.

These tests are not met with the moaning and groaning sometimes typical of teenagers. “We knew we had to learn them, and we did,” says Jourdan. “It was something Mr. Smith felt was important, so it is important to us.”

Smith’s sense of what is important has kept his courses and laboratories up-to-date, including one where students work on cloning African violets. “Look at this,” says Smith, showing a small test tube with a miniature violet. “This has been cloned. Pretty neat, don’t you think?” Pretty neat could describe the lab itself. The floors look clean enough to eat off, microscopes line the countertops, and lab clipboards are at the ready. “This is as close to a college lab as you are going to find,” says Smith with pride. “When the students leave here, they are ready for lab in college.”

It is not just the tremendous amount of horticultural knowledge Smith’s students gain during the six classes they can take in the program. They also take a part of Smith’s dignity and dedication with them.

“Mr. Smith pushes you and makes you want to learn. You have to have good study habits to take these classes,” explains Chris Hart, a current student of Smith’s, with plans to attend North Carolina State University in the fall to major in plant research. Jourdan agrees with Hart and remembers the long hours he spent studying for class, “It was tough. You learned how to dedicate yourself to your studies.”

Learning independence and pride in your work are two other lessons Smith transfers to his students. “These young people need to learn how to take care of themselves. When they leave my course of study, if they choose to attend college, which I hope will happen, they will be ready. I want them to be able to go out and get a job with a garden center or landscaping firm, if that is the path they choose.”

Independence and responsibility are learned working in the greenhouse. As class starts, Smith stands in front

of the room instructing students in what needs to be done that afternoon. Dressed in coveralls, which they have to wash themselves, students are busy writing on their clipboards notes about their daily work. “You see, it is important they learn how to be in charge. Every one of them gets the opportunity to serve as the foreman, and it is their responsibility to make sure things get done on schedule and in the proper way,” says Smith. “Most of the projects around here are supervised by a student. The stone garden in front was built by the students. I went over with them how to do it, but they had to level it out, and the ones in charge had to make sure everything was done right. “It’s their work,” he says proudly. “Now they have to decide which plants and flowers they want to use in it.”

Capitalizing on green thumbs

The 350 to 400 healthy, garden-ready plants are not just for Smith and his students. Visit on a spring Friday afternoon, and the working classroom seems more like a commercial nursery. “People from around here know we sell our plants, and they know they’re the finest quality,” explains Smith.

Planted pot arrangements, designed by the students, line the side of one greenhouse, each with its own unique personality. “I teach them which plants go together, and then they have to come up with their own design,” explains Smith. “And yes, they get graded on it.” Some have a tropical look while others have the feel of a Victorian garden.

“By having customers come here to buy plants, the students learn about the business side of a garden center. In addition they have to field questions about sun, shade, and heat resistance,” he says.

Smith and his students don’t just sell plants in the spring. “Come here before Christmas, and these greenhouses are full of poinsettias.” The secret to their plants’ vibrant colors might just be in the soil. “We’ve come up with our own formula,” explains Smith. The students mix it up, bag it, and sell it. The money raised from the sale of plants and soil goes back into the program for equipment or for the annual field trip. “I have taken kids up to Canada to see the Canadian Horticultural School at Niagara Falls, to the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., and to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. We have also been to Disney World in Florida to see how gardens there are planned and planted,” he adds. “They need to understand and see for themselves how their training can be used in the workplace and the opportunities that it will afford them.”

Prepared for anything Jourdan says Smith’s lessons of independence and dedication have stayed with him through his life. “I learned a lot from him academically, but most of all he taught me how to be a man, to be responsible. He has such a respect for his students that they respect him in turn. He has a special way of teaching.”

That special way of teaching has led Smith’s students to be recognized nationally. His classroom walls display the many achievements of 40 years of pupils. Each year, there is a Future Farmers of America (FFA) National Contest in Nursery, Landscaping, and Floriculture. Smith’s students have won the national title 15 times and placed second 11 times. On three occasions he has had the top four students in

the nation. The competitions include categories such as identifying plants, developing landscape plans, writing business letters, and diagnosing pest problems. These national awards require long hours of study before and after school. “We would have to come on Saturday mornings at 6:30 and stay until noon for several months,” remembers Jourdan, thinking back to his own championship. “It is unreal the amount of work all of us put into it.”

Things haven’t changed any, as Chris Hart prepares himself for this year’s competition. Echoing Jourdan he laughs, “We have to be here first thing in the morning, and it doesn’t matter that it is Saturday.” Not too many 18-year-olds would find getting up at sunrise on Saturday a laughing matter. But Smith seems to be able to bring out a strong work ethic in his pupils.

Paul Joyce learned how to give it his all as a student teacher under Smith. “I did my practice teaching with him in 1968,” says Joyce. “He made me love teaching. By the time I was finished I knew I wanted to do nothing but teach.” Joyce went on to teach for 19 years before becoming assistant superintendent for Chatham County Schools. “I remember one year, when the students where getting ready for a championship, he was pushing them, telling them over and over, ‘Come on, this ain’t no beauty contest.’ At the end of the school year, his students had on T-shirts with that saying on it. That is the type of teacher he is, one the kids respect and also have fun with.”

You would think that all the awards and recognition might go to Smith’s head, but that is another lesson his students learn. “He taught us how to be humble when we win and, if we were to lose, to be humble then as well,” remembers Jourdan. “He made sure we knew how to shake someone’s hand properly and to speak clearly when spoken to. These are all things we take with us through our entire lives.”

The few times you happen to find Smith at his lectern, he is standing behind a saying he posted there. It’s from Joe Paterno, Pennsylvania State University football coach, who spoke one year at the FFA National Championships. “The will to win is important; the will to prepare is vital.”

Smith lives by this motto and knows preparing his students for a future in horticultural science is not the only essential lesson he can pass on. It’s those life lessons such as looking a person in the eye when you talk to them, being humble as a winner or loser, and how to shake someone’s hand that will carry them through life.

Walking across the campus, he admires a tall, full Norwegian spruce that he planted many years back. “It shouldn’t be growing this well in Chatham County, much less flourishing. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Smith asks, looking up to its top. “As much as I love seeing a tree like this grow, my students give me the most pleasure. Teaching them and seeing them grow, now that is what means the most to me.”

Diane Silcox-Jarrett is adding to her plant collection at her home in Raleigh.

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