CTE and the Common Core can address the problem of silos

Integrating Common Core standards with career-technical education would boost learning opportunities for all students.

For Midwesterners, silos are a common sight as one ambles along county roads. They’re taken for granted as part of what one expects to see in a farm scene. Old or new, silos serve the same purpose and that is to hold grain, protecting it from exposure to the elements and eventual rot. They’re necessary for maintaining the quality of the product.

But grain isn’t intended to stay in a silo indefinitely; it’s meant for use. In fact, grain that sits in a silo for too long under the wrong conditions will lose quality, deteriorate, and even build up gases and tragically explode. Ideally, at the end of a harvest period, farmers empty their silos and distribute the grain for a wide variety of uses in animal and human food production.