Horticulture teacher Dan Harris is shown working in the greenhouse in this February 2021 photo from the Transylvania County Schools Facebook page.

Dan Harris is the agriscience and horticulture teacher and FFA advisor at Brevard High, but his role extends beyond the classroom. He is often found working with students, plants and animals in greenhouses and the Brevard High FFA Farm.

His love for agriculture and admiration for youth first drew him to teaching. While he didn’t attend BHS himself, he and his wife, who is a teacher, were drawn to the area and the quality of the school system. 

Before becoming an educator, Harris worked in the nursery and horticulture industry for 10 years. During this time, he witnessed changes in agricultural development, including the advancement of technology like automated machinery, the use of genetically modified plants and cross-breeding for diverse colors and textures in plants.

Although he didn’t have an Future Farmers of America chapter at  his high school, he had some involvement with a friend’s FFA club, even though the friend attended a different school. 

Harris tries to apply hands-on learning in his class as much as possible.

“We learn in the classroom and then go out and try to practice what we teach,” he said.

In this September 2015 photo by animal science teacher Sarah Clayton from the Transylvania County Schools Facebook page, Brevard FFA member Anna Bryson, with Dan Harris at far right, received the Grand Champion title for the Western NC Dairy Steer project division with her steer, Angus, at the NC Mountain State Fair.

Harris encourages his students to explore an agricultural related career.

“I have several students that are in agriculture at different… various phases, whether teaching agriculture, or farming, or horticulture, landscapers… the list goes on,” he said.

His biggest goal is to teach his students something they can use even if they don’t go into an agriculture career, “something they can use when their 8 or 80.” 

In the BHS greenhouse, students grow flowers and vegetables, corn and hay to sell. Harris said he finds that growing plants in the greenhouse and selling them at the tailgate market is a rewarding project for his students, as their work comes full circle.

Students prepare for the annual BHS FFA Plant Sale in this February 2021 photo posted on the Transylvania County Schools Facebook page.

The most real-world lesson students learn in his classes is life and death. You raise plants and animals for food and have to process them – sometimes it doesn’t work out and you have disease and failures, he explained.

His favorite class to teach is horticulture, and his favorite technique is propagation.

By Jaylen McCall

In this photo from a March 7, 2019 Transylvania County Schools Facebook post, Dan Harris carries a calf at the BHS farm that year. “First baby of the year born late this afternoon! The bull-calf curse has been broken and we finally have us a heifer!! Welcome to the BHS FFA Farm family, little girl! Dan already had to carry it back to the other side of the fence… silly booger rolled under,” animal science teacher Sarah Clayton said in the post.