"Teaching was the most pleasant thing I did"
About this Quote
A man who pushed American agriculture toward scale and efficiency, Earl Butz wielded Cabinet power and ignited controversy on a national stage. Yet he singled out the classroom as the most pleasant work of his life. That preference reveals something about the difference between influence and fulfillment. Policy moves masses, but teaching touches individuals in ways that are immediate, reciprocal, and often lasting. In a lecture hall or seminar, he could see minds engage, challenge him, and carry ideas into careers; in Washington, outcomes were mediated by politics, markets, and headlines.
Butz spent much of his career at Purdue University, steeped in the land-grant mission to extend practical knowledge to farmers and future leaders. He came of age in an era when agricultural economics was reshaping production and markets, and he taught students who would manage co-ops, banks, elevators, and farms across the Midwest. That setting rewarded clarity, evidence, and mentorship. It also fit his plainspoken style. The classroom allowed him to argue for efficiency and scale not as slogans, but as analyses with costs, benefits, and tradeoffs that could be scrutinized, questioned, and adapted.
His years as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture made him famous for urging farmers to plant fencerow to fencerow and get big or get out, policies that boosted exports and hastened consolidation. They also made him infamous, ending in resignation after a racist remark. Against that backdrop, the appeal of teaching is not hard to grasp. In teaching, he could pursue the same ambition to modernize agriculture while maintaining a human connection and a feedback loop, where respect is earned lesson by lesson rather than conferred by office.
The line distills a hierarchy of satisfactions: public power dazzles, but the craft of guiding learners, shaping judgment, and sharing tools that outlive any news cycle offers a steadier and more personal joy.
Butz spent much of his career at Purdue University, steeped in the land-grant mission to extend practical knowledge to farmers and future leaders. He came of age in an era when agricultural economics was reshaping production and markets, and he taught students who would manage co-ops, banks, elevators, and farms across the Midwest. That setting rewarded clarity, evidence, and mentorship. It also fit his plainspoken style. The classroom allowed him to argue for efficiency and scale not as slogans, but as analyses with costs, benefits, and tradeoffs that could be scrutinized, questioned, and adapted.
His years as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture made him famous for urging farmers to plant fencerow to fencerow and get big or get out, policies that boosted exports and hastened consolidation. They also made him infamous, ending in resignation after a racist remark. Against that backdrop, the appeal of teaching is not hard to grasp. In teaching, he could pursue the same ambition to modernize agriculture while maintaining a human connection and a feedback loop, where respect is earned lesson by lesson rather than conferred by office.
The line distills a hierarchy of satisfactions: public power dazzles, but the craft of guiding learners, shaping judgment, and sharing tools that outlive any news cycle offers a steadier and more personal joy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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