Indeed, they are often more important, depending on the age of the child and the stated goals of the program. County extension educators, once called county extension agents, also play a major teaching role, working with both adult and youth audiences. Young people in 4-H join voluntarily, and they select projects and areas of involvement based on personal interests. Working independently or in groups, young people experiment, work, demonstrate, and produce educational products in areas like rocketry, animal science, entomology, food preparation, environmental study, fishing, photography, leadership, and clothing and textiles. They also work on group programs like community service and cross-age teaching on topics such as pregnancy prevention, alcohol use, nutrition, and fitness.
Young people come to the active learning environment with different skills and abilities.
They approach new situations and ideas by exploring, engaging with others, reflecting, arid questioning in order to discover answers and implications. The Community Context 4-H takes place in the context of community, community that wants to foster comprehensive and sustained youth development opportunities for all its young people. To achieve this, communities will commit financial resources, support paid and volunteer staff, foster quality programs, and promote public policies that foster the growth and development of children through nonformal as well as formal learning experiences. Communities will invite young people of all ages to be part of the planning, operation, governance, and assessment of these programs. Communities will rigorously explore the roles that parks and recreation, libraries and museums, sports leagues, church youth groups, youth support networks, youth clubs and organizations, camping and environmental programs, employment and training opportunities, civic organizations, and many other youth development opportunities can contribute to the education of their children.