Many of us cannot resist a ranking or a statistic that tries to put one person, team, city or state into context with its counterparts. We express that fascination through rankings of the best places to live or best colleges to attend, despite the fact that wild variations of these rankings from year to year belie their reliability.

New Mexicans may want to question our state's rankings on the nation's social statistical scales. New Mexico shows up near the bottom in categories related to wealth and near the top in categories that signal trouble. We can argue fairly that much of New Mexico's population places higher values on matters of the family and home than matters of wealth. A good many have consciously chosen a less lucrative but familiar path in their homeland, whether it be on their reservations or ranches or in their small towns or neighborhoods.

Indeed, the indicators of a quality existence many New Mexicans may pick don't necessarily show up in any statistics books. Still, no one can be happy about rankings that show our children to be at greater risk of suicides, accidents related to alcohol or other dangers. It is ironic that in a state with cultures that place such value on the family we can have so many at-risk young people.

Do we care deeply for children in our own immediate families, but not for other children in our communities? I'm sure we can find plenty of evidence to both support and refute such a contention, both statistically and in our everyday experiences. One thing is certain. Because New Mexico's resources are spread so thin, we have to be particularly vigilant to protect the interests of children by working smarter and more cooperatively than may be the case in richer states.

One of the best ways we show that kids count at NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics is through the value we place on our departments of family and consumer sciences, extension home economics, and 4-H and youth. They represent an integrated family approach to human needs. In a state that reflects tremendous family values, this approach is our best hope for the future.

Students are responding to the needs they see around them. The family and child sciences program in the college is booming. The 100 undergraduates and 50 graduate students in this program are prepared to go into family counseling or other fields that support the family structure.

It is essential that programs like these maintain a strong tie to the Cooperative Extension Service through our college where our networks with local communities, state agencies and private groups create real and needed change. Articles included in this magazine recount several instances of this happening.

State agencies have worked with us to get parenting information to parents as they raise their children in the critical early months of their lives. State agencies work with us to deliver life skills training to young people at that critical juncture of securing their first job. We work with the Girls' Ranch to provide 4-H structure in young people's lives at a time when they are separated from their families. We work with U.S. Department of Agriculture programs to assure a solid physical foundation for youngsters through sound nutrition.

We've had prevention and intervention successes in young lives. We need thousands more of these successes that only a cooperative relationship of all the people and groups concerned about children can provide. The college, through its departments and Extension in every county, is perfectly suited to being a partner with many. There is no greater calling for Extension than to support the structures that make our society functional. The family has to be at the top of that list.