Should Kids Get Their Hands Dirty at School?
Kids are learning how to cultivate crops, compost, and then cook the food they have grown, through the Edible Schoolyard program. The program, developed by restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, was first introduced at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California.
The first New York affiliate will be built this summer at P.S. 216 in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. Teachers will use the garden to give students in prekindergarten to fifth grade lessons in art, math, history and science. The hope is that the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.
Critics of Edible Schoolyard claim classroom gardens do not help students meet the state standards for English and math; however, we could argue that teaching kids how to grow and cook their own food is an invaluable life lesson. The Edible Schoolyard program not only does that, but teaches children pertinent issues such as sustainable agriculture, climate change and so much more.
Do you support gardens and kitchens as a vehicle for teaching at schools? Leave your comments and let us know your thoughts.
It’s incredibly shortsighted for critics to see school only as a tool for rote learning. As children spend much of their days in school, it is the place where most of their ideas and experiences about the world are shaped.
I could argue that much of what is taught in school is irrelevant. After almost 15 years out of compulsory schooling, I am still trying to connect some of the required instruction to what I do now. Much of what I memorized (not learned) to meet those state “standards” is lost.
What I have kept with me, all these years, are memories, both good and bad, of the teachers, classmates, school trips, and hands-on activities that have shaped my outlook.
And I didn’t realize this outlook from sitting in a class all day, being taught to the test.
Research done by Teachers College at Columbia University clearly demonstrated that hands on food based education was significantly more effective than “food pyramid based nutrition education.
I think it is a great idea to have children experience things that are not ‘normal’ classroom learning experiences. There are some people in this country to think that produce is found in the grocery store and don’t know or think of where it came from before that.
I think this is also a great idea to help curb childhood obesity.
Any creative teacher could use the garden to reinforce writing and math skills. You can calculate area, determine how many plants can fit into a space, following the spacing recommendations on plant and seed packets, write about your experiences afterward, keep a journal, read articles written about growing food, self-reliance. I could go on; the list in nearly endless. Edible Schoolyard is brilliant.
Having taught in an elementary school for 30 years, it is hard to believe that anyone can’t see the value in classroom gardens. To argue that gardens don’t help students meet standards for English or math is incredibly shortsighted. Project based learning has proven to be far more valuable in teaching skills in a “just-in-time” context. Motivated by a real life project and problem solving, students engage in higher level thinking skills and end up doing more meaningful reading, writing and math, especially when lessons are developed and guided by skillful educators.
Early in my career, I received a nutrition education grant and used the funds for a healthy snack program with my special ed class. In order to participate in the cooking lessons, students had to read the recipes and measure the ingredients.
We grew sprouts every week and sold them to teachers, creating a small business that enabled us to continue our program after the funding ended. More math skills were taught through this experience - weighing the sprouts and bookkeeping to keep track of the costs and revenues.
We also had a summer gardening project where we compared growth rates and yields of a fertilized garden with one that wasn’t fertilized. Students measured, recorded their findings, wrote about their experience, and created books to read these to younger students. Were they meeting standards? Of course they were!
Teaching to the “test” is the surest way to fail our kids.
The measure of education, and parenting, is whether these kids thrive, enjoy their childhood, and then thrive as adults in whatever they choose to be.
Certainly EVERY child whether they are a doctor or janitor or a musician or CEO needs to know the basics of how and what to feed themselves, how to budget, etc.
As Melissa mentions, that which we retain from school days is not the rote learning but the friendships, the play, the communication skills, and for those of lucky enough, the gardening. When I was teaching it was crucial to include as much hands-on, real-life experience as possible, and it is through those experiences that we learn language skills that are vital for learning to read and write, as well as an “understanding” of science, math, where our food comes from, health, wellness, the environment, community, seasons, death and life, and so very much more. Thank you Edible Schoolyard, thank you PS216… long may they thrive and grow!