Understandings
"The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns." Thomas Fuller, 1732
School Gardens across America: Past and Present
School gardens date back to the early 1500’s and, Comenius, a philosopher during the 1600’s stated that, “A school garden should be connected with every school where children can have opportunities for leisurely gazing upon trees, flowers and herbs and are taught to enjoy them.” The American school garden movement can be traced back to the 1850’s. By the turn of the century, school gardens were an important component of a well-rounded education. School gardens became a national movement first in 1918 and again, during World War II with the creation of the government-sponsored Victory Garden program (Heffernan, 1997). This program encouraged home, school and community gardens, to grow fruits and vegetables for the war effort. School garden programs began to decline in the 1950’s because of the nation’s focus on technology (Desmond, 2002). Up to the late1960’s early 1970’s, school garden programs were common. However, due to shifting educational priorities, around the mid 1970’s, school gardens were no longer considered important to the school curriculum and therefore abandoned. This trend continued through the early to mid1980’s. During this time, television, video games and computers became popular pastimes.
Over the last two decades, school gardening has once again become a national movement. In a 1997 article, Heffernan discussed that due to new educational trends, environmental awareness, and insights into how school environments affect student behavior and development, school gardens are making a strong comeback.
Dirks and Orvis (2005) report how Texas and California state departments of education and university extension programs have actively encouraged school gardening by providing curricula and evaluative research. In 1995, the California Department of Education recognized the educational and health benefits of school gardens and launched the Garden in Every School initiative, which included fifteen million dollars in grants for promoting, sustaining, and developing school gardens for instructional purposes. More currently, California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, agrees that, “Every child in every school across America should have a school garden.”
The Need for School Gardens
The No Child Left Behind Act was a reform passed by the George W. Bush administration in 2001. The act was aimed at increasing student achievement by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). However, a recent study found that student’s science scores were the lowest in California than in any other state or U.S. territory, with the exception of Mississippi (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2005). A major cause of this lower rank in science is the increased pressure for students to perform well on standardized tests in the areas of language arts and mathematics. Teachers in Reading First schools, that is, schools that are low performing on standardized tests, are mandated to use state adopted instructional materials. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2001), only programs that are founded on scientifically based reading research are eligible for funding through Reading First. Along with such programs comes controversy. The “one program fits all” model assumes that the needs in a low economic, mono-linguistic school are the same needs as in a low economic, primarily Spanish speaking school. The pressure placed on teachers, principals, and districts for students to perform well on standardized tests often consumes and overrides “teaching to the whole child” (Miller, 2007) and doing what is best for students.
Most children today have little or no experience with the natural world. A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report stated that 83% of Americans now live in urban areas (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2006). Because safety is such a concern, families in which both parents work, must place their children in closely supervised after school programs. Video games, television and organized sports have taken the place of going outside to explore nature (Moore, 1995). Francis (1995) explains, as childhood becomes more structured, the places where children must play are increasingly artificial and lack the appeal of the natural environment. Mergen (2003) discusses how city children play in the dirt and water, climb trees when accessible, and explore much the same way rural children do, but children living in the city have far fewer positive experiences with their natural environment due to urban sprawl and environmental degradation. After studying three generations of children in one New York City neighborhood, Gaster (1991) reported that the children resorted to playing at schools because they were considered safe areas, and there was no place else to go. However, the article went on to state, school grounds then and today, typically consist of asphalt, concrete and lawn that lack environmental complexity.
When children are given the chance to spend time out of doors during the school day, the time is usually spent playing structured physical education games. Unstructured time to explore is virtually obsolete in American schools today, perhaps, because there is no place to explore on the school grounds. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recognized the lack of outdoor experiences and, in July of 2007, issued a children's outdoor bill of rights. This bill lists ten activities children should experience by the time they turn 14. Two of these activities include exploring nature and learning how to swim. However, this proclamation states that the Governor encourages this participation in outdoor activities “during the summer months”, not as part of the 180 days of the school year. Also, this assumes that parents have summers off to spend with their children exploring nature, and that families can afford to send their children to summer camps, or even that these outdoor experiences are not valued during the school year. Between being caught in a concrete jungle and not provided unstructured time outdoors in a natural setting, children today are starved for experiences with nature. Gardens are one way to add natural complexity to the schoolyard and give children the opportunity to experience the natural world. With this in mind, the question I will be researching is: what happens when children interact with nature through school gardens?
The Benefits of a Garden Experience: Making a Case for Nature Experiences at School
There are literally thousands of school gardens across America today and over two decades of research stating that school gardens positively impact students’ environmental attitudes, nutritional attitudes, self-esteem, academic achievement and test scores, attitudes toward school, interpersonal skills, social concerns, and student behavior. While these studies are informative and interesting, I am more interested in how the school garden will help students connect with nature beginning at a very basic level. That is, because these students have been city-bound their entire lives, many living in apartments, and have not been exposed to the natural world as most of us know it. I expect all of their discoveries and experiences to be monumental ones. There are a few appropriate articles supporting my ideas that I will discuss.
Brynjegard (2001) explored the reasons for school gardens and natural spaces on school grounds, and the effects the exposure to these spaces had on the students. In the article, she combined case studies, observational data and personal experience to show how the school garden impacted the students who participated. She asked the question, “In the course of working in the garden, do the children gain unique insights into some environmental issues faced by the world today?”
Brynjegard documented many examples in support of her thesis that the school garden increased the environmental awareness in the students she observed. For example, she noted the genuine concern the student’s had for all living things when they decided to plant a ‘gopher plant’ to deter gophers in the garden. The other possible options included introducing gopher snakes, poisoning, or death by a blunt instrument. Harming the gophers was not an option for these students. The students also showed a great sense of ownership by growing flowers and vegetables from seed. Others reminded each other to treat the creatures they found with gentle kindness and to put them back in the garden when they were through examining them. Brynjegard heard from the school coordinator that she noticed a change toward environmental awareness in the students she worked with that went beyond physical and emotional maturity. She said,” Kids who participate in the garden tend to think of what a garden’s needs are in comparison to their own, then apply that reasoning to the world beyond the garden.”
Brynjegard found that the elements of what makes a garden particularly effective at bridging the gap between the children and the nature were a core group of dedicated teachers and one administrator supporting it. Modeling the process every step of the way was key. She found that the garden works best when it was a garden for the whole school, not just one or two classrooms. Finally, she noted the importance of letting students have a voice in making decisions that affect the garden to instill a sense of ownership.
Janet Privnik (1994), in her article Grounds and Gardens: Reaping and Environmental Ethic, discusses human alienation from nature and its effect on children. She believes that school gardening is a way to connect students with the natural world that is lost when growing up in the city.
Bowker and Tearle (2007) looked at school gardening as a unique learning environment on an international level (England, Kenya and India). Their findings proved exciting and suggest that the promotion and encouragement of school gardening, such as their project, have the potential to create opportunities for learning in an environment where children are able to experience nature first hand and to use this shared experience for communication, and maybe begin to discuss environmental issues facing the world today through this shared research.
Bundschau-Mooney (2003) discusses the positive effects of “reinforcing the weaving of the wonders of the natural world into the fabric of today’s educational system”. She believes this can be accomplished through the inclusion of school gardens within the academic curriculum at the elementary school level. Her focus in the article was how to reconnect children to the natural world, while her project investigates how a student garden can increase interdisciplinary learning about the environment. Bundschau-Mooney’s research focuses on a single garden, the Mill Valley Children’s Garden, at an elementary school in California.
Bundschau-Mooney bases her research on the work of the well-known educational pioneer John Dewey. According to the author, “Dewey established a philosophical foundation of experiential education upon which others have built.” Dewey’s views, Bundschau-Mooney interprets, propose progressive education that emphasizes learning through experience. Dewey believed that learning should be experiential and students should create their own knowledge.
Bundschau-Mooney, in a thorough literature review to May 2003 on including a garden in the elementary school curriculum, believes that curriculum integration is the cornerstone of educational reform, and “the standards are the unifying concepts and processes that give students strong ideas that better help them understand the natural world.”
Also, Bundschau-Mooney links the need students have for a connection to their natural world with a school garden. She agrees with Heffernan’s idea that school gardens are a practical and effective way “to connect children with nature, teach hands-on science and environmental education, and beautify barren school grounds.” Bay Meadows Elementary School students visit the garden for 35 minutes each week. The students address a school-wide question of the week. This exercise is thought to help students focus on the ‘mathematical, scientific, historical, horticultural, and literary’ aspects of the garden. A monthly garden newsletter is published with innovative curriculum ideas such as releasing praying mantises as biological control agents to control insect pests in the garden. Art classes featuring “sketching, painting, and photography” are held in the garden.
Bundschau-Mooney describes ways of how the school garden “provides endless opportunities for integrating curriculum areas.” Examples include having each student keep a garden journal to record observations, collect data, and keep records and drawings of the garden. Also, students can use their skills to gather information on designing a new garden area, then develop and implement the plan. Students may want to sit quietly in the garden and draw plants and animals they see.
Bundschau-Mooney recognizes that a school garden offers students the chance to learn all subjects in a new and excitng setting. School gardens also teach students about “cooperation, nature, science, creativity, and community service.” At the same time, gardens also help teachers identify students’ needs and interests.
Why is my Research Different?
Childish dreams, they are what really move us for the rest of our lives.
~Edward O. Wilson
Overwhelmingly, gardens and gardening curricula target elementary school students (Waliczek, Bradley, Lineberger, & Zajicek, 2000). Some of the most popular curricula are the 1978 Life Lab K-5 Science Program (LifeLab, 2009); 1990 GrowLab curricula (National Gardening Association, 2009); Texas A&M's Junior Master Gardener Program (Dirks & Orvis, 2005); UC Davis' curriculum Nutrition to Grown On (California Department of Education, 2005; Morris & Zidenberg-Cherr, 2002); and New York's curriculum Kids Growing Food (New York Agriculture in the Classroom, 2009). For example, through its curricula and programs, the Life Lab helps schools develop gardens where children can create “living laboratories” for the study of the natural world. Similarly, the National Gardening Association has been providing material assistance to youth and community gardens through grants since 1982. Planned lessons and structured garden programs are beneficial to students; however, I am interested in exploring and documenting nature experiences that are unique to each child. My research was conducted in such a way that my students were able to “freely” explore nature in the school setting without pre-planned lessons or activities or direction by me. While they were exploring nature, I observed their behavior, interactions with other students, listened to their voices, captured defining moments, asked questions, and became a guide when appropriate. By the end of the research, my hope is that all my students will have formed a connection with nature, developed respect for all living things, and gained real world experiences that they can build on.