Late summer has come upon us here in the Southeastern United States.  Occasionally, a cool breeze sweeps through, and the mornings can be downright pleasant.  With late summer comes time to plan and start planting for fall gardens.  For me, planning for fall gardens also means it’s time to start another school year.  This year will be my fourth in which I am planning for Scienhancement class, a Kindergarten through 5th grade garden based science lab at South Jackson Elementary School, located in Jackson County, Georgia, just to the north of Athens.
Photo credit: Stephen Lush.
As anyone knows, planning and growing gardens comes with some inherent risks. Weather, insects, and disease can all play a part in whether or not a garden is successful.  Garden based education is the same way: it’s a leap of faith, a belief that what you are doing is not only engaging for students, but practical, hopefully fun, and an effective way of teaching.  I have led teacher workshops, attended workshops, presented at conferences, and even created my own professional learning community in order to hone my craft and become a better garden based educator.  All the while, my faith in garden based education as a powerful means of teaching students grows stronger and stronger.  I often reflect on why garden based education is not more prevalent in school systems across Georgia.  Why hasn’t garden based education progressed past an afterschool program or led by organizations outside of the school system?  Why isn’t garden based education more accepted as a way to teach, rather than an extra thing offered to students?  In my time as a garden based educator, I believe that the answer lies in the risks that educators and school systems perceive to be at play when choosing between conventional, or dare I say, organic learning.  If teachers and systems maintain the status quo, when the results come in, they can point to the “way they want me to teach” as the reason for disappointing results.  Drill and kill education, teaching to the test, students in desks for extended periods of time, diminished recess, and limits on social interaction are all symptoms that come from using standardized test scores as the primary means to evaluate teaching and learning.  Garden based education is the seed, the seed that is in the palm of your hand; it represents the future, potential, what can become.  Every farmer or gardener had to decide at one point to plant their first seed. To take that leap of faith that something valuable would come from that seed, and chances are, the result of planting that first seed is why many continue to take the time to plan and plant, knowing the rewards are greater than the risks.
Photo credit: Stephen Lush.
I must admit that my educational background has absolutely nothing to do with agriculture.  When I first was introduced to Farm to School, which would eventually turn into garden based education, it was with a small group of teachers at our school that were interested in learning about this “new” way of teaching through growing food.  Immediately it made sense to me: hands on, experiential, inquiry based learning, with tangible - and edible - results!  About a half dozen of us started with a 5-gallon bucket in which we planted kale, chard and lettuce.  I had never even heard of kale or chard before.  The bucket outside my classroom door went from one to three.  Then we built half a dozen raised beds, then another half a dozen.  We collaborated, grew lettuce in every one of them, and had lettuce from our garden for lunch in the cafeteria.  We moved our elementary school into a middle school, took our raised beds with us, and they were joined by a dozen raised beds that were already there, and a greenhouse!  Now we have thirty something raised beds, the greenhouse, and I just had a good size piece of the front yard of the school plowed up to try our hand at growing in the ground.  We went from having a few classes involved, to having a class dedicated to garden based education in which every student in the school participates. Students learn seed-to-mouth, and I right alongside them.  Every day, week, and planting season, the rewards of planting that first seed far outweigh any of the risks that I take.  Is it easy? No.  Are there struggles? Yes.  Am I still learning?  Most definitely! There are some pieces of advice that I do share with educators and organizations that are interested in garden based education.  By continually planting the seeds, taking the risk, it is no longer a risk I take alone, but one that we do as a community.  Sharing these lessons may hopefully help to give others the courage to take the risk, and to see the bounty. Start small. As I mentioned, we started with a 5-gallon bucket with a couple plants in them.  Grow into what is manageable and sustainable for the resources you have available.  Dream big, and take the steps one at a time to realize those dreams. Identify your allies. Build relationships with your allies, and form a community around what you are doing.  One thing I had to come to terms with is self-promotion.  I thought that just by doing this work, it would go noticed and resources would just begin coming in.  Not the case; a lot of time has gone into talking with local organic farmers, reaching out to companies, like High Mowing Organic Seeds, that believe in this work, and can help support it.  Agricultural extension agencies, 4-H, farmers markets, chefs, good food advocates, health departments, and Farm to School organizations are some of the many that support garden based efforts.  Invite your local community to help participate in your garden; offering cooking classes, composting seminars, and food preservation classes are some of the ways to get the community involved. Garden based education isn’t something extra, it is the method in which standards can be taught, and students can learn.  There are lots of resources for a garden based curriculum, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  Find what works for your standards, and your teaching style.  Incorporate garden based learning into your instruction.  Make learning real: real consequences, real rewards.
A mix of carrots grown from High Mowing seeds by Stephen Lush's garden based education class. Photo credit: Stephen Lush.
We all know that there are variables in farming and gardening that are beyond our control, and that sometimes things do not go as we had hoped.  Same goes for garden based education - expect frustrations and for things to take longer than expected.  Bureaucracy can be frustrating, and will often put the brakes on something that may be vital to your efforts.  Be resilient, like the plants you are growing.  Use failure as a teachable moment.  When things don’t grow well, the students will ask the question: why?  Together, you can use natural inquiry to learn even more.  If things go well, figure out how to repeat success, when things don’t, figure out why. The most important thing to remember is that the rewards are far greater than the risks.  The harvest is the enthusiasm and the learning that takes place in the garden.  It is why I continue to take the risk, each and every year.   Stephen Lush teaches a science centered, garden based education class, Scienhancement, at South Jackson Elementary School, for K-5th grade students.  Students learn through growing, eating and rocking out to plants!  His program uses the school garden, which consists of 30 raised beds, a greenhouse, and a newly plowed field, to enhance the science standards in a hands on, inquiry-based model.