Blogland and the Slow Food movement are up in arms about an article about school gardens by Caitlin Flanagan. Writers and commenters are excoriating Ms. Flanagan because of her belief that the school garden movement is failing students. The comments have been sizzling - calling her "stupid" and "elitist" and "snotty". I read her article and did find her writing to be a bit elitist in tone and I didn't agree with everything she said, but I do think her article to be worthy of more temperate discussion.
Here's my take. School gardens are great - if they are used wisely. The school garden can be a fantastic component of curriculum, but it really should be a SMALL component, not the primary component. I say this because, as a public school teacher in a socio-economically challenged school, I have students with extreme need for the 3 Rs. Students who need to be explicitly taught the basics because they do not get adequate academic support at home. Students who are learning English (I myself was an English Learner). Students who have undeveloped critical-thinking skills and need to be taught concrete strategies for problem-solving. Students who don't know how to recognize a sentence, much less write a coherent one. Students who have no concrete knowledge of numbers because they have not been exposed to one-to-one correspondence and other number sense situations. All of these basics that students have missed out on!!!
And yet, public school teachers are expected to do it all - we have to teach these academic basics (oftentimes making up for a lack of involved parenting, filling in the gap that should never have been there to begin with!) on top of trying to meet the ever-insane academic standards that first No Child Left Behind and now "Race To the Top" policies have implemented. There are district and state guidelines for the number of minutes to be spent on various subjects, ranging from reading/language arts to P.E. Then, there is the ever-growing role that teachers have of social workers - meeting the needs of kids who are emotionally neglected. Helping to diagnose students with learning disabilities. Communicating with parents and oftentimes teaching parenting skills("Maybe you should not let your 6 year-old child watch TV while he is supposed to be doing his homework, because it will be hard for him to focus."). Making sure a student is adequately clothed and fed. Checking up on a family when a child has missed too many days of school. Then, there is the overwhelming amount of paperwork - grading tests and essays, filling in report cards, writing class newsletters - and also the classroom prep - putting up bulletin boards, remember student birthdays, planning class celebrations, art projects, developing homework packets, and the like. Oh, and did I even mention the need for on-going professional development?
My students are in my classroom for only 300 minutes a day - 1500 minutes a week. I have to maximize EVERY MINUTE for learning.
So, my question is: Where does a school garden fit in all of this? A school garden can be illustrative of many curriculum components - science, math, etc. - but how can it get me the most bang for my buck? I have to make sure my students are strong and analytical readers - and a school garden is not going to get me there. I have to make sure my students understand multiple math concepts, and after a few applied examples in a school garden, I'm not sure how the garden will get me there.
I do think that a school garden teaches the values of hard work, the importance of farming, respect for nature, and nutrition, to name a few. I have a small vegetable garden at home for my own children to reap the benefits of gardening and we also have a membership in a CSA. I am a strong advocate of understanding and respecting where our food comes from. But what place does this have in our school system? Maybe it works in a school where the students enter the classroom with all the basics intact and there are no academic deficits to overcome. Maybe it works in a school where there is a lot of parent volunteerism - parents manage the garden (but isn't the point that the students are supposed to manage it?) whereas teachers can utlitize as much (or as little) of the garden process as they feel fits within the needs of their students.
And I also think this whole debate illustrates a problem with the American school system: What really is our end goal for students? Do we want them to be "competetive global workers" or simply be informed and analytical citizens? What do we want our students to learn? Are we willing to sacrifice art, music, school gardens, so that our students are academically "proficient" according to government standards? What about parent accountability?
This is not to say that I don't want a school garden. In fact, we have one at my school and I always look at it longingly as I pick up my students from their line after lunchtime. But I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around WHEN I can find the time to fit it into my daily schedule AND still meet the academic needs of all of my students. As soon as I find the answer to my dilemma, I will let you know.
Make it an after school parent managed club. Then parents and kids can bond over the garden, grow their food and take it home to eat.
Posted by: Jana | January 13, 2010 at 07:38 PM