The history of gardens as used as a learning tool, or rather, an entire learning facility as it were, was fascinating. As a non-german speaker, the term 'kindergarten' was synonymous with educational prep-school for children to prepare them for the rigours of actual structured school. Now knowing the literal definition, it is amazing how far away the concept has strayed in North America from its original purpose of bridging the gap for children from their home to school by means of exploration.
The benefits and cross-curricular attributes of a school garden seem rather clear for all levels, ages, and abilities of students. From the pure gardening skills, to the connection between students and their planet, and to further educational opportunities for science, art, business, etc., the garden seems to have hardly any boundaries to learning, once established.
One of the largest hurdles of school gardens seems to be the buy-in of administrators, communities, and as a personally new perspective, parents. Aside from the time, space, and monetary investment hurdles, it was most surprising to think of a school garden from the perspective of immigrant parents who want better for their children in their North American lives than the perceived toil in an agricultural setting, such as a garden.
It seems, as it commonly is with any new initiative, marketing the idea and concept of school gardens and gaining the buy-in of the stakeholders (admin, parents) and beneficiaries (the students) is perhaps the largest hurdle. How to overcome this hurdle and shake off the conservative, capitalistic attitude of the past is both a daunting and extremely interesting problem to be solved! After our dream garden exercise and the potential new garden spaces in front of Neville Scarfe, one can only hope (and I am very, very loosely quoting here) "if you build it, they will come".
Thank you very much for sharing.
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