The Value of School Gardens

School gardens are a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, art, health and physical education, and social studies, as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility.

School gardens are not new. When I visited the Philippines in 1994, I saw a garden in every schoolyard. One elementary school principal explained to me that the students worked in the garden and, in return, received a nutritious lunch every day. Going a lot further back, school gardens were quite common in Victorian times in England as part of nature study classes, during the world wars in many countries where food shortages occurred, and in the post-civil war era in the USA.

The Benefits of School Gardens
Experience and research have shown numerous benefits of school gardens and natural landscaping:
• students learn focus and patience, cooperation, teamwork and social skills

• they gain self-confidence and a sense of "capableness" along with new skills and knowledge in food growing — soon-to-be-vital for the 21st century

• garden-based teaching addresses different learning styles and intelligences; our non-readers can blossom in the garden!

• achievement scores improve because learning is more relevant and hands-on

• students become more fit and healthy as they spend more time active in the outdoors and start choosing healthy foods over junk food

• the schoolyard is diversified and beautified

• graffiti and vandalism decrease because students respect what they feel some ownership in J. Michael Murphy, an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, studied the Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley, California for two years. He discovered that school gardens are both "shrinking students' waistlines and increasing their understanding of food and the environment." He observed that "when middle school students in large urban communities are given the opportunity to learn about ecology in a real-world context, they are more enthusiastic about attending school, make better grades, eat healthier food due to wiser food choices, and become more knowledgeable about natural processes." I love this account, by Ann Simms, of the academic rigour in the Edible Schoolyard program: "The Edible Schoolyard's botany and culinary classes are no slacker electives. Rather, they're fully integrated into the school's traditional academic curriculum. Students learn about photosynthesis by observing plant leaves in the garden as well as by studying chemical formulas in their textbooks. In the indoor kitchen classroom, students discover the history and concept of food preservation during the Neolithic period, as they taste the very grains that have been harvested for millennia. After getting their hands dirty in the garden and then cleaning them up for work in the kitchen, students record their observations in a journal. This exercise gives the kids a chance to process what they've done. The written track record also gives educators a better chance to monitor learning and development."

The author of this article is Mrs. Rashmi Harkerni Teacher of Pioneer Convent Indore.