School Gardens: If every school had a garden, we would be saving the schools budget and helping the environment. 31.2% of schools have them, why shouldn’t all? School gardens build important life-long social skills and teach responsibility, communication, teamwork, ownership, and leadership. Gardens also foster a sense of community, bringing parents, teachers, students, and community members together. Studies show that kids who participate in school gardens are more likely to try and sometimes have an increased preference for healthy fruits and veggies, students are more likely to eat something they have grown. There’s nothing like pulling out a carrot for the first time, biting into a juicy tomato, or smelling basil from a fresh garden. Schools often incorporate garden harvests into lunch programs, so students benefit from the added nutritional value of school-grown produce. Many garden programs also include nutritional education, shown to improve attitudes toward vegetables in general. Children become more likely to eat vegetables, even as snacks, and to ask family members to buy vegetables for them. These healthy habits continue into adulthood. Normal classroom activities often involve passive learning as children read aloud and listen to their teachers. But activities in an outdoor garden classroom bring concepts to life through hands-on learning. School garden programs use normal gardening tasks, such as planning, planting, caring and harvesting. Plants, insects, birds and weather all become participants in the learning process. As a result, children are more engaged, more attentive and more excited to learn. While school gardens encourage creativity, stricter disciplines benefit, too. Research shows that students who participate in garden-based science curriculum, in addition to traditional classroom learning, score significantly higher on science achievement tests than students in a traditional classroom-based group. This garden-enhanced achievement benefits both boy and girls equally, and gets them fresh food to eat! Many children raised outside rural settings have never seen seeds sprout or vegetables develop. For some, eating or even seeing fresh produce is rare. Through schools gardens, children experience the rewards of fresh produce. They learn to understand the natural growth of plants — from seeds to sprouts to flowers to fruits — and the impact that rain, drought and other forces of nature have on plant life. Children learn firsthand the connection between nature, their own food supply, and the pollinators and other creatures their school garden ecosystem attracts and supports. A school garden is a much-needed green space in urban environments, giving students an opportunity to spend time outdoors. Visiting the garden can lead to an increased appreciation for the environment. Gardens also provide a place of rest, healing, and meditation, which leads to improve mental health. With the stress of testing in schools these days, gardens can serve as an oasis and welcome change of scenery for everyone in the school, or even in the community. These days, everywhere needs a little more green. There are many different reasons to start a school garden, and I think kids would agree with it to! If every school were able to plant things they would be able to learn science by learning about synthesis, or math by making charts of the plant growth, or learn nutrition and healthy habits. The list of educational opportunities could go one and on but there is another simple reason, for connection. If every school could have a garden that brought students and teachers alike together, wouldn’t the world be a much kinder place?
