Taking a Larger View of Education that Encircles both Alice Waters and Student Success

January 2010
I think Caitlin Flanagan's Atlantic Monthly criticism of student gardening is a limited view from a journalist who taught for ten years. In my 26 years of teaching, I have had unique teaching experiences teaching a variety of subjects to grades k-12 including disadvantaged students. I have found that children learn by doing and are inspired by nature’s beauty through gardening which makes their academic subjects come alive.

Caitlin Flanagan’s quote from Theodore Sizer about illiterate 14 year olds needing “...intensive, focused attention.” is well taken. Schools like the Knowledge is Power Program, KIPP, have success with low scoring students by giving intensive basic education that includes before and after school hours of instruction beginning at 5th grade to prepare these students for high school success. These student’s test scores rise with this intensive instruction and study.

I would like us to move our lens back to include a larger view beyond test scores. Then concern for basic literacy and connecting suburban-urban students to the Earth’s processes can be seen as part of the same picture. Look at this purpose of real education: to enlarge the view of a young person with the wonders of living on Earth thus creating a balanced educational experience. We may fail to fully do justice to this venture, but our youth deserve our best attempt to aim for this lofty goal. Yes, rising test scores are great, but we also want to educate students who know how to think for themselves, make connections, and find satisfaction. Growing and eating food involves core experiences that touch all subjects. I’ve seen students become eager to write about their experiences in gardens and the outdoors. Gardening and cooking lessons connect to ancient and far away cultures when new plants like quinoa and bok choy are eaten. These are just a few examples of the wealth that well-taught gardening brings to education.

If you understand there are limits to a suburban-urban lifestyle, it is easy to appreciate why suburban-urban youth possibly raised with hand sanitizer and astro-turf playing fields need gardening to understand their whole environment. The garden shows the role of earthworms and related animals. Hopefully they will grow up and understand things like why killing all soil life with Methyl Bromide before planting strawberries is inhumane. They won't even need to learn that this fumigation method adds to greenhouse gases to understand the harm it does. They will protect our Earth. Meanwhile a rural student in an emerging nation who receives a balanced education will have extra time studying computer use and internet research along with math and reading. Those are subjects they need to balance their exposure to the world and have the skills to improve their living conditions.

Education needs to offer what is needed within its cultural context. Currently our suburban-urban culture needs Alice Water's vision. I have seen the excitement that observing nature brings to student writing. I see gardening as a way to bring science and other subjects to life while awakening students' curiosity. When young students combine a broad exposure at a young age with good basic education, they bring a strong foundation to junior and senior high school.


Currently we are at a crucial point as a people living on Earth. Do we learn to cherish and protect our home? Do we learn to live sustainably and protect our Earth that provides so generously for us? How can we appreciate something if we can't relish its beauty and bounty? Exposing students to Earth's beauty and bounty is what well-taught gardening classes do. They provide an outdoor learning lab while enriching us with beauty. There are countless examples of food webs among insects and other invertebrates in the garden that provide living lessons on ecosystems. Eating what you grow is also fun especially when students prepare their own food. What is enjoyable is most memorable. Imagine if you build and grow this garden yourself by your own hands. That is truly empowering. Experience that is personally relevant can be gained from gardening.

Many students cram for test and forget the material soon after. Living experiences last a lifetime. The understanding gained from this experience helps students to think for themselves and become problem solvers. Ask anyone who has completed grad school what is needed for these advanced studies. I asked my daughter and her husband who have a Ph.D. in music history and a masters in geology respectively what is needed for success in grad school. My daughter explained that when she was in grad school, fellow students couldn’t decide on their thesises and often took incompletes on their course work. She always had her project in mind and completed work on schedule. She said that she was used to designing and doing her own projects as she had gone to a Montessori elementary school where she could pursue her own interests. She included artwork and poetry with her reports, something she had to unlearn in regular high school. In grad school, she was once again expected to design her own thesis and research to support it. She was only too happy to return to the way she learns best, an approach all to familiar from her youth. It is interesting that Alice Waters began her professional life as a Montessori teacher. The principles of her edible school yard reflect Montessori’s tenant of helping children to do things for themselves. Maria Montessori was an engineer, doctor, and keen observer of how children learn. Using her broad education, she integrated subject matter so that the big ideas were easily grasped even by young children. My son-in-law answered my question by explaining that graduate schools in the sciences had difficulty finding students who could formulate a question and design a project that answered it. He also found that grad students were often lost when asked to design a masters thesis for themselves. Students who can formulate questions and propose answers do well in grad school. If we want to not just get students into college but create thinkers and doers, students need a variety of educational activities.

Perhaps Alice Waters did not take a hit in the Atlantic Monthly article, but the article got us dialoguing about education. We certainly need to prioritize schooling in these times of budget cuts. Perhaps we can learn from looking at what transforms youth by watching what experiences energize their studies. Lets hope for a new era where every child leads. We can give our youth leadership ability when they can help create their world. Learning by doing through gardening and learning basic skills both have their place in our schools and enhance each other when well taught.