June 23, 2016

The School Yard

Copyright Bob Osborne

I was recently asked to design a classroom garden for an elementary school.  I wanted to get some more information on the site so I went to my computer to find an overhead aerial photo of the site.  I zoomed into the area and was at first unable to find the school, until I noticed a large brown area where not a single green thing showed.  It was like zooming in on a miniature desert.  The only place that had no living thing was the playground of the school.

It is true that the school yard can be a difficult place to grow things, as the tread of little feet multiplied by many kids can beat even the toughest grass into dust.  Yet if we value the educational and emotional aspects of plants, and the animals that live amongst the plants, we need to encourage the adoption of methods to enhance the living component of school grounds.

These methods do not need to be rediscovered.  Many groups have studied the establishment of greenery in school yards and there are papers and books that show how this can be accomplished.

First and foremost is the involvement of the children.  If the kids are asked for their input you can bet they will provide it.  If a child is given a plant and shown how to plant and care for it, they will have a connection to that plant and will protect it. 

Perhaps just as important is that that the landscape must be fun to be in.  It should provide pathways to explore, places to run up and down, places where one can escape to, and others where one can interact with others.

It has even been shown that bullying and aggressive behavior thrives in situations where there is boredom.  A place where there are endless possibilities directs the energy of the young into more meaningful directions and fosters better cooperation.

Above all a school yard should have things to learn about; why an oak holds onto its leaves, why the maples turn colour in fall, why the butterflies are attracted to certain flowers.  It should be a place where a child learns how a tree feeds and pulls water from the soil, how bees learn where to find the flowers with nectar and pollen, how seeds grow into trees and how important plants are to our survival as a species.  Children should learn when birds arrive to nest and when beans can be planted.  They should know where to look for a salamander and where mosquitoes come from.

That feeling of interconnectedness is perhaps the greatest lesson of a living school yard.  What we need now more than ever is an understanding that we are not alone, but one part of a huge diversity of plants and animals whose dependence on each other is the reason life as we know it works.

The most powerful tool for such lessons is the teacher.  A teacher with passion combined with a pupil who is open and inquisitive can produce a great biologist or researcher, perhaps a park ranger or forester.  At the very least it might produce gardeners and planters for the future, children who learn at an early age the importance of food and where it originates, the importance of our forests, meadows and streams to our health and well being.

It has always baffled me that the most important and vulnerable sectors of the population-children, the sick and the elderly, are often shuffled off into institutions that are sterile, uninviting places where the food is not as delicious and nutritious as possible.

The idea of creating more access to green spaces in hospitals and homes for the elderly is slowing gaining momentum and hopefully such access will become an integral part of the design process.  This should not be looked on as an extra, a frill, but as an important aspect of creating a richer and healthier environment in which to heal.

An elderly person confined to a wheel chair will atrophy in a space of plastic, glass and steel but will be rejuvenated simply by time spent in a garden where they can pull a few weeds in a patch of lettuce or smell the fragrance of a lavender plant.  It is beyond doubt that the world of plants offers solace and contentment to all people, but especially those confined to areas where such environments are limited.

As a society we need to demand the best for our children, our sick and our elderly, and we must demand that the enhancement of their living spaces should be a priority going into the future.