School Gardens: Good or Bad

An Elementary School in Brooklyn has decided to create a school garden. The first known school garden was "built 15 years ago at a middle school in Berkley California, [and] cost about $75,000".

How much is the Brooklyn school garden going to cost? $1.6 million and "architect's dream"!! Although $1.6 million is alot of money, the money being used to create the new garden will be equaled out by the gardens pros. Some of the gardens pro's is that they will not have to pay for electricity because the building will be powered by solar panels. Another pro that the garden will give the school is that the amount of money that the schoool uses for food will decrease. This is because they garden will be creating food that can be used for the lunches. The compost that will be put into the garden area will also decrease the use of fertilizers, in turn decreasing teh amount of energy that is being used in the world to create the artificial fertilizers. The cistern will also decrease the amount of water that the garden uses because it collects rainwater to be used then, or at a later time when water is less available (a drought).

The Architects have many goals that will use up this $1.6 million. They plan on creating the building that will be powered by the sun, a kitchen with a communal table for the children to share what they have made, and a chicken coop. They also hope to make an area for a compost system, and outdoor pizza kitchen, and a "cistern to collect rainwater." One of the most exciting things that the architects will be creating is a "movable greenhouse [that] will be rolled out each fall."

The Brooklyn Elementary School, with the new garden, hopes to become the "center for study of the environment and agriculture". The school also hopes that the garden will give new learning and teaching experiences to the students and teachers.

Ms Flanagan, a critic, published in The Atlantic and essay titled "Cultivating Failure", where she went on to state that "I have yet to find a single stufy that suggests classroom gardens help students meet the state standards for English and Math". In my opinion, the English and Math standards that were mentioned by Ms. Flanagan, are just to make sure that students are learning the lifeskills of writting, reading, and math. Yes these skills are very important, and should be taught in schools, but they are not the only skills that should be, and are being taught in schools around the world. If not, we would ony be in school for a few hours a day, instead of the 6 or 7 hours that we spend throughout the school week. Some other necessary skills that are taught at schools, is the arts, languages, history, because it can repeat itself, and physical education, which even that is diminshing in schools. But wait, these classes dont "help students meet the state standards for English and Math." Does that mean that they shouldn't be taught in schools?!?! NO!! they should be taught because they are skills that we can use once we are out of school. That's the same with the school garden!

The garden gives students breaks from class so they can concentrate bettwe when they return to class. The garden also will give the students a different, and interesting atmosphere, for students to learn in.Personally at my highschool, we have a garden in which the environmental science class and teh teachers take care of. Each Environmental Science class has their own area to plant different foods. We've learned how to properly weed, plant seeds, prune trees, and many other gardening skills. We also have learned about composting and how to make your own compost. I think this is necessary for students at a younger age, to learn about composting for two reasons. Composting helps save the planet by reducing the amound of compostable waste that is overpopulating land fills, and it lowers the amount of energy used to create chemicals/artificial fertilizers which are bad for the environment and are not as good as natural fertilizers. Its importants for students to learn this becasue then they realize that they don't have to be geniuses to help save the world, all they have to do are simple things like, make your own garden where you can grow some or all of your food. Another possibility to save the earth is to compost which not only saves money, but lowers the amount of environmental damaged done to the earth. And its like the article said, it's not a choice of gardening or education, gardening is education. The students learn how to cook, grow foods, and many other skills that are necessary to one's life.