Gardening to Educate

Did you know that gardens have ALWAYS been a great place to learn about ecology, education and economy ... all at the same time ... here are just a few examples.

• Peripatetic School [conducted walking in a large open area]

• Gethsemane [a garden for learning and for testing]

• Waldorf Schools [founded by the father of Biodynamic Agriculture]

• Atlas Network [founded by Antony Fisher ... a chicken farmer]

Accordingly, we are excited to introduce what has been some years in the making ... courses in "Community Gardens" and "Nutrition Literacy" under the guiding heart, mind and hands of masters like gardener John Albin [Cinagro Gardens ... that's "organic" backwards]. Here is a brief description ...

Activities and Opportunities

ECOLOGY: Students [grades 6–12]

• assist in the creation and/or maintenance of Wichita area continuous "Community Gardens" ... one at Friends University, one at Union Rescue Mission and one in the Sunnydale Community [at Elderslie Farm].

EDUCATION: In addition to the hands-on gardening experience, students

• participate in 9 lectures and 22 classroom sessions over three trimesters on “Nutrition Literacy”

• to learn how gardening and nutrition work together to improve both individual physical/emotional/mental health and general community wellness

• with success or failure to be measured by qualitative pre- and post-course evaluations of the students' work by the teachers of the “Nutrition Literacy” course.

ECONOMY: At the same time, students reach out to their community to plan, create and operate

• partnerships with other local organizations to advance food security and nutritional literacy, with conscious emphasis on serving low-income families and

• a network linking resources and collaborative support to programs that impact at least 280 persons per year [where at least 70% of those served will be from low-income families].

Objectives and Impacts:

• Advance the secondary liberal arts EDUCATION [ie. dialectical training] of the students by teaching the courses in community gardening and nutrition literacy using the same pedagogy Northfield uses in all other academic courses: the Trivium [grammar, logic and rhetoric].

• Teach the students that ECOLOGY [oikos+logos = household order] unites all the knowledge [across time] from all the arts and sciences [which are like a network of gardens] into a single integrated whole which forms the foundation for prosperity with sustainability [in terms of human health and environmental well-being] in the community and across the earth.

• Impress upon the students that, for better or worse, they will spend their lives as ECONOMISTS [oikos+nomos = household co-managers] working in various gardens into which their personal and professional journeys take them and that their individual productivity and community impact will depend on their skillful use of the same three dialectical tools of the Trivium which they acquired and mastered in their Northfield studies.

We hope you are as excited as we are about these opportunities. We are still looking for Underwriters and Donors ... so let us know if you are aware of individuals or organizations that are interested in helping students and communities work together. There is room for everyone who wants to participate in community gardening !!!