Ecoliteracy and the School Garden

Ecoliteracy and The School Garden
by Karen Saura, MH
copyright 2003

A sustainable society is one that is able to satisfy its needs without diminishing the chances of future generations. We each hold a moral responsibility to live in such a way that we pass onto our descendents a world with as many opportunities as the one we inherited. To achieve this goal of maintaining a sustainable society, the members of the society must understand the principles of sustainable development to insure that their actions and vision for the future will be aligned with the concept of sustainability. Capra states in The Hidden Connections (2002) that "humankind has the ability to achieve sustainable development-to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In today's world of diminishing resources, it is essential to educate the future generations in the principles of sustainable living. This can be accomplished by creating a sense of responsible community, integrating ecology into school curriculums, and putting these principles into practice in the schools and communities with sustainability gardens.

Ecoliteracy is a word has been developed to describe an education firmly grounded in ecological principles. According to Capra, "being ecological literally means understanding the basic patterns and processes by which nature sustains life and using these core concepts of ecology to create sustainable human communities, in particular, learning communities." As an individual gains a sense of ecoliteracy, he/she begins to develop an awareness of how he/she fits into the larger world and with this a sense of responsibility for his/her actions and their consequence on this larger world. The natural place to begin to teach ecoliteracy is in our schools.

In order to understand the principles behind ecoliteracy one must develop holistic thinking. This is the awareness of existing as part of the larger whole. For example, the individual is part of a family who is part of a community, which is part of the planet. As part of the whole we must see where our actions affect the other parts of the whole and, in turn, where the other parts affect us. This is the basis for thinking in the sustainability model. These basic principles are beautifully demonstrated in a kaleidoscope of ways in the sustainability garden.

Nature exists in an ecological balance with its ecosystems established, each unique and different, yet, interrelating on many levels. They are complex networks nested one inside another, constantly responding and adapting to the environment and outside influences. A sustainable human community is one which becomes a part of the existing natural ecosystem whereby
"its ways of life, businesses, economy, physical structures, and technologies do not interfere with nature's inherent ability to sustain life. Sustainable communities evolve their patterns of living over time in continual interactions with other living systems both human and nonhuman.

Sustainability… is a dynamic process of coevolution" (Capra, 2002). The introduction of a school garden project into the school curriculum provides the entry point for ecoliteracy into the school and serves as a living laboratory of sustainability principles to be participated in by the students, faculty, parents, and extended community.

A sustainability garden can be established in any school. Few facilities will have the perfect location. The initial project might be a vision to reclaim a space for nature to exist in a concrete city environment using pots and planters. Perhaps the school land is dead and depleated. Here the first phase of the project must be to bring the soil back to life before the actual garden can be planted. Regardless of the circumstances, the garden is used as a focal point to create an integrated curriculum bringing the teachers together, involving the students, the community, and introducing the concepts of ecoliteracy and sustainability.

An ecological curriculum designed using the garden as a focus for interdisciplinary education naturally reconnects the various subjects. A sample multi-subject assignment might be, "Working in teams, write about the life cycle of the earthworm, find one in the garden and draw it, discuss what contribution it makes to the garden, how are we like the earthworm, and what can we do on campus to help the earthworm do it job?" If multiple teachers are involved, this assignment can tie in biology, English, art, ecology, recycling, and the kids will have fun and get their hands dirty! By bringing environmental awareness into the child's thinking, everything else they learn takes on a new sense of reality through the connections to the garden and the sustainability principles embodied there.

The school day is overfull of busy tasks with little time left for students, teachers or parents for reflection and unstructured activities. The garden provides a place where a sense of place and community develops. In turn, the school community become stewards of the garden. It is a reciprocal relationship. Working in the garden one begins to experience a different sense of time through the observing and experiencing of natural cycles. Children become aware of time as spanning over the cycles of the seasons as a seed is planted and grows. This expanded awareness of time and of how our actions in the present affect situations in the future is critical to developing an understanding of ecoliteracy. To care for the future we must be able to see ourselves as part of a process and take responsibility for how our present actions will affect the future. In our hectic modern world there are precious few opportunities to teach this understanding. Nurturing this awareness of time as part of larger cycles which are part of other cycles extending from the past into the future of which we are a part of in the present is a valuable part of the teachings garnered through spending time in a sustainability garden.

Education in its truest form is a process which opens the eyes of the students to the wonders of the world, teaches them how to question and seek the answers, and then to take that information and put it into practice in their community. Curiosity must be fostered. The child's intuitive wisdom must be developed and supported. Awakening a reverence and sense of wonder and connection to other species is crucial to teaching ecological awareness. These sensitivities develop naturally as one spends time in a garden. We must awaken to the fact that we all live on the same planet and drink from the same watering hole. This is a simple perceptual shift, yet profound, and it awakens a sense of personal responsibility when it occurs.

This shift in thinking opens the door to teaching the principles of sustainable living. The success of the garden can be measured by assessing the degree to which core curriculum integrates and the extent to which the administration, teachers, students, parents and extended community participate in the actual hands on responsibilities and activities revolving around the garden. The garden itself will grow. It will have good seasons, and not-so-good seasons. Yet, the garden is a process and its goal is to teach sustainable living principles. It's success is not based on what is produced and how much, but on what is learned by those involved and its ability to sustain itself as a living outdoor classroom into the future.

The creation of the garden must be a community process. A good way to begin is by forming a garden club comprised of students, parent volunteers, faculty advisors and liaisons to each discipline of the school. This will be the core group that will anchor the vision into the school through the garden. At various points along the way there will be opportunities for collaboration, Entry Points for Integrating Curriculum (EPIC). The school garden is a student driven process and the students must be directly and intimately involved every step of the way.

A unifying vision and a mission statement embodying the principles of sustainable living and ecoliteracy must be developed before the actual work is begun on the physical creation of the garden. The creation of the mission statement is an EPIC which can enlist the support of English, history, and science teachers and students. To develop our vision we will define our garden and how it relates to the following areas: visionary thinking and how our actions affect the future, the garden in relation to cycles and systems, strategic thinking, stewardship as a component of moral life, the stewardship of natural resources, equality, and globalization. This vision and mission statement will serve to direct the actual creation of the garden and will also be used as the vehicle through which we can share our vision of ecoliteracy and the school garden with the school body and larger community.

Plans for the garden must be drawn up. This is another EPIC where the math, science, and art departments are enlisted to participate, along with the administration, community gardening experts, and local businesses. Students create schedules for garden construction, planting, watering, harvesting, and community workdays, activities and celebrations.

Principles of sustainable living will be brought into practice on the campus through the development of various campus-wide programs including recycling programs, composting for the garden, and growing food to eaten by the students in the campus lunch program. These activities are all EPIC's involving the support of school custodians, teachers, students, parents, and outside businesses.

Students might write articles on their sustainability garden and ecoliteracy as it applies to their campus with photo journalism components and submit them for publication or post them onto a school sustainability garden website. They can write grant proposals using teacher mentors to guide them in the grant writing process. Here is another EPIC bringing together science, English, art, technology and involving the larger community creating networks of information flows via the website, student writings and grant proposals.

Fundraisers can be held using the vision of the Sustainability Garden as the theme, serving to provide funds to support the project and to share the principles of ecoliteracy with the larger community.

True success lies in the development and implementation of interdisciplinary curriculum materials that focus on sustainability and future thinking based on the belief that students need to understand systems and how they interconnect, and how to appreciate a worldview from multiple perspectives. The garden is the natural place to implement these teachings.

To be an agent of change one must first have a vision of something that they can do to contribute to the world at large, feed that vision with active exploration of how to bring it into manifestation, allow for the vision to adapt to the existing circumstances, and take the steps necessary to bring the vision into manifestation. One acts as an agent of change by creating a new vision and bringing its __expression into the existing paradigm thus affecting a change in the existing paradigm and shifting the vision of the whole. Our kids must learn to be agents of change if we are to see sustainability grow into a global vision and viable future for humanity.

The deeper and wider the pattern of connections we teach our children, the better they will understand the earth's processes and their membership in the web of life. Ecological decisions require an attention span longer than a single lifetime and a frame of reference wider than one's immediate surroundings. If you don't have a sense of connection to your ancestors or your descendants, then long term planetary impacts might not seem important.

The exploration of ecoliteracy and sustainability education brings to one an awareness of the individual as a part of the planetary whole re-awakened and invigorated by the principles of ecology as set forth by Capra. As these concepts are grounded and assimilated into an individuals world/community view, an awareness of the community existing as an interrelated part of the world it is a part of grows. Already, in most every community, there are people actively acting as agents of change, doing their part to build a sustainable future by actively applying some form these principles of sustainable living. To manifest a global sustainable future for our children and their children, we must each begin the process of transformation wherever we are, and act as agents of change wherever we can.

Considering today's world of diminishing resources, we each hold a moral responsibility to develop a sustainable society so that we pass onto our descendents a world with as many opportunities as the one we inherited. To achieve this goal, the members of our society must understand and begin to live the principles of sustainable development and teach them to children. Nature is the best teacher of sustainability principles and her garden is the classroom where these principles are best observed. Through the creation of sustainability gardens in our schools and communities, we will educate future generations in the principles of sustainable living and inspire in them a sense of responsible community with which they can insure that their future actions and vision for their future will be aligned with the larger vision of global sustainability.

About the Author:

Karen Saura MEd, MH, is a Master Herbalist, science teacher, and holistic nutritional counselor. She emphasizes the use of whole, organic foods, nutritive herbs and supplements to promote optimal health, prevent disease, manage chronic illness and to rediscover the joy of healthy eating. Phone consultations are available.e-mail: ksaura@gmail.com .

References
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