Why teach gardening?

Most of us buy all our food from a store… why should we even care about small-scale gardening or encourage our kids to do it? Here are a few reasons why.

  • In 21st century suburban America, our kids spend most of the day in classrooms soaking up facts and figures. But how often do they have a chance to integrate theory and practice? Gardening is one activity where kids can start out with theory and go on to practice, or vice versa. It’s an activity that supports every learning style. There are also a lot of potential spinoff benefits: kids can learn how to conceive, plan and manage projects; create art; cook nutritious meals; go on field trips; interact with experts; etc.
  • Gardening is a relatively straightforward activity for a school to launch. It’s affordable, and WWA already has the land and the water. It’s something adults and kids can do together.
  • You don’t have to grow all your food to reap significant benefits from gardening. Even if you grow just a few items, you’ll soon become aware of the quality differences between truly fresh produce and store-bought. Really fresh apples are crisp and sweet, not mushy. Strawberries, corn, and tomatoes are sweet and firm, not bland and watery. Greens are firm and actually green, not yellow or brown and wilted. Eggplants are creamy and firm, not spongy and filled with bitter brown seeds. Once you know how good produce is supposed to taste, it becomes a little easier to make healthier food choices.
  • By teaching gardening (and spinoff activities like cooking, project management, etc.), we equip our kids with skills they can use life-long. We also create an environment for adults to learn gardening and share gardening experiences.
  • At a higher level, gardening and agriculture are connected with a wide variety of global issues: pollution, hunger, lack of access to fresh food, degradation of the quality of the food supply, land use policies, etc. Gardening may well lead some of our kids to other avenues of intellectual exploration and civic involvement.
  • Finally, through gardening, we can nurture a comfort level with the concept of process: how tiny things can become much bigger, patience, perserverence, awareness of change dynamics, etc.