Youth and Horticulture

Urban Impact, May 2000

Since its inception in 1974, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's (PHS) Philadelphia Green program has been involved in outreach initiatives with our city's youth, encouraging children to care for and appreciate the natural world around them. In Philadelphia and cities throughout the country, concerned organizations, schools, and community leaders have brought the living, active experience of gardening to the classroom and the urban world beyond it. By actually seeing the results of their work—a healthy tree, a blooming garden, a clean and inviting park—children and young adults can better appreciate the value of shared responsibility and understand their lasting impact on the community.

In recent years, Philadelphia Green has focused on tree-related education. Trees and children share a common need—both require care and nurturing to grow and thrive. The act of planting and tending a tree is an effective way to teach youth about the value of living things and about being responsible for others. It also provides the opportunity for children to contribute to their community, increasing their sense of worth in relation to their neighborhood and world.

Service and Curriculum-Based Learning

Horticulture offers teachers the opportunity to create and tend living classrooms—hands-on learning environments that are a departure from the conventional instructor-as-presenter format. Whether through garden projects, tree labs, or environmental games, hands-on learning encourages an active dialogue between teacher and student. Students study science through the biology of plants and trees, and develop their mathematical, verbal, written, and problem-solving skills as they track the progress of their projects.

Recently, Philadelphia Green blended environmental education with the concept of service learning. At a time when the School District of Philadelphia has mandated community-based service learning projects as a graduation requirement for its students by 2002, local administrators and teachers have looked for successful examples of programs that unite schools with their surrounding communities. Through Philadelphia Green's Tree Tenders Teachers initiative, educators are trained in tree care and develop lesson plans that help their students beautify and improve their neighborhoods. Since its inception in 1998, the program has trained nearly 200 teachers and in turn reached over 5,600 students.

Environmental education, specifically through garden-related initiatives, has been integrated into schools in cities across the country. In New York City, two non-profit organizations—GreenThumb and the Trust for Public Land—have partnered to help create gardens in city schools and offer workshops to teachers on how to use the garden in the curriculum. In St. Louis, the non-profit group Gateway Greening assists school gardens with materials and leads workshops for teachers, but only if there is strong interest from the school to ensure a project's sustainability. The Boston Foundation and the City of Boston have collaborated to create a holistic approach. Sustainable schoolyards with green spaces and outdoor classrooms are developed and used, not only by in-session students, but by youth groups, summer camps, and before- and after-school programs. The thrust behind all of these projects—and a common theme for all involved in school gardens—is to encourage children to develop a deeper appreciation for the environment, make healthier food choices, and engage in a dynamic, multi-disciplined learning process.

The Impact on Learning

With horticulture incorporated into the curriculum, the questions often asked are: What is its impact on a student's overall education? And, what is the resulting effect outside the school on a child's community?

To justify the inclusion of horticulture in the learning process, school administrators, teachers, and funders need tangible results. Though research on the subject is not extensive, there are encouraging findings so far. A recently released study from the State Education and Environmental Roundtable (a cooperative endeavor of education agencies from 12 states) looked at 40 schools that included environmental education in their curriculum. The research revealed that "students learn more effectively within an environment-based context than within a traditional educational framework" and cited improved results on standardized test scores and grade point averages. In a project that examined the effect of horticulture on troubled teenagers, a Virginia Tech graduate student worked with six at-risk boys who were two years behind in their studies and either expelled or suspended. After a semester of vocational horticulture, all had summer horticultural jobs and displayed improvement in both behavior and attendance.

Locally, Philadelphia Green was a contributing sponsor at an environmental career day for high school students. In October 1999, Growing Your Future drew more than 200 students from 17 different Philadelphia School District clusters to the Horticulture Center in Fairmount Park. The event was designed to encourage middle-school students to learn more about environmental programs—such as those developed at Walter B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences and the Horticulture Academy of Abraham Lincoln High School—before they began their high school application process. At Vare Middle School in South Philadelphia, teacher Larry Stier has used his school garden to reach children with learning disabilities. His students have developed greater self-esteem and a real connection with the natural world—all through the subtle wonders of gardening.

Into the Neighborhoods

Philadelphia Green has found that interest in horticulture and the environment extends past the classroom. At Carroll Park in West Philadelphia, a group of students participate in a volunteer Park Patrol, where once a week after school they gather for service, recreation, and educational activities. Their dedication reveals that they have a stake in their neighborhood and a desire to improve it.

Philadelphia Green is also a participating sponsor of Arbor Day and Earth Day events at parks throughout the city. The kids take part in planting activities and environmental games, and celebrate an appreciation for these valuable open spaces. The city's Department of Recreation runs the Art in the Park program at several neighborhood parks, in which artists use the park as an after-school outdoor classroom and inspirational tool for kids.

At Aspen Farms, a community garden in West Philadelphia, garden leader Hayward Ford was instrumental in creating an outdoor classroom for students at nearby Sulzberger Middle School in 1998. In this example of intergenerational learning, knowledge is shared between a community's older residents and its youth.

In fall 1999, Philadelphia Green initiated a pilot program in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. Through the Seeds to Trees program, students gather seeds from their neighborhoods and parks, then visit the Schuylkill Center, where they learn about forest succession, plant the seeds in pots, and take some of the pots back to the classroom (the others are cared for at the Center). By sprouting native species in their classrooms—with the aim of eventually planting the young trees in their communities—the students become directly responsible for beautifying their neighborhoods. Seeds to Trees has thus far involved two schools—Horatio B. Hackett Elementary and John Wanamaker Middle School—with plans to include eight more in the coming year.

Seeds of Tomorrow

Gardens and other horticultural projects can accommodate a wide range of educational disciplines—from math, journal writing, and art to economics, biology, and ecology. And learning within an environmental framework allows students to carry the knowledge and experience gained in the classroom to the world beyond. The school then becomes not only a place of introspective learning, but a means toward a more livable community. The hope is that these lessons learned of stewardship and an appreciation for all living things will be carried, nurtured, and advanced throughout this young generation's lives.

“An appreciation for the quality of life and the desire to sustain and improve it are applicable, valuable lessons that resonate long after the final bell's echoes have faded.”—teacher (unknown)

Acknowledgements
National data taken from the American Community Garden Association's Community Greening Review, “Gardening in the Schoolyard”, Pamela R. Kirschbaum (1999).