Joomla Login LightBox powered by WowJoomla.com

Some worms, soil and seeds might be the right ingredients for growing great schools in the Northland.

I know it’s cliché, but sometimes I encounter an idea so obvious, so well-conceived, that I’ve got to strike my forehead like an actor in a V-8 commercial.

That’s the reaction I had recently when I covered a new community garden project cultivated by science teacher Julie Blackwell at St. Patrick School.

Blackwell is a humble, hardworking dynamo busy reinventing the way education works at parochial school. The garden may be her finest work to date.

Students at St. Patrick School feed lunch scraps to hungry worms who convert waste to compost that nourishes soil in a class-built greenhouse home to seeds that turn to plants raised in a nearby community garden producing vegetables for a church food pantry.

Brilliant.

I mean, consider the plethora of important academic lessons being imbibed by these kiddos: agronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, environmental sciences, design and nutrition.

And then there are the soft skills learned that will serve these young people well throughout their lives. The ability to work well in a team, perform daily chores and carry out a long-term project are all characteristics much sought-after by employers these days.

Finally, a sense of community service is as much a product of the nun’s garden at St. Patrick Catholic Church as are the tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. The students are learning that success as residents is measured by intangible but still important qualities like civic engagement.

Community gardens can be a tool that synthesizes so many of the goals of public education. So, I wonder, why doesn’t every school in the Northland have a community garden?

I can’t answer that question. A garden doesn’t have to take a lot of investment in money or space. It does take some time and a heapin’ helpin’ of hard work. But it’s worth it, in my opinion.

The University of Missouri Extension service has some excellent information about community gardens, and everything I read reinforced my thought that Blackwell has keyed in on an idea that could have a big impact on our kids and their neighborhoods.

School-based gardens "expose young people to gardening and nature, give them the opportunity to do some of their own gardening and/or educate them in a variety of subject areas," expert Bill McKelvey wrote in a piece on the extension service’s Web site.

These projects typically benefit communities with exercise, food production, nutrition, mental health, community ownership, environmental awareness, lowered crime and increased property values, according to McKelvey.

Multiply these benefits by every school in the region, and the potential is huge.

This is right-brained thinking at its best. Well done, Ms. Blackwell.

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Julie Blackwell
written by Maegan Luft, December 05, 2009

Today, St. Patrick school mourns the loss of a beloved teacher, Julie Blackwell. Mr. Weikal uses the perfect words to describe her: humble, hardworking dynamo. We hope we can begin to fill her GIANT shoes, so that the students she cared for so much can continue to gain valuable learning experiences like the one described here.

• 
• +6
• 
•