Whether it's a vegetable garden, a flower garden, or an herb garden, school gardens are gaining popularity
Gardens are becoming increasingly common in school settings. While the growing interest in outdoor classroom activities and urban greening are driving this expansion, educational gardens are by no means a recent phenomenon.
What do they offer students? To what extent can they serve as catalysts for reforming the school system and fostering genuine partnership with parents? Should they be implemented on a widespread basis?
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
School Gardens: A Long History
Inthe 19thcentury, in a predominantly rural French society, gardening at school served as a means of teaching surveying, science, and technology, thereby offering an opportunity to learn about nature through nature itself. The curricula of Jules Ferry’s republican school system emphasized the creation of a garden in every school. Horticulture and practical agricultural instruction were taught to future teachers in teacher-training colleges and then to elementary school students.
Today, teaching food self-sufficiency remains an educational challenge around the world. It aims to establish more sustainable systems by adopting the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact launched in 2015: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which works to eradicate hunger and promote sustainable agricultural development, offers gardening education in schools. https://www.youtube.com/embed/g0D5ICi6xrA?wmode=transparent&start=0 When asphalt gives way to plants, the schoolyard takes on a whole new dimension (Actu-Environnement, 2022).
Following the paving and urbanization of school playgrounds between the 1970s and 2000s, the current trend toward greening is once again making gardening possible in French schools.
By creating a garden with their students, teachers are taking part in the growing “outdoor classroom” movement . School gardens—whether vegetable, flower, herb, sensory, or ecological—offer children the opportunity to experience nature firsthand and learn about environmental issues.
In a school setting, the goal is not necessarily to grow and harvest crops, and establishing a vegetable garden can sometimes be challenging due to the summer harvest season. The primary purpose is to observe and learn as the seasons change, to take weather fluctuations into account, and to develop an awareness of the fragility of the plant world and biodiversity, as well as a respect for them.
Incorporating the Garden into Learning
Working together in the garden encourages teamwork, communication, and sharing. Students learn to cooperate, resolve conflicts, and make group decisions. In addition, growing plants and observing their growth fosters patience and perseverance.
Gardening at school also offers an opportunity for hands-on, interdisciplinary learning. By observing, planting, tending, and harvesting, students gain practical knowledge in natural sciences, biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, and literature. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xqIYcAIfyK4?wmode=transparent&start=0 “Ecology in Schools: A Compelling Pilot Project and a Roadmap—The Educational Garden” (Academy of Corsica, 2023)
Numerous scientific studies highlight the benefits of educational gardens for learning. One of the major challenges today is to make this an activity accessible to all students. School gardens are already part of this approach to food and taste education, as well as the environmental education initiative promoted by the Ministry of National Education.
Starting an educational garden requires careful planning to determine each person’s responsibilities, the steps to be taken, the schedule, as well as the appropriate choice of location, plants, and planting schedule. Currently, the growing trend of greening school playgrounds is a key catalyst for the creation of educational gardens. This trend spans all levels of the national education system, from preschool through high school.
An educational movement that goes beyond school
The garden can also serve as a tool for fostering collaborative education between teachers and parents. This trend is not limited to schools; community gardens, family gardens, and shared gardens—the successors to allotment gardens—are springing up in most municipalities.
Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and local governments are launching and supporting “shared” gardens, which are used by schools during school hours and are open to parents the rest of the time.
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Beyond providing a practical solution to the challenge of maintaining the garden during school breaks, it offers a unique opportunity for interaction and sharing through hands-on activities that transform the garden— a space for discovery—into a true communal space and make educational continuity for children a reality. This movement is supported by the European Commission and complements this network of initiatives that “aim” for food self-sufficiency.
The stakes are therefore high, because a school garden is much more than just a space. It can represent a genuine educational opportunity and help foster awareness of environmental and social challenges; the garden should not be exclusively a school space, but a place shared with parents, thereby promoting a more cohesive educational experience.
Sylvain Wagnon, Full Professor of Education, School of Education, University of Montpellier
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