Vegetable, flower or herb gardens: the school garden is gaining ground
Gardens are becoming increasingly common in schools. While the growing interest in the outdoor classroom and the greening of cities are driving this expansion, educational gardens are not new.
What do they bring to students? To what extent can they be a lever for reform of the school system and real coeducation with parents? Should they be generalized?
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
A long history of school gardens
In 19th-century France, where most of the population lived in rural areas, gardening in schools was a way of teaching surveying, science and technology, and learning about nature through nature. Jules Ferry's republican school programs insisted on the creation of a garden in every school. Horticulture and practical agricultural teaching were taught to future teachers in teacher training colleges, then to elementary school pupils.
Today, learning to be self-sufficient in food remains an educational challenge throughout 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 changes dimension (Actu-Environnement, 2022).
After the asphalting and artificialization of playgrounds in the 1970s and 2000s, the current greening movement is making gardening possible once again in French schools.
By creating a garden with their pupils, teachers are taking part in the growing "outdoor classroom" movement . The school garden, whether it's a vegetable, flower, aromatic, sensory or ecological garden, offers children the opportunity to experience nature first-hand and learn about ecological issues.
The aim of a school garden is not necessarily to produce and harvest, and it can be difficult to set up because of the summer harvesting season. The primary interest is to observe and learn about the rhythm of the seasons, to take account of climatic hazards, and to raise awareness of the fragility of and respect for the plant environment and biodiversity.
Integrating the garden into learning
Working together in the garden encourages teamwork, communication and sharing. Students learn to cooperate, resolve conflicts and make collective decisions. What's more, cultivating plants and observing their growth fosters patience and perseverance.
Gardening at school also provides an opportunity for practical, interdisciplinary learning. By observing, sowing, cultivating and harvesting, pupils acquire concrete knowledge in the natural sciences, biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and literature. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xqIYcAIfyK4?wmode=transparent&start=0 Ecology at school, an eloquent pilot project, a way forward: the educational garden (Académie de Corse, 2023)
Numerous scientific studies underline the benefits of the educational garden for learning. One of today's major challenges is to make gardening an activity for all pupils. The school garden is already part of this education in food and taste, as well as part of the environmental education sought by the French Ministry of Education.
Starting up an educational garden requires precise organization to determine everyone's responsibilities, how the work is to be carried out and when, as well as the right choice of location, plants and planting schedule. At present, the boom in playground planting is an essential catalyst for the creation of educational gardens. This trend concerns all levels of education, from kindergarten to secondary school.
An educational movement beyond the school
The garden can also become a lever for developing coeducation between teachers and parents. This trend is not confined to schools: collective, allotment and shared gardens, heirs to allotment gardens, are developing in most communes.
Associations such as the World Wildlife Fund(WWF) and local authorities are initiating and supporting "shared" gardens, which are both school-based during school hours, and open to parents the rest of the time.
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As well as solving the important material issue of maintaining the garden during vacation periods, it's a unique way of exchanging and sharing ideas around concrete activities that make the garden, a space for discovery, a real common space, and children's educational continuity a reality. A movement supported by the European Commission, accompanying this archipelago of initiatives "tending" towards food self-sufficiency.
The stakes are therefore high, because the school garden is much more than just a space. It can embody a real educational opportunity and help build awareness of environmental and social challenges. The garden should not be exclusively a school space, but a place shared with parents, thus promoting a more coherent education.
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.