Normally, when I find something interesting in the news that relates to the garden, I will pass it along without any commentary, but it is also rare that any garden-related news event even requires it! This had me spittin' mad - as a gardener, parent, student, and teacher to my children.
You all can form your own opinions, but since this is my blog, here's mine:
1. The idea that a school garden fosters a propensity for manual labor and repression.
WHAT? If you ask me our children need a good dose of manual labor, sunshine, fresh air, and sweat. Maybe the diagnosis of ADHD would go down... As for the repression, don't get me started on that crap - last time I checked, there was no danger of our citizens inadvertently being sent back to sharecropping and slavery days because they learned to garden.
2. The concern that immigrants would feel their children are sacrificing an education to go back to manual labor involving lettuce picking and such.
Puh-lease.... and as far as opportunity goes, with CA being a state that has 50% of its students listed as immigrant with this supposed horrible child-knowledge of agriculture, how about letting them serve as teachers, coaches, and peers for our urban children that won't even eat veggies, much less cultivate them? There is a possibility to turn this complaint upside down and even have these immigrant children she is so concerned about not only become productive citizens, but assume leadership and mentor roles. I mean, it's a CLASS, not a whole day spent out in tobacco fields!
3. Our children are sacrificing the more important classes such as math, science, etc to go learn manual labor.
HUH? This one goes right back to parents. When exactly was it that parents stopped valuing manual labor and an honest day's work? Not everyone can be the engineer in the air conditioned office, and those that build our houses, farm our food, pave our roadways and sweat it out in a foreign country to defend us should not feel that their work is any less valued. They make our world go 'round. As far as gardening being a ridiculous class, maybe it wouldn't even have to be taught if parents valued food production and taught their children simple skills from a young age. I know that growing up I knew where my food came from, how to harvest it, even watched my mom freeze and can the garden for winter. For all the children and the parents out there that think those French Fries are a real vegetable, THIS CLASS IS FOR YOU!
Come to think of it, I am not a moron. I went to college, by most standards I succeeded at life and am happy, but guess what? I garden. I sweat. I work in the hot sun. I stay up way too late burning myself with canning tongs when I could be shopping at W@lm@rt for my veggies in a can. Why? Because I know how! And thank you, Mom, Dad, Grandma, miscellaneous farmers in my community, their children... it's because of you that I didn't have to have "gardening" taught in school! But what about those who don't have anyone to teach them? It seems to be the majority of the population...who will teach them?
I think some people just need to wake up and not be so damn stupid. Why can't students nowdays fit this class in? Is this really an issue? Schools have killed gym class, driver's ed, Home Ec (yeah, remember that one? more life skills that are apparently repressive, HA!)... are our children really so dumb that they can't be expected to learn more than a math and science class? Or is it that expectations of the new generation of children have taken a nosedive? We feel we have to allow for videogame time, TV time, "downtime"..........REALLY???!!!!
Okay, I'm done. I am up to my arms in manual labor washing out my seedling pots and trays and I really wasn't going to blog until this evening, but nooooo, I just had to read an article I saw. I feel so repressed...
End rant.
Yes, I'm still here. I wanted to add another tidbit from the land of reality: my son told me a few months ago that everyone in his class wanted to be doctors, but he said he didn't want to be a doctor, he wanted to build "stuff" and grow "stuff", and was that okay? I told him of course - if everyone was a doctor we'd all starve! He went back and told his classmates that, LOL. I am probably not viewed as the best mommy by the teacher.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that gardening is one of the best biology "experiments" a child could get the opportunity to do!! Call it botany and nobody would be complaining... stupid!
ReplyDeleteI found the article you linked to today via twitter, and commented too, I found the original yesterday. Had I posted my 2 cents as I wanted to my post would have been some what like yours, but not as polite. I have pictures of our over a half acre garden on my RocksInMyGarden @ blogspot blog, we home school!!! What do you think we do from April till it is too cold? My 13 yo son is interested in canning, my 11 yo daughter helped me make pickles last season (I hope so she eats 2 jars a week on her own).
ReplyDeleteVery soon we will be starting seeds inside, the kiddos are getting their own Square Foot Garden, they will be starting their own seeds, as soon as possible. Although here in NE TX we can start now, the Farmer's Almanac says rain until the end of March (like last year which meant many seedlings were lost). Guess I will have to invest in a pirogue (pee-row) for gardening, maybe I should dig a hole and raise fish.....Thanks for the seeds BTW.
Sorry this is so long, it got my dander up too, I guess I will have to blog about it too......I am thinking we should put the original commentator on gardening on a twinkies only diet, then see how good she feels.
You couldn't have said it better, Erin. As I read your post, I found myself saying, "Yeah!", "Right on!", "Duh, well of course!", and "Absolutely!"
ReplyDeleteI will not type the words that were running through my head in regards to the profound STUPIDITY of certain people. Just goes to show how very far removed from reality some dunderheads are. I could almost laugh if it weren't such a very sad commentary on where (not just education) but our whole society is today.
Lauren, no kidding biology! And much more hands on and interesting to learn. Valerie, you are teaching life skills and sufficiency which is so hard to come by these days. It would seem to me that a person that has an idea of how to provide for themselves and the confidence gained from that would free up their mind to take on anything they desire! Gotta check out your pics later today!
ReplyDeleteYou got me so fired up I could not be quiet. I shared this on my blog, and linked to your post. Click on my name, hit RocksInMyGarden under my blogs.
ReplyDeleteHey all! Make sure you check out Valerie's blog at http://rocksinmygarden.blogspot.com/2010/01/school-gardens.html
ReplyDeleteShe voiced opinions on the same subject. Good stuff!
How stupid is this woman to think that there is no Science or Math involved in learning to garden? Calculate seed sowing rates per row/square foot (math), or for the little ones count out 15 seeds. How much $ is it costing you to grow this vegetable? (math) Um....last I knew soil and plants are all about biology, microbiology, and chemistry. And I am sure there are books to be thrown in on the subject for language arts.
ReplyDeleteSome people just need something to complain about, clearly that author is one of them.
Props to Erin! I don't know how much there is to add to what you said.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll tweet a link to it. :P
I knew you guys would find that article ridiculous as well! I just keep thinking of all the flaws in the argument, too many to even list! I just realized that I didn't like biology, chem, etc in high school much but now am fascinated by botany and have several "pretty tech-y" books on the subject and have gone on to take several science courses as an adult relating to horticulture and the like. Funny how gardening can actually create interest in the field the author was so worried about losing?! It's so much more interesting when applied to an easily understandable application! And this afternoon my 6 year old needed a work that rhymed with "give", so I gave him "sieve" and explained what it meant, and he said "Oh, like when we make jam!" Yes, exactly... that damned oppressive garden again:)
ReplyDeleteErin, you took the words right out of my mouth....her ignorance is astounding. Only someone devoid of all sense of the real world would make such agreement. What she fails to realize is that most of those kids rarely see veggies period, let alone veggies growing in the dirt. If she'd actually send some time in the inner-city (which I did for the first 17 years of my life) she would know how hard it is to find fresh produce close by (what some refer to as urban deserts). These kids need to learn about health and nutrition and growing their own food is much more hands on and affective then looking at pictures of plants in a science book.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but this women symbolizes just how far removed from food we as a nation have become. She would not be welcomed in my house.
Way to got Erin, love that "give" and "sieve" thing, says everything don't you think. It is great to see people speaking out against stupidity and ridiculous class prejudice. It is our generation who has to speak for all that will come next I pray they all learn how to really survive in this chaos. Peace for all
ReplyDeleteOk, first I was mad, and then I took a look at the author's bio...now I laugh because after reading it, I just can't take anything she says seriously. She knows just as much about the people she writes about as I do about astrophysics.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right, Thomas! Don't know why I get so spun up about this stuff, lol! And as a sidenote, I heard on the "Today Show" this morning a study that says the average tween (8-14 yrs) spends 7 .5 hours A DAY on the computer/cell phone/videogaming - and 1 in 4 sleeps with their cell phone so they won't miss a text. WTF parents?!! Although I know that any parents reading this are most likely not included! So it confirms what many of you already said, parents these days are just too busy to raise their own kids.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my advisor who said if I dropped out of PhD program to be a farmer, I'd be "bored." I am many things, but bored isn't it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that this sort of article is a sign that the zeitgeist has shifted and people are starting to notice the push toward more local and self-sufficient food? If so, backlash is just evidence that change has happened.
Hi Erin,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with your rant more. However, I have to wonder if the author's entire motivation was simply to get a reaction out of people. There is simply no truth or merit to her argument. And, afterall, controversy = money these days, and it seems to me, very unfortunately, that she is using her platform simply as a way to increase the value of her bank account.
Well said. I'm a bit slow here (no internet connection). I guess we just have to learn to not let people like her get to us. I plan to keep on with my repressive gardening, teaching my children responsibility, math, science and (gasp) how to cook with what we grow.
ReplyDeleteAnd 7.5 hours a DAY on phone/computer/games???? Don't they have a life? I mean, a REAL life?
Judy