Here is a nice comment of GardenDecorDen on my former posting :
“Getting Kids Involved With Gardening” by Great Big Plants February 23, 2007
“Without getting our children involved in gardening, this wonderful activity will probably decrease in importance in the coming years because the “magic of the garden” will have lost its appeal on our youth. Why? If our children are not taught about gardening and about actively getting involved in gardening, they will simply turn to less physical, less healthy, more “fun” activities such as driving around with their friends, listening to music on their iPods, talking for hours at a time to their friends on their cell phones, playing with their online games, or simply hanging out and partying with their friends. In a word, if we do not teach our youngsters about gardening, many, if not most of them, will avoid healthy, outdoor physical activity (such as gardening) just like they would avoid the plague. If the “older” generation does not accept this “teaching” responsibility, you can bet the farm that the younger generation won’t either.”
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Although youngsters in developed countries will not agree completely with your view on the current situation, there is a large part of truth in it. So, adults certainly have some responsibility in “guiding” kids (not adolescents?) towards gardening. Schools and youth associations (e.g. scouts) can play a very important role in this process of motivation and capacity building. Pre-schoolers in particular seem to be “more open” for finding interest and fun in gardening (getting their hands dirty).
I think “bottle gardening” can be a strong tool in “hooking” kids for a number of gardening activities and observations with high educational values, also in the cities. Kids find bottle gardening “real fun“.
Walnut seedling in a PET bottle (click on the picture to enlarge it)
The situation is completely different in developing countries affected by desertification (drought, land degradation). Here, the educational aspect is not the most important factor. Gardening kids are really contributing to food security of their families, to production of fresh food, full of vitamins and nutrients, for instance for the school cantina. It should be registered that container gardening (in bottles, pots, bags, etc) is an easy, simple and cheap way of massive food production with a minimum of water. Moreover, one should be aware of the enormous number of youngsters, in rural areas as well as in urban areas, able to be involved in the local and national food production chain. And what to say about the importance of their contribution to public health and poverty alleviation (a bit more income for their family)?
I still wonder why decision makers at the Ministries of Education and Agriculture are not launching such a “National Program of School Gardening” or a “National Program of Gardening in Bottles and Grow Bags“. There is no need for important financing and it can be started without any considerable problem within the shortest period. Even the teachers in remote areas will be very interested.
Maybe it is too easy ?
Willem
