Recently I was asked to share why the Tillman IGNITE project is important to me. It's been a busy couple weeks, so I procrastinated, of course. But, because I didn't have time to wordsmith, I found I was pretty darn honest with my response. And in the interest of using this platform more fully than I have in the past, I thought I'd share. So...
Lots of reasons I'm drawn to outdoor ed, experiential ed,
and youth gardening. First, we HAVE to equip our kids to deal with
tremendous environmental challenges--climate change, pollution,
declining non-renewable resources, and a global population that
exacerbates all of the aforementioned problems. Wow. How do we help our
kids deal with all of that? I am not totally sure, but I do know that
humans don't work to save what they don't love and that a space like
IGNITE will inspire a connection to and hopefully love of nature. That
is a necessary precursor to solving problems that will also require a
good grasp of how systems work. And nature immersion is a great way to
begin understanding systems and the complex interactions within and
among systems. It seems to me that people are waking up to the fact that
we need to raise "systems thinkers" in order to solve problems
associated with climate change, and move away from education that
fosters mainly reductionist thinking.
Why else? Well, kids
need to know where food comes from and how much work it takes to
produce it. They need to know that cheap food isn't all that cheap if we
count the cost accurately (environmental and social). IGNITE's
intensive/functional plants space + our current food gardens will help kids
learn the basic, foundational skill of growing food. If they know how to
grow food, they have the means of survival if needed and if not, they
at least will respect the value of food.
Why else? This
one is a bit harder to explain, but I'll give it a shot. I think the
root cause for many of our social problems is the same as for our
environmental problems. The same mindset that develops a food system
that creates so many negative unintended consequences (water and air
pollution, antibiotic resistance, inhumane treatment of animals,
inadequately compensated farmworkers, soil erosion on a massive scale,
etc.) is the same as that which has produced and perpetuated systemic
racism. I don't think it's a stretch to think that teaching the current
Tillman kids to care about nature, and to unlearn the "otherness" of
nature, will transfer to other areas of life. Our culture is so steeped
in otherness, defined as separation coupled with domination, that
anything we can do to counterract that narrative will be beneficial.
Would it be better if we could also partner with a school district in,
say, North St. Louis county to help kids learn that just as we are
connected and interdependent with nature, we are connected and
interdependent with folks in St. Louis despite our de facto segregation?
Yep, but we don't have the foundation set for that yet. What we will
have with IGNITE immediately, is a space to directly engage with nature
and learn that we are a part of natural systems, interdependent rather
than here to subdue nature. And we will have a space that will encourage
conversations about our interconnectedness with other people and other
places as well---i.e. food systems and watersheds are great jumping off
points for that.
And finally, I think it's shameful to
keep kids indoors all day, every day except for a 20-minute recess. Kids
need to be outside. And IGNITE will be a space that makes teachers want
to take kids outside. And that will be awesome.
The IGNITE program is a well thought out plan. I am convinced that children should have the opportunity to learn the art of gardening in school. The program will teach children how to respect the earth and environment that we all live in. There is not a better way to teach self-sustainability than to give the children the gift of gardening.
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