A Garden In Every School

Beginning In 1996, Lisa Parker and I developed a school garden at La Tercera Elementary School. The project was supported by Principal Tom Eggert, parent volunteers, school site council, PTA and the teaching staff. We were two parents who wanted to create outdoor education through gardening with our children. Over the years we received many grants and awards, which included funding for a greenhouse that is still used 30 years later. I was lucky, it was the right time to do this kind of work. Support In 1996, Delaine Eastin was State Superintendent of Public Education. Eastin called for a Garden In Every School in 1995. With the help of people like restaurateur Alice Waters, she established gardens in over 3,000 schools. She also enlisted California as the first state to join the Clinton Team Nutrition effort for improved nutrition in schools. She oversaw a series of curriculum guides on how to teach the academic content standards in the context of nutrition, gardening, and cooking. At La Tercera, we created a garden program based on these standards, supported by a curriculum called Life Lab, developed at UC Santa Cruz. Because of this support from the state, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center designed a Garden Teacher Training Program. Our teachers participated every year from 1997 to 2001. The OAEC program ran from 1996-2019, and trained over 1,250 educators from 300 schools in launching and sustaining School Garden programs throughout California and nationally. Over 75,000 students directly benefited from these programs annually. The Gardens at La Tercera With all these great tools available, I jumped in full-time volunteering with parents Barb Dunaway and Denice Borse and enjoyed many years with students in La Tercera's gardens. Projects included: working with the Canadian NASA astronauts on growing tomatoes from space, building the wildflower, habitat, herb, vegetable campus gardens. Our curriculum tools from the Life Lab supported the educational arm. Each Spring, students celebrated Earth Day with presentations from fifth and sixth grade students. Planting vegetables and flowers, and we held plant sales which funded our garden teacher training program. Happiness What I learned from students was a discovery of plants, seeds, soil and the real beauty of the natural world. Was it science, math, art, laughter, collaborative thinking, sunlight or delicious vegetables? Yes. The garden was a place for kids, a natural grounding place where happiness is in doing the simplest things. I did of all this for my child and to give the children at La Tercera the same love and support. What La Tercera received was the parent volunteers, teachers, principals, and the local business community the kind of collaboration that made our school community a success. My child's enjoyment in that space is where I happen to observe these quiet miracles in a school garden. Lucky me.