Is it not time we had a coherent strategy to incorporate horticulture and gardening into mainstream education? You may have noticed the odd polytunnel in some of the new second level schools which have been built over the last decade or so. This is obviously to be applauded as a step in the right direction but why not do it at primary level? Why not capture and nurture the interest earlier before the potential onset of adolescent cynicism and apathy. I see the glee of my six year old when he occasionally arrives home with his paper cup filled with compost into which he has planted a Busy Lizzie seed and is tasked with taking care of it and helping it grow. Such small projects do so much to engender a love of the organic in young minds. My son does it because his teacher has an interest but what about classrooms that are not so progressive?
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| Get Our Kids Growing Early |
There are only positives to be had from immersing children in this area. We have long bemoaned the lack of exposure that our children have to nature and the over reliance we seem to have developed on American console designers to provide their recreation. There is so much we can do to cultivate (lol) an understanding and appreciation of the natural. The multiple benefits of exposure to horticultural pursuits across the generations are well documented and indisputable. The garden has so much to give and yet we are perfectly prepared to regard it as an afterthought in order to create space for the Modh Coinníollach and the beardy fella who lives in the clouds.
The world has changed so much in the past ten years. We have unspokenly rejected the superficiality that naturally accompanies imagined prosperity. We talk of how determined we all are to never again fall foul of such economic hysteria, never to revert to such shallowness. It’s possible to be philosophical and make the case that we need to go through such cycles in order to drill down to what’s important, what will endure. We see that at the core of such learning is an implicit drift to a reliance on oneself, a rejection of corporatism and dysfunctional uncontrollable systems that can unravel at any time. A central pillar in the quest to simplify and boil things down to the micro level is inevitably an evaluation of our impact on the planet and its resources. We have seen a huge shift towards growing it yourself, towards upcycling, reducing and reusing, towards no longer blindly embracing the mass produced and all of its unethical and destructive practices.
Let’s harness this energy and create successive generations to build upon the momentum that has been created. Let’s empower our kids to reclaim at least some control of their lives from Meeting Room B. They can develop and hone the skills as they go along, what they need from us now is the chance to get started. €500 would put up a polytunnel in the corner of the yard in any of our primary schools and could be used by hundreds of kids on a daily basis. They spent €500 on taxis, coffee and muffins for a worthless meeting in the Department of Education this morning.
Of course there are economic imperatives which ensure that the process will be slow and fragmented; its hard to say no to that 29 cent bag of carrots. But something has been started, emboldening our kids to keep it going makes sense on every level. That’s where the humble polytunnel comes in. Let’s start them small.
Every little one helps.
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