Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn, (eds), 2001, Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning, Toronto: Green Teacher, 136 pages, 8 1/2 " x 11", ISBN 0-86571-436-3, Grades K-12, 2001.
Introduction
Pedagogical theories come and go, but everywhere and always it is innovative and energetic teachers who are the real ground breakers in education. Never has this been more literally true than during the past few years as teachers and students across North America have begun to break ground for greener schoolyards. Tilling the soil, planting a seed, creating a nature trail, feeding the birds — it all seems slightly anachronistic at a time when the real, serious purpose of education, we hear, is to prepare young people to compete in a high-tech, global economy. Of course the real purposes of education are both broader and deeper than this, and as many writers in this collection point out, a great many of them can be met in an outdoor classroom
This book is not a dig-it-and-seed-it planting guide for schoolyard sodbusters, although it does offer much practical how-to advice. Rather, its aim is to guide teachers through all phases of a school grounds project, from developing a rationale that will win the support of principals and administrators, through redesigning the grounds, to tapping the rich potential of the schoolyard as a place for hands-on, multidisciplinary learning. The organization of the book mirrors this process.
The Perspectives section helps readers develop a cogent argument for undertaking a school greening project; it does so, in part, by pointing to research that overwhelmingly supports the view that such projects offer substantial intellectual, emotional and social benefits to children. The Getting Started section gives advice on organizing a project team, developing a collective vision, and getting the support of volunteers and funders. The middle three sections form the heart of planning and implementation, offering design suggestions and how-to advice on a variety of projects from natural wetlands to butterfly gardens to tree nurseries. Finally, the largest section of the book, Learning in the Outdoor Classroom, is devoted to the myriad and multifaceted educational uses of a school nature area.
As a whole, the book reflects the expertise of more than 40 authors and 75 reviewers, many of them North American pioneers in schoolyard greening. As one might expect, their ideas are creative and often ambitious. Yet any project that aims to beautify and diversify a beast as big and bleak as the average schoolyard will take time, energy, enthusiasm, and usually money — in other words, all the personal resources that tend to run dangerously low on Friday afternoons. That is why, again and again throughout the planning of this book, the voices of the experienced have urged and reminded us to “tell teachers to start small.” And so we do, hoping that this book will inspire grand plans but at the same time provide the direction and tools to begin the journey in small, manageable steps. No matter how modestly you begin, you will be enriching young people’s lives, strengthening your community, and adding your vision and voice to the most vibrant educational movement currently underway on this continent.
