A Lesson from Growing Indian Corn

The school garden is a place created by students for students. Here, students experience Nature’s generosity, abundance, and capacity for regeneration, as in the growing of an open-pollinated popping corn.

It takes only a handful of grain to plant enough for everyone. For the past five years, each class has handed on the seed for the following class. Now the verse children have heard, or sung finds its true home:

It is common sense that every day we need to eat, drink, breathe, and take nourishment from the Earth. But seeing the nature’s beauty through regeneration fills us with wonder.

When the harvest comes, some seed for next year are set aside. This is the same seed that the fourth grade class grew, which is the same that the fifth grade class grew, which is the same that the sixth grade class grew, which is also the same that the seventh grade class grew, when we first began our garden.

Entered into in this way, grain is not just a thing, but has being. The students feel joined in a great chain of human activity, responsibility, and work. They also feel that they have a contribution to make so that younger kids can share in the same experiences. They get a taste of responsibility and look forward to growing up, for now they are handling the same seed that their older brothers and sisters grew when they were began gardening.

As greater and greater pressures are placed on the Earth, help is needed to sustain the Earth’s regenerative capacity. This is the aim of the organic farmer--to heal the Earth while serving others.

a) Each week half of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes work in the garden tending to the seasonal tasks of harvesting, weeding, composting, and planting.

b) The students and the garden teacher, with occasional parent and student volunteers’ help, maintain the garden.

c) During these first years of establishing a school garden we have focused on developing the garden, tools, techniques, and practicing the art of gardening. We look forward to integrating the garden into the school community’s seasonal festivals.

d) The students enter into meeting the seasonal needs of the garden, while developing gardening skills and learning the strength of working together in teams and as a group.

e) As more produce becomes available, harvested items are taken home to share with the children’s families. This year the eighth grade plans to share some surplus potatoes, carrots, and onions with a food shelter.

f) The lessons that the children learn while gardening are almost too many to list. Some of the most valuable lessons lie dormant for many years, only to emerge later when the time is right.

An outstanding theme is that we depend on the fruits of the living Earth everyday, and upon the work of others, in many hidden ways. Gradually, a sense of interest and responsibility emerges, as the children experience a world made more beautiful and productive as a result of their efforts.