The mission of the Vegetable Project is to create hands-on learning experiences for Albany children and especially children the great needs, by building gardens, growing plants and harnessing the power of exposure to nature. More than we even realized when we adopted this statement in 2015, the last clause – about harnessing the power of exposure to nature – may be the most important part of what we try to do.
Nine more years of experience, anecdotal as it is, and nine more years of reading what scholarly research and other thinkers find only strengthens our sense that exposure to nature, or even a school garden for what amounts to a 42-minute field trip now and then, can make a positive contribution to the wellbeing of children in a community. And wellbeing likely supports children’s development in important ways we seek to measure – building healthy relationships, making positive choices, achieving academically.
This isn’t to say people without significant exposure to nature are consigned to unhappy lives. And it isn’t to cast exposure to nature as a panacea for every ailment of the human spirit. It is to suggest, however, that schools, where kids spend six or seven hours for about 180 days each year, would probably help themselves by joining the quest to harness the power of nature. More than that, research suggests that schools would see the greatest impact with kids who typically pose the greatest challenge. Our experience and research suggest 42-minute field trips to an outdoor spot on school grounds is not going to take time away from teaching readin’ and writin’ and ‘rithmatic nearly as much as enhance those efforts.
The logic is simple: The human species is well suited to be outdoors. That’s where evolution created who we are today.
We have written occasionally over the years about this subject, often based on thoughtful published research, and share here links to some of those pieces:
From June 12, 2023, under the heading Digging in the dirt for academic performance.
A Feb. 9, 2023, reflection on the book The Well Gardened Mind.
Exposure to nature for sake of mental health from 2021.
Igniting curiosity among students not always seen from 2021.
Outdoor instruction important for mental health from 2021.
Taking nature seriously in education from 2019.
Surrounding pedagogy with nature to boost results from 2018.
–Bill Stoneman
