Educators are tasked with daunting challenges, and especially in communities with significant numbers of disadvantaged students. This is presumably obvious to everyone who has spent more than a few hours in a classroom lately – professionals themselves, parent classroom volunteers, guest presenters, service providers and perhaps others.
And still, we would urge policy makers and professionals and people in the college and university teacher training programs with all our might to take note of incredible research speaking to the benefits of exposure to nature. Articles in scholarly journals are not so easy to wade through. Two summaries here, however, an infographic and a short article, Six Ways Nature Helps Children Learn, by one of the eminent scholars in the field, are great places to start.
Move a bit of teaching and learning outside, which the Vegetable Project does with every opportunity it creates for itself, and the payoff just might be meeting those daunting challenges more successfully. Especially with the most disadvantaged students.
Why the greater chance of success? Well, evolution prepared the human species to thrive outdoors, not sitting at a desk in a classroom. And why especially the most disadvantaged students? Because one of those disadvantages likely is less access to nature.
–Bill Stoneman
