Waldorf High School Garden and Farm

 

The idea of a garden/farm connected to the school is to restore the relationship between the earth and the students. Most youngsters have no idea how the food that they eat grows. We live in a technological world of instant satisfaction. We instantly connect with our friends by cell phone, we are instantly entertained by turning on the computer or TV, we use the drive-through to get our lunch instantly.

 

Growing our own food helps us realize that our most basic need–food–requires many qualities that our technological society has forgotten. Growing our own food not only helps us connect to the earth, it also helps us develop life skills.

 

Some of the LIFE SKILLS learned in the school garden and farm:

 

PATIENCE: to wait from sowing till harvest

CARE: to weed the crops

EMPATHY: to care for a baby lettuce plant

JOY: to collect the warms eggs

SATISFACTION: to help something grow

BEAUTY: to have a sleepover to help with the spring lambing

COOPERATION: to work together to get the job done

PLANNING: to calculate how long each crop grows till harvest

LEADERSHIP: to take turns being in charge of a crew

SERVICE: to prepare school-grown-meals for the needy in the community

 

A school garden and farm is a living text book: a great instruction place where school subjects are learned and applied:

 

MATHEMATICS: to measure areas and calculate seeding requirements

EARTH SCIENCE: to learn about soil

BOTANY: to realize that a cucumber was once a flower

GENETICS: to cross pea plants just like Mendel did

LINGUISTICS: to break down the Latin names of organisms to their root words

ECOLOGY: to interplant crops and thus lower the insect damage

NUTRITION: to prepare the harvested food in the school cafeteria

ECONOMICS: to sell food at the schoolÕs farmerÕs market and calculate the profit or loss

CHEMISTRY: to understand the nutrient cycles from decomposition processes

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: to work different muscle groups

MUSIC: to sing together during weeding

POETRY: to observe Nature and find inspiration

HISTORY: to understand the revolution from an agrarian lifestyle to an industrial one

CIVIL RIGHTS: to understand the plight of migrant farm workers & the works of people like Cesar Chavez

 

A school garden and farm is a living test book that teaches the students how all life is interconnected and how we are all part of the cycles of life.