The other week at service learning at the Edible Schoolyard and Samuel L. Green Charter School, I spent my time trimming baby arugula. The arugula was growing in nice and thick and needed to be trimmed down to allow more room for the roots to spread and breath in a healthy fashion. I felt like I was giving the earth an expensive, thorough haircut. I spent an hour or two meticulously snipping away to give the arugula an even comb through. And I must say, this patch of earth looked quite dashing after I was done with it. It got me thinking about how the earth cares for humans, and how humans care for the earth. I was giving this arugula a trim to help it thrive. Once the arugula thrives to its full potential, it will then be consumed by humans, who will further thrive from its nutrients and deliciousness. It’s a circle of support and love that a gardener and a garden rely upon. The more care a gardener shows towards his or her garden, the more benevolence they will receive from the bounties of the garden. In this sense, gardening is a beautiful way to get to know your earth in a contained sort of way.
I think it would be really cool if Loyola offered a gardening class for Environmental Studies. I think its really important to know how to take care of a garden even if its not your thing to do. Everyone learns how to jump start a car or balance a check book, why not learn how to care for the environment?
ReplyDelete@ samantha--Great idea!
ReplyDeleteAmen, Samantha! What I have been frustrated with in many of my classes over the past 4 years (especially with being a philosophy major) is that there is too often preaching without action. We are taught the problem, the argument, etc., however we are rarely guided towards a path of change or action. It is definitely largely up to us to take our education and proactively pursue our innovative ideas that we want to change the world with. Your idea of gardening is a perfect example of a skill we can practice to directly apply our philosophy of caring for the environment.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have gardening as a course option! Wasn't there a little garden in the grassy area by Monroe? I guess that's no more, but it would have been great to be able to expand that.
ReplyDeleteThat would be amazing to have a gardening course! Since the summer my mom has been tending her own little garden that the is part of neighborhood community garden. she absolutely loves it and her garden looks amazing since it's currently sprouting spinach and broccoli(some stupid idiots stole broccoli though), cauliflower, etc. My mom's always been a hippy nature person but this opportunity has been enriching for her in so many ways. Gardening is a great skill to connect with nature.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, I remember the little garden by Monroe but I heard students where trying to grow pot so maybe they stopped it!