Diggin' the Dirt

I read an article in the Washington Post this morning about prison gardens. Smart administrators have recognized the intrinsic value of teaching their inmates to grow their own food. (And can I say props to our own Jeff Dennison who is doing some amazing things in his position teaching his charges about recycling and other life skills?!)

As I was reading the article, my recurrent thought was "What a shame."

Don't get me wrong. I think programs like this one are amazing. They teach life skills, show the joy of making versus the inner turmoil caused by destroying. They are fiscally responsible. The list goes on and on.

The shame is that we don't do more of this in SCHOOLS. Maybe then, we would have fewer people in prison.

Once upon a time, Harrisburg High School had a thriving vocational program. Our students could learn important life skills right inside our own building. Now, we outsource most of that training. (Thank heavens for the few classes we have managed to keep and kudos for the amazing work being completed by Janet Hart, Beth Lane, Cacy Ellis and Nick James at HHS). Vocational education doesn't get the attention and resources it needs to thrive. It's considered what non-college bound kids take, and to my way of thinking that's just dumb.

There is merit to knowing how to fix things in this throw away world. There is value in knowing how to grow and prepare your own food so that you don't become another obesity statistic.  There are thousands of skills that young people need to combat the sad trends that dominate the headlines in modern society, and they probably aren't going to learn them in my English class. Some will learn them from parents and grandparents, especially here in rural America, but shouldn't educators be doing more?

Beyond the valuable skills that can be learned, there is value in hard work. Too often our students equate physical effort only with sports, and while sports have their place, there is such worth in sweat equity. It's good. You invest your labor and see transformation - an engine that runs right, a shed that's well built, a menu plan that is affordable and nutritious...where do I stop?

It's not that there isn't value in learning about chemistry and calculus, it's just that I see articles like the one I read this morning and think about my upbringing and my education and wonder if there isn't more that we could be doing to grow our children into well-rounded and productive adults. Do we focus so much on one area of their brain that we exclude the development of others? Are we so "smart" that we have lost all our common sense? Will our students pay the price for our hubris?