Sometimes
success comes from years of planning, hard work, and dedication, while
other times, it seems to arise from a pure willingness to act. For
teacher Stephen Ritz, what started as a simple project to plant fruits
and vegetables indoors soon took this latter route to success, becoming
what is now known as The Green Bronx Machine.
Working at a high school in New York’s
South Bronx district, Stephen one day received a box of daffodil bulbs,
which he hid behind a radiator in his classroom. Unexpectedly, the steam
emitted from the radiator helped the bulbs to grow, and also planted
the seed in Stephen’s mind for a project centred around growing and
maintaining plants in a classroom setting.
Stephen then set out on a mission, in
collaboration with his students, to beautify their neighbourhood by
transforming abandoned lots into landscaped gardens to which the entire
community could contribute. The group then took to growing indoors,
using vertical planting methods to transform the school into a truly
hands-on learning experience.
The Power In Hands-On Learning
We live in a society where the bulk of
the material taught to students in traditional education is founded in
theory and repetition. I think back upon the 17+ years I spent in school
and the amount of what I learned that I still know to this day is
minimal, but what I do remember, for the most part, happened through
collaboration. I remember the outreach projects I was a part of much
more than the calculus equations I temporarily memorized to help myself
get by in the course.
Stephen’s gardening project seems to be
another example of the power in hands-on learning. As Stephen himself
put it, “attendance has increased from 43% to 93%. Students come to
school to take care of their plants – they want to see them succeed.” In
my opinion, hands-on learning makes education an experience,
something that not only tends makes learning interesting, but, when
partnered with traditional education, can also build truly lasting
knowledge.
Changing Worldviews
What makes Stephen’s story even more
remarkable is that he funded the initiative out of his own pocket.
Driven by his love for humanity, Stephen has dedicated his work to
raising healthy children, something he feels is much easier to do than
attempting to fix broken adults.
How we eat is so critical to our
development and well-being and, through living in a society dominated by
nutritionally void processed foods, the value of fresh produce is
being forgotten. Rather than inundating kids and parents with dietary
facts and food scare tactics, Stephen believes the key to shifting our
diet lies in being a part of the process of creating it.
“When kids learn about where their food comes from, it changes their world view… The ability to bring healthy, fresh food into schools and teach children that input equals output is absolutely spectacular.”
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