Avery, a Grade 5 student at JH Moore, shares how she learned to play rugby and why it’s her favourite sport. This story was produced in a digital storytelling workshop that I facilitated with 17 grade 5 students in Lashburn, SK.
It was the second last day of school, so I was anticipating the work ethic might be weak. But, boy! was I ever surprised!
A small group of senior students of JH Moore Elementary worked tirelessly to get the planters in place before their summer break. A couple of the boys dug dirt for four hours straight!
In brief, we moved the tires into place, starting with the first layer, filled them with dirt, put the second and third layer on, lined them with tarp and then filled them with dirt.
How wonderful it was that when we finished an educational assistant and student came out of the school right away and planted rose bushes into three of the planters. Then the principal informed me that a grandmother from the community was coming the next day to plant flowers.
Yesterday and today we are painting tires!
It’s been raining the last couple days that I went to Lashburn, so we haven’t been able to work on our vegetable garden as planned. So we changed our focus, moved indoors, and began painting tires in preparation for our tire planter garden.
But, first the students needed to learn some colour theory: primary colours, colour mixing, the colour wheel, cross-complimentary, etc
The pallet garden at JH Moore School in Lashburn is coming together. Despite the weather, we carried on in our endeavour June 6, 9, & 10.
First, we laid out the pallets on the front lawn and organized them according to colour, shape, and wood type. Then, after watching a demonstration on how to turn the pallet into a planter the students broke off into groups of four or five and began to emulate the demonstration they just witnessed. The lessons learned in this simple demonstration and reenactment were many–simple things like how to lift, how to hammer, how to measure, how to cooperate, and so on.
I’m guessing the students would say the highlight of this phase of the garden was hammering. They were thrilled to learn and ‘be allowed to’ use this hand tool. So enthralled were they with this aspect of the project that the slight hail storm went virtually unnoticed.
In terms of intangible culture, I underestimated the significance of things like hammering. A few of the students had held a hammer before, had struck a nail. Most, however, had never done such things. In terms of heritage, where would we be without ‘hammering’? Many, if not all, of the heritage buildings on our prairies (old barns and farm houses) were constructed by hand. And the early fences that shape and define this province, they too were constructed with hammer in hand.
Bearing this in mind, it gave me a strange feeling of nostalgia to watch these youth eagerly learn to hammer. To try and try again without frustration, to strike that tiny spoke of metal.
When I tell people about the Lashburn School Garden, many ask “What does that have to do with art?” And while I do think there is an art to gardening, I divert the question to “intangible culture”.
During our Animateur Orientation, it was put forth that this year we might turn our focus to Intangible Culture — the invisible ‘stuff’ that makes up the visible, touchable ‘stuff’ of culture.
So, now the dialogue with students looks something like this:
I ask “What is Culture?”
They answer by giving me every example under the sun, but never actually define it.
I tell them they are all correct and that “Everything is Culture.”
I add the metaphor of a fish swimming in water. “Does it know it’s swimming in water? No. Just like you don’t know you are swimming in your own Culture.”
And now I further add “And how do the examples of Culture you provided come to be?” … “Who braided your hair this morning? How do they know how to braid?” … “Those home made cookies you have in your lunchbox? Who made them? Where did they get that recipe?” … “Who here knows how to ride a horse, or take care of a horse? Now how did you learn that?”
… And this is my segue into gardening. “How many of you have a garden at home?” 90% of the class raise their hands. “Who tends the garden?” They tell me. “Do they take an instruction manual?” A resounding “No.” “Well, then how do they know what they are doing? How do they walk out to garden patch and know what they are doing?”
And the light bulbs go off. I see a glimmer of understanding in their eyes…. That! is Intangible Culture.
I further this discussion with the students by telling them that for the duration of this project (and hopefully henceforth) they are going to start collecting Gardening Wisdom. They are going to start talking to the gardeners in their family and ask them for any ‘tips” that will help with the success of our garden.
I then supply a few examples from my (albeit limited) experience with gardening. I tell them about a second cousin (who is an incredible farmer) who only seeds by the moon. He suggests planting seeds on full moon, not because of the light (as most presume) but because of the full moon’s potential for drawing water to the surface of the earth. I tell them about the little old lady who took one look at my garden and asked “Where are the flowers? You need flowers so the pollinators come.” I tell them about the ‘three sisters’: how the First Nation people of Southern States have always grown corn, beans, and squash together. They do this because as the corn grows the beans wrap themselves around the stalk and flourish from the corn’s strength, and the squash spreads at the ground’s surface to protect the soil and plants from dehydration. I reiterate that certain plants like growing together and others do not. And we need to know this kind of information. So they need to ask the gardeners in their families.
We’ve started to collect these pearls wisdom on recipe cards, and I imagine that with time we will have quite the arsenal of Gardening Wisdom.
I end this conversation with the students of Lashburn by reiterating that we really are a Gardening Culture. “If I was in downtown Toronto,” I query, “how many kids would put up their hands when I ask who has a garden?” Not very many I suspect.
Although I think it is a right to be able to grow one’s own food, to have access to fresh, untampered pesticide-herbicide free food, it is fast becoming a privilege more than a right in this world. So I remind the students how important this is, that we preserve the Intangible Culture of Gardening.