People, plants, and kindness: A model horticulture science program

Isabel Abrams

Wayne Schimpff, former Chief Naturalist of Illinois, now a high school horticulture teacher at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Chicago, has an unconventional approach to gardening, science, and troubled teens. His science program, People, Plants, and Kindness, has been honored as a model program for the city of Chicago. The program welcomes students with learning disabilities, failing grades, and discipline problems, and offers them knowledge in science infused with lessons of service, stewardship, leadership, and fellowship.

Service learning. The yearlong curriculum emphasizes service learning-learning academic subjects through volunteer work in the community. Students do science experiments and hands-on mathematics while planting city gardens, learn the basic principles of floral design while making corsages, and become familiar with the key concepts of botany and ecology while making landscape plans. Environmental restoration, such as planting a city garden or removing weeds along a riverbank, enables youth to gain a sense of ownership and responsibility in the community. At the same time, service learning brings a feeling of accomplishment that allows young people’s self-confidence to grow.

Stewardship, leadership, and fellowship. Stewardship involves the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to your care. The program emphasizes the importance of environmental stewardship by demonstrating how plants contribute to a more attractive environment. Students plant seeds and watch themproduce lovely flowers. They prune shrubs and pull weeds and see the schoolyard transformed into a beautiful garden. When they plant wildflowers on the Chicago Riverbank (a public area), students realize they are stewards of the public environment.

Students acquire leadership skills when they are organized into activity crews that consist of rakers, hole-diggers, and planters. Adolescents with challenging behaviors often do very well with these hands-on activities. By establishing teams with leaders, students quickly learn that if they want to participate, they must follow instructions. Often the best team leaders of these outside activities are those who cause trouble in the classroom.

Because team members dig, weed, and plant together, work projects are sociable occasions, and new friendships are forged. A spirit of fellowship prevails because student gardeners are encouraged to support one another, saying such things as “Good job” and “That looks cool.” Self-esteem improves even more when students receive compliments from the school principal and community members.

Corsages and compliments. Students are not threatened by failure when lessons begin with simple instructions andprogress to more complicated steps. The establishment of a relaxed atmosphere is crucial for building confidence and achieving success. In the corsages and compliments activity, students combine carnations, chrysanthemums, or other seasonal flowers with greenery and a bow to form a wearable corsage. The homework assignment is to give the corsage to someone, and then report what the person says and how it made you feel. “It felt wonderful,” commented one 15-year-old who gave a corsage to her mother. For many in the class, receiving a compliment from a parent is a rare experience.

Flower Power

Almost everyone can appreciate something beautiful, so activities with flowers (and other plants) can contribute to student success and self-esteem through a variety of activities. For example:

Combining flowers in a corsage improves fine-motor co ordination and motivates students to learn the principles of design.
Making centerpieces with cut or dried flowers and greens requires concentration. Depression lifts as students forget about their personal problems for a while.
Keeping cut flowers and potted flowers alive motivates students to learn science. They are eager to learn how water, sunshine, soil, and photosynthesis make plants grow.
Selling corsages at school dances and other events gives students the attention of their peers. Selling centerpieces for Thanksgiving tables or door swags for the winter holiday season brings a sense of achievement. Teachers of teens who do poorly in academic subjects often believe these students are incapable of achieving any kind of success. Imagine how wonderful one failing math student felt when he delivered a floral arrangement to his math teacher, displaying his talent and enthusiasm.

Tips for Growing Success

Implementing horticultural activities in the classroom with maximum benefit to students involves planning on the part of the educator. The following tips will help with planning small-scale activities, such as making corsages or wreaths, and large-scale activities, such as community garden and beautification projects.

Make sure the school principal, the custodians, and other teachers understand your program. Explain the personal and academic goals, and the activities involved. Ask for input during planning sessions.
Obtain appropriate insurance coverage and approval for field trips and extracurricular activities.
Make detailed plans for class sessions, outdoor activities, and field trips, and prepare students for field trips in natural areas. Children need to know what to wear, what equipment they should bring, and what they might expect to encounter, as well as the purpose of their outing.
Order tools, soil modifiers, shrubs, trees, and floral materials well in advance. Seed and nursery catalogs should be ordered in the winter. When the catalogs arrive, ask each class member to choose several shrubs, trees, and flowers. When making their choices, students should consider whether the plants are annual or perennial. They will also need to look at plant height and circumference, soil needs, sunshine or shade requirements, leaf characteristics, and flower colors. In the process of preparing for a project, students will learn the art and science of plants.
Coordinate activities with school and community events (e.g., make corsages for dances, bouquets for holidays, and celebrate Earth Day on April 22). This connects teens with their larger community and with the world.
Plant a garden on school grounds. Going through the steps of surveying school ground, testing soil, looking at shady and sunny spots, and making a landscape plan gives stu dents practice in problem solving. It is also a powerful demonstration that planning ahead leads to success.
Invite experts from the community, such as landscape professionals and florists, to explain design, or how to choose flowers, or to demonstrate how to make a corsage. This encourages students to develop their artistic creativity and design skills.
Invite an environmentalist to explain the importance of plants (for food, maintaining the atmosphere, sustaining animals and people, etc.) and the need to preserve biodi versity (plant and animal species, and natural ecosystems such as prairie, wetland, forest, and desert). This connection with nature and people around the world inspires young people to aim higher in their life goals.
Connect plants with people. As students plant seeds in pots, tell them that seeds have potential, just like human beings. Plants have basic things they need in order to grow just like human beings-and plants contribute to our quality of life.
Ask students to write about their emotions when they give a corsage to someone or when they are alone in a forest or other natural area. This activity promotes observation skills and provides insight into feelings.
Look at career and educational opportunities related to plants. This makes teenagers aware that, by working hard, they can make a living doing something they enjoy.
Party in your garden. Promote fellowship in the class by cheering one another on during hard work and by celebrating success.
Promote community service. When students plant gardens and restore natural areas in the city, neighbors and public officials will thank them. Teenagers discover that adults are friendly and appreciative. They also gain a tremendous sense of accomplishment and enhanced self-esteem.
Be a role model. Remember to smell the roses. “Ooh” and “ahh” with joy at their accomplishments, and do something good for the Earth yourself.

This feature: Extract from Abrams, I.S. (2001) City Gardens: Growing success for troubled teens. Reaching Today’s Youth, 5 (2), pp.43-45