Designing Outdoor Environments for Children: Landscaping Schoolyards, Gardens, and Playgrounds
Tai, Lolly and Haque, Mary Taylor and McLellan, Gina et al. (2006).
McGraw Hill; 380 pages. $65. ISBN 0071459359.
Designing Outdoor Environments for Children is, at first blush, a dense read. I received it as a gift from a dear friend, and set it aside for awhile (many months, in fact). I was determined eventually to make the commitment to the pages, knowing even at a glance that ultimately, it would serve as an excellent reference.
The book begins with a dedication to generations of parents and educators—the intended audience for the book. The authors have impressive backgrounds and seem well-prepared for the task. Lolly Tai is a landscape architecture professor and chair, and a recipient of the 2004 Bradford Williams Medal for Meritorious Writing in Landscape Architecture magazine. Mary Taylor Haque, a registered landscape architect and professor of horticulture, is a 2005 John Glenn Scholar in Service Learning, and a recipient of the American Society for Horticultural Science Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Award. Gina Kooiman McLellan, a professor of parks, recreation and tourism, has had extensive experience with quality outdoor environments for children; Erin Jordan Knight is a director of natural resource protection at a not-for-profit organization that promotes sensible growth in South Carolina, and has been engaged in conservation, landscape design and children’s landscapes. Their collective achievements are myriad and unquestionably well-suited to the development of this book.
Designing Outdoor Environments for Children aims to cover the gamut: the history and development of children’s gardens, the entire design process, sustainable design concepts, connecting to the curriculum, fundraising, community partnerships, and service learning. There is an extensive section of case studies.
While the history and development chapter was slow reading, somewhat dry and textbook-like in its presentation, it was exhaustive and particularly helpful for any educator desiring to better understand the context in which children’s outdoor environments have come about. The authors have researched the subject well, and provided many useful citations for those seeking further study. I appreciated the detail into nature and development.
Ditto the chapters on the design process, and on curriculum, fundraising, community partnerships and service learning. The fundraising piece in particular would provide useful assistance to any program. Further along in the book, a comprehensive section on “Obstacles to Environment-Based Education and Suggested Solutions” specifies dominant reasons as to why environment-based education is not universally embraced, and lists very helpful suggestions for moving past the obstacles. From the numerous conversations I have had with discouraged educators, it is evident that these types of supportive suggestions are necessary and offer critical assistance.
There were numerous case studies, and in a manner similar to other chapters in the book, they were expansively offered—no superficial glossing over to be found here. However, this was also the section of the book with which I had the most difficulty. The vast majority of educators working within the children’s environments arena are working with shoestring budgets and in intimate settings, ranging from homes, child care sites, and small community gardens to school environments. Although a few school settings were included, many of the case studies addressed multi-million dollar, high-end children’s gardens in locations such as Longwood, Camden, Hershey, and the New York Botanic Garden. The case studies were thorough, including the mission, design, special features, safety, funding, maintenance, all of the associated personnel and partners on the projects, and more. While these magnificent children’s landscapes offer inspiring ideas, featuring more small-scale, limited budget projects that have been highly successful might have offered more motivation and insight to the “typical” educator or parent. In addition, although the authors addressed “participatory aspects of the garden,” reading these sections revealed that “participatory” meant “interactive,” rather than engaging the children and youth in planning and elements of the decision-making process.
I found some minor inconsistencies; in the design section, holly is included in a design, whereas an earlier list of plants-not-to-include mentions holly as a no-no. A section that notes the importance of the involvement of children is followed by two pages with photographs of adults working in the absence of groups of children. The authors emphasize engagement of children and youth in planning, and yet the overall flavor is of high-priced gardens designed by a host of professionals. The black and white photography, small font, and relatively small image sizes diminish the reading experience to some degree, and yet one can appreciate that larger, colorful images and a larger font would have put this purchase out of the range for much of the intended audience. It’s already a bit pricey.
Overall, this is a book I am grateful to have received, will refer to often, and would recommend as an excellent reference to have at hand. I would advise having alongside it on the shelf: Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation (David Driskell, 2002, UNESCO) and Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care (Roger Hart, 1997, UNICEF, NY). These two books would round out both the theory and practice of engaging children and youth in genuine participation, and would provide important additional information on maximizing the experience for young people.
Reviewer Information
Marcia Eames-Sheavly received her Master of professional studies degree in community and rural development, with a minor in education, from Cornell University in 1999, and a B.S. from Cornell in 1983. She is the youth program leader for the Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program. Marcia partners with human development researchers to implement integrated research and outreach efforts that address youth development skills and assets gained in garden-based learning. She frequently speaks at national symposia and public gardens on topics related to children’s and adults’ experiences of gardening. Marcia has authored many publications, book chapters, and magazine articles, and she received two national Garden Writers’ Association awards for her publications. Marcia was the 2005 recipient of the American Horticultural Society’s prestigious Great American Gardener Award—the Jane L. Taylor Award. This honor is awarded to an individual, organization, or program that has inspired and nurtured future horticulturists through their efforts in children’s and youth gardens.