Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning
Grant, Tim and Littlejohn, Gail (eds.) (2001).
Canada: New Society Publishers; 136 pages. $16.95. ISBN 0865714363.
Children spend 20-25 percent of their time in school in the schoolyard—the equivalent of 257 days by the end of sixth grade (Grant and Littlejohn, 5). This makes one consider how and where children are spending that time. Does the time count? Is it pause, recreation, or education? What kind of education does a child get in an environment that is analogous to a parking lot? Considering the current sociopolitical emphasis on academic standards, student achievement, and high-stakes testing (at least in the United States), could more be done with the space that is typically paved in asphalt to maximize its educational value?
Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning is a resource and design guidance manual aimed at supporting teachers through the entire process of a schoolyard greening project from conception through construction, and ultimately to teaching in the new grounds—unique outdoor learning environments that replace plain asphalt or turf. Written by teachers for teachers, the book presents designers and researchers of children’s environments with insights into the obstacles and opportunities that educators face when putting theory into practice.
Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn, the book’s editors, are former high school teachers and also editors of Green Teacher magazine, a non-profit quarterly published in Toronto since 1991. Both the book and magazine are geared towards “K-12 educators and parents who seek to foster environmental literacy and global awareness in young people.”
While I agree these are important objectives, as a reader and design practitioner I question whether they will gain broad support from the general public or the school administration? Working with a design firm that has focused on changing school environments for 30 years, we are constantly faced with how difficult it is to implement changes because they require leadership and support at the school and policy level.
Greening School Grounds is a well-structured compilation of short articles linking the environment with education, written by teachers and environmental educators described in the introduction as “North American pioneers in schoolyard greening” (vi). The book illustrates through case studies how the transformation of school grounds from bleak expanses of underutilized asphalt or turf into multi-sensory, natural learning environments cultivates improved social behavior, enhances the environment, provides opportunities for learning, and nurtures an environmental ethic.
The editors state that greening schoolyards supports the more “real…broader and deeper” purposes of education than the preparation of “people to compete in a high-tech, global economy” (vi). Contributors of individual chapters within the book describe from their various perspectives how this mission can be accomplished in an outdoor classroom.
This book comes at a time when several schoolyard greening initiatives in North America are underway. The first article outlines a history of schoolyard greening that spans 150 years. The movement resurfaced most recently in Britain in the 1980s as the Learning Through Landscapes program and since then, schoolyard greening programs have been on the rise. Though these programs face pressures of budget cuts and an academic climate (in the U.S.) that measures student achievement through standardized tests, teacher and parent groups are taking the transformation of school grounds into their own hands as a way to achieve broader child development and educational goals they feel are lacking in schools today.
The book acts as both a reference work with sections on a variety of topics, and as a “how to” book that, if followed from start to finish, offers a plan of action for implementing a greening project. The eight sections in the book are set in a good sequence, from a general overview of the basic views of the benefits of greening school grounds (such as improving behavior, as a supplemental teaching tool, and developing an environmental ethic) to specific examples of design or specific actions one can take to accomplish a greening project. The topics are well-selected and relevant to each phase of the project.
The “Getting Started” chapter describes important factors for success—getting the right people involved, funding the projects, publicity, planning, strategies, and educational value. Another chapter offers examples of schools that have developed entire ecosystems such as natural wetlands, desert gardens, and prairie restoration. Articles in the “Attracting Wildlife” chapter offer project ideas on how to increase a school ground’s learning potential by attracting birds, butterflies, and amphibians. Ten articles in the “Learning in the Outdoor Classroom” chapter describe ways to use the grounds for academic purposes. Following the articles are sections that offer project support, resources, references, and a “Curriculum Index” matrix that teachers can use to quickly reference the curriculum ideas mentioned in the book, per subject and grade level.
The approach is a fresh synthesis of research from multiple disciplines including environmental psychology, sociology, and child development, with real-life practice. A lack of details on the backgrounds and experience of the contributors leaves them somewhat anonymous, however, and limits the reader’s understanding of the scope of the Greening initiative’s success. Books written in the United States within the last ten years describe case studies of schools that implemented green schoolyards, but were later met with long-term challenges of maintenance and operations budgets and policy conflicts (e.g., Natural Learning, by Robin C. Moore and Herb H. Wong) or were dependent for success on the prior existence of a supportive curriculum (e.g., Landscapes for Learning, by Sharon Stine).
Approximately two-thirds of the book’s contributors are Canadian. It would be helpful to know how effective the Greening initiative has been in Canada. Do the national curricula or the public school districts support it? Moreover, in practical terms, at what types of schools would projects such as these thrive? Are they equally successful in rural, urban, or suburban schools? Do they require modifications to the existing staffing or curriculum structure in order to truly be successful (for example, some private Waldorf schools in the U.S. have full-time garden teachers, whereas the typical public school cannot afford that, nor is the curriculum structured to support this level of engagement)?
For researchers and design practitioners, Greening School Grounds presents a good insight into the practical issues facing teachers and environmental educators. It also whets the appetite to delve further into the subjects presented, and into questions piqued by the articles. In what ways do children value green schoolyards? What are the long-term educational and social effects of green schoolyards? When the environment is used as a context for learning, is the reported increase in student achievement on standardized tests a direct effect of the environment, or another factor such as the method of education? What are the cultural and ethnic perspectives and values surrounding the initiative? How do the needs of urban, suburban, and rural schools differ? How does this influence education in the long term?
Greening School Grounds offers a well-organized collection of inspiring perspectives. It would be well served to include a summary by the editors, though, that looks hard at the obvious challenges (budget, long-term maintenance, staffing) and offers realistic suggestions on how to overcome them. Even though the book is aimed at the “grassroots” teacher and parent involvement level, the collection of articles suggests there is enough fodder for policy change at a larger level. Readers who are pursuing this effort must be equipped with answers to real, challenging questions such as “How do green school grounds contribute directly and immediately to student achievement?” and “Why should our school invest in a greening project when we can’t afford textbooks and pencils?” I applaud Greening School Grounds as a good resource. We need manuals that show us how to do this. We also need manuals that lead us toward making policy changes that support and sustain these efforts. Being prepared for the difficult questions will only make one’s position stronger when combined with the broader goal of educating the future generation of responsible citizens.
Reviewer Information
Moore Iacofano Goltsman
Jennifer Worth received a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from the University of California at Davis, and a M.A. in Education from Stanford University. She is a practicing landscape architect and manager of Educational Curriculum Development at Moore Iacofano Goltsman, a design and planning firm in Berkeley CA, where she designs outdoor learning environments at formal and non-formal institutions (such as schools, zoos, and museums) and develops associated curriculum. She also teaches at UC Davis.