Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Nature Deficit Disorder

If only you could have been in our garden this week!  We witnessed a new ‘native species’ experiencing the joys of our micro-farm.  As we opened up the back gates, waiting for a few more loads of mulch from New Port Richey, I was weeding when children were passing by on foot to the elementary school a few blocks away.  

You would have thought this group of children had never seen a plant or a tree!  Unpretentious and completely spontaneous, about eight children ages ranging from probably six to ten years old, wandered through the gates to excitedly ask,’Is this your garden? What is this, what is that?  What are those green things hanging from that tree?‘  Their enthusiasm and desire to learn about gardening was more than heart-warming.

Jimmy and I quickly named and pointed out a variety of edible plants to them, not willing to make them late for school, and he offered to leave some little papaya trees (with instructions) outside of the gate for them to pick them up later.  As he brought the seedlings over in pots, you’d think he was carrying kittens or puppies with the way the children cooed over them.

After we’d said our good-byes, I realized how much more connection to nature each of these children needed.  There’s nothing the children in our intentional community love more than to run around in the garden exploring under the plants and munching on veggies they find.  They are completely energized by nature, and especially by growing food they can eat.

What better way could there be to get children to eat healthy than to let them experience growing their own vegetables!  It’s no wonder more and more schools are running informal programs to raise vegetables to enrich cafeteria lunches.  Beyond an extracurricular activity, integrating gardening and sustainability into school ‘lifestyle’ is something that can be taken home to enrich the entire family.

On the larger scale, this offering in public education is bringing new life into an environment where recess and the arts have disappeared in lieu of more time for the ongoing ‘test requirements’.  Discovering nature, especially in an interactive process of hands-on gardening experiences, is truly connecting children to where food comes from, their health, the health of soil, and a passion that could be part of their future.

I thought about Richard Louv’s 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, and how he observed the rise in ADD and ADHD as children transitioned to more and more inside time with electronics, and less time outside in sunshine and nature.  It is quite possible our culture has created these behavior issues by stunting natural curiosity and limiting freedom to explore the outdoors, build forts, sleep outside, and get down in the dirt to study the tiniest, remarkable insects and plants.

We inherently are stimulated and enriched by our experiences in a garden.  Once someone has deeply invested time ‘participating’ in the cyclical process of growth, nothing appears the same.  The great mystery of ‘life’ starts to open up as children witness the sprouting of a seed.  It plants deeper seeds in their imaginations.

To bring lasting sustainability to Tarpon Springs, let’s work those values into early childhood education.  It is the perfect illustration of the proverb, ‘Give a man (child) a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man (child) to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’  

The way our world will experience lasting sustainable change is for every generation to get involved.  The best part is that children seem to inherently ‘get it’.