Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The fastest garden ever
Today was a truly strange day. We took the sampler kids to a program for children ages 1-6 who have mental retardation or developmental disorders which was run by the county. It is a great program in an amazing facility. They had a special activity today. All of the kids got to come outside to the community garden and pick fresh veggies from the garden. There was only one problem with this plan . . . there were no veggies in the garden to pick - that is until we got there. All of the sampler kids were responsible for planting veggies in the garden. Now, you might be asking yourself, "If the veggies were planted this morning, and the kids are coming to pick the veggies this morning, how exactly is that going to work?" The answer is simple: go to the grocery store, buy some already grown veggies, remove them from their packaging, and then dig holes and plant them in the ground. In fact, it doesn't matter if it is something which grows in the ground to begin with, bury it all and we will have the kids dig it up. But the best part is that wasn't even the end of it. They staff didn't get enough veggies for all of the kids to pick up one of everything. So, we had them place the newly "picked"veggies into a basket which was promptly emptied and the veggies were re-positioned so that the next wave of bright eyed youngsters could come out and have their turn. It was incredibly surreal. I mean, on some level I get the point. You want to teach these kids that food comes from someplace before it gets to the grocery store, but still . . . this was all just a little much for me.
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2 comments:
I can't even begin to comment on this... I get the point too but its so irksome... sorta like the cows advertising silk commercials....
-Chrisy
I think this is incredibly sweet and worthwhile. While it might have seemed redundant for those of you replanting the vegetables, for these kids, it was brand new and fascinating. There is no way to make a garden grow to your expectations, and if picking veggies was the plan of the day, then it has to be arranged somehow. To plan programming for any number of kids is complex and takes time. You should realize this from working with youth. Especially the older they get, the harder it is to find something equally amusing to do if something doesn't work out. If replanting already groceried veggies is a way to bring happiness to these kids, it's a simple enough thing to ask. And you probably won't post this, because you don't like to be chastised when you blog, you only let positive ones that agree with you be posted, but I thought I'd give my thoughts anyway.
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