From the Garden

I finally got to go back to the continuation high school. (And now I'm sort of shadow banned, but that's a whole different blog post.) 

Wednesday. English. 

As it was Wednesday, it was gardening day. Unlike the last time I pulled this gig, this time we actually could work in the garden. 

There was a "garden ranger" who ran the class. She did a short lecture on natural versus chemically derived ingredients, had them make some tea, and had them do some planting and pruning. 

(At various points she videoed the kiddos. Apparently, there's a program to bring gardening into schools. Here's their Instagram. And here's one of the videos she shot that day.) 

Fourth period. She had brought in some mint plants, and the earlier periods had found a spot to plant them and weeded the area. Fourth period got to plant them. She had them lay out the plants in a sort of grid. 

Seth took his shovel, and he stuck it where he wanted it. He jumped on the shovel, pounding it into the ground. He methodically did this three more times, and very quickly created a hole large enough to put the mint plant in. Clearly he had done this sort of thing before.

Seth explained that his grandmother had an award winning garden. It looked like he had assisted her. 

After they had planted about half the plants, Seth invited me to plant one.

Well, didn't want to, really. So, I gave some excuses. My hand hurt. I didn't have the strength. Etcetera. 

Seth? Yeah, he called me out on that. Shot down my arguments. And fair, really. 

I'm usually the one making the kiddos do things they don't want to. This period I had two students who were unwilling to "get dirty" (there are sinks; they can wash their hands after), and I was urging them to work. So, I'm not doing it? I knew I had to. 

So, I did. Slowly. And badly. But I managed to dig a hole with Seth's guidance. And he put the mint in the ground. 

I got a bit of sun that day. And many of the kiddos did kind of enjoy it. It looks like it's a great program.