California Foundation for Ag in the Classroom announces its Imagine This writing contest each fall. Last year 60,000 students in California participated. The following is an adult version of the idea and should be considered a challenge to administrators of and participants in the largest agricultural economy in the world.
Imagine This - for Grown Ups
by
Lee Ann Stangl
Imagine This - for Grown Ups
by
Lee Ann Stangl
Imagine California students who learn reading, writing, and arithmetic as they garden, cook, eat, and care for animals; students whose work outdoors inspires achievement indoors; students who read Ag Report as they study current events and urban families who receive California Country in their mailboxes each month.
Imagine that, beginning in kindergarten and continuing through middle school, each student learns about the outdoors, the interconnectedness of life and plant systems, the importance of water and arable land for sustaining a society through food production, the economy of agriculture, the art the local landscape inspires, and the stewardship required to partner with nature. In other words, as AG IN THE CLASSROOM puts it so succinctly, Literacy for Life.
Imagine agricultural and environmental scientists partnering with businesses to create place-based schools, schools that organize curriculum and activities around themes of local agriculture and environmental resources, joining with farmers, ranchers, scientists, and businesses. Imagine California with 58 place-based elementary schools, one in every county. Students at these California public schools would study the climate, geography, history, natural resources, and bountiful farms of their local county.
In this imaginary California, Ventura County students learn about their coastal climate and its effects on the citrus, avocados, and strawberries grown there. They gain an appreciation of the water storage needed for crops at the same time they are taught the significance of the condor restoration project in Piru. They will become experts about why hot springs bubble up in the hills and how the coastal tides affect fish, plants, and people. At the same time, in other parts of the state, Imperial County students learn to understand the difference between high and low desert, sand dunes, artesian wells, canal systems, dates, and melons while students in Stanislaus County grow hot- and cool-season crops, gain an appreciation for and understanding of hydro-electricity production, and its dependant relationship with the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. This new network of schools would connect students and families around the State, further promoting the importance of partnering with and supporting the local economies.
Imagining such schools may be a pleasant mental exercise for those in agriculture, but it is an exercise that the academic and technological proponents have already made a reality. College-preparatory Aspire Charter Schools have grown to 36 since 1992. High Tech High Charter Schools, which focus on educational technology and also funded by the Gates Foundation have 10 schools and recently became the first state-sponsored charter school network. California has more than 700 charter schools, and none are supported or funded by agricultural business community.
Imagine businessmen, farmers, and environmentalists agreeing that, from a young age, children should learn all the factors that make up the business of growing food and fiber, about good stewardship, and about sustainability. Imagine that they take the next step and begin to invest in new schools to make it happen. If each county were to begin with one K-6 school of 280 students, 15,680 students would immediately begin to gain a new appreciation for farming, science, the environment, and the amazing richness of California resources.
This dream can be made a reality because charter schools allow innovation and change. As Secretary A.G. Kawamura stated at the 2006 Ag in the Classroom conference, “Parallel ag education efforts need to converge”. Merging agricultural and environmental interests in a network of schools would be both efficient and powerful. Thanks to Ag in the Classroom, 4H, and nearly every agricultural organization in the state, curriculum is already available. Visionary agriculturalists, environmentalists, and business people can make this happen, county by county. If one group of individuals or businesses in one county begins by establishing a school to be used as a model, the convergence will have begun.
Lee Ann Stangl was a teacher and a charter school administrator of a California Distinguished School who believes that children spend too much time at desks and in front of monitors.
