Terra BIRDS instructors grapple with teaching a hands-on gardening class during the pandemic.
This is a Marathon, not a Sprint.
The Old Trees, Original Artwork by Erica Fareio
“This is a Marathon, not a Sprint,” are words shared this morning in an email from our friend Liz, who is also a Terra BIRDS board member. She is commenting about making it through the current pandemic: maintaining our health and wellness, keeping our finances in order, and staying on track with work or school or whatever it is that we want to be doing. This wisdom makes me think of an Erica Fareio painting of a bristlecone pine and the poem that accompanies it. Bristlecone Pines are the oldest living beings on the planet! Through their lifespan of thousands of years, they endure many significant events and changes. I believe you may find inspiration for your own journal writing by reading Erica’s other pieces as well. One of my favorites is The Space Between. JT
Greetings Students
Learning When There's No School
RC
Dear Ponderosa Students,
We sincerely hope that you, your friends, and loved ones are all well. Watching the trees and flowers come to life around the greenhouse, and being outdoors on the warm days leading up to graduation, are always joyful and exciting times. We’ll miss sharing Springtime with you. Truly. We created a video message, just for you! Check it out here.
This letter from Terra BIRDS goes out to everyone, and is specifically the coursework for our 1st period Greenhouse Class. All of us at Ponderosa understand that the pandemic is affecting everyone differently, and our ability to adapt quickly to a different version of school, not being at school, is different as well. Work in a daily journal is offered as a way to pursue your high school education during the weeks ahead. To get started, we want to share a few lines from a book titled Providence (definition: protective care of Nature as a spiritual power; or timely preparation for what will no doubt happen in the future) by Daniel Quinn.
The writer is commenting about times in human history, in any culture, before there was this thing called ‘school.’ He writes that the culture goes on “keeping the (young adults) around, paying attention to them, talking to them, giving them access to everything, letting them try out things for themselves, and that’s it.” “They don’t give them lessons…” Yet, “Every kid grows up knowing everything– without a single minute spent in anything remotely like a school. No tests, no grades, no report cards. Every kid learns everything there is to learn in that culture because sooner or later every kid feels within himself or herself the need to learn it…”
The writer goes on to describe a life where young people would explore and learn on their own, and naturally seek out adults who could help them on their quest for knowledge to pursue what they want and need to do. Now we’re not sharing this because we don’t believe in the value of school; but rather because we believe this is worth thinking about, especially now. So we’re simply asking you, “What do you want and need to know?” The question isn’t what you think the culture thinks you need to know, but again, “What do you want and need to know?”
While the school building is closed, there is no daily structure of classes to attend, and you’re being an independent Ponderosa High student. This journal is presented for you to explore your own education. Please consider using it to record your daily thoughts, artwork, and other notes. You can tear out words or images and tape in collages. We encourage you to read, communicate with people, observe, think, and ‘dig in’ during the next six weeks, and on into the future!
Yes, do the coursework for your individual classes. This journal is for you. For those who chose to put work into this, and share it with Ponderosa, it will also be an additional way to earn credit and improve your grades. At the back of the journal is a postage-paid, addressed envelope. Around the middle of May, and not later than Monday the 18th, please drop it in the mail. Ponderosa will return it to you after your teachers review it!
Here on Terra BIRDS Lessons Blog, we’ll share information and ideas to help you on your learning journey. You can chat with us; this is a way to participate in the Greenhouse Class. You are also free to call or email us. Please also check the Ponderosa High Facebook page for updates and links. For people without access to computers or wi-fi right now, you can keep up with school via work in this journal.
A closing note… Bob and I have both commented that Ponderosa students have taught us more than we’ll ever teach you. We value our relationship with all of you, we believe in you, and we look forward to continuing on life’s journey beside you.
Sincerely, JT & Bob
Greenhouse Class: Cultivating the World You Want to Live In
March 2011, JT
Nine years ago, the land around the Ponderosa High Greenhouse was an empty patch of hard dirt, with worn out weed cloth flapping in the breeze around the edges. Red ant piles were the only regular animal inhabitants. Today, it is home to a large diversity of plants that are beginning to bud, birds frequent the site, more animals will soon be active, and other organisms are thriving in the soil that we cannot see. There are structures made by the Ponderosa community that make the land more interesting and useful to people. It is a better place. Better, of course, is a matter of opinion. Between 300 and 500 people, depending how you count, spent time and worked on this land over these years. The land is transformed; the people are also changed by their experience of interacting with this land, many for the better, at least in some small way.
The experience offered by the greenhouse class is, quite simply, having a relationship with a piece of land and nature. The theme is stewardship (taking care) of this place. In caring for a place, we can make it better and help nature thrive; and in turn, this relationship helps us be healthy and grow. We exercise and benefit from fresh air, learn about what we’re ‘good at’ and what interests us, develop our skills, and feel the satisfaction that comes from giving of ourselves for the betterment of others (people, other life, natural elements). The process of interacting with a piece of land, proposing and working towards a vision for it, is stewardship, and may also be called gardening. In some cases the vision may be to simply protect it as it is; other times it may be a drastic change. As gardeners, we have the opportunity to make the world a better place, and become better ourselves, one humble step at a time.
Springtime in the Ponderosa High greenhouse class is the highlight of the year. Observing daily changes and new life emerging, planting the vegetable garden, enjoying the warmth of morning sun while working with friends outdoors, checking out the graffiti on the passing trains… this is what we’re missing with school being closed. Instead, we will each individually need to embark on a stewardship quest of our own, wherever we are. Following is a guide with ten topics to explore, in order. For each one, spend a minimum of fifteen minutes, and consider going deeper and spending more time. First, gather up some paper, writing tools, and whatever art supplies you have. If you have a computer or smart phone, you will find these useful as well. All of these activities are completed by simply observing, thinking, writing, photographing, and/or creating art. Document your progress in whatever way works for you.
You can interact with the class in a variety of ways. You can email your work, call in to talk with Bob and JT (you’ve been given our contact information), chat on this blog, and/or mail or deliver your work to Ponderosa (we mailed out a journal and stamped return envelope). In whatever way you choose to do this, do it with care. Label your work for ‘Greenhouse Class,’ and of course be sure your name is on everything. Yes, this all requires independence, creativity, and resourcefulness (finding ways to overcome difficulties). These are helpful traits and skills to develop in order to survive and thrive. You got this!
Let’s Get Started…
The first step is to choose a place, a piece of land that you can access. It can be a large piece of land, or a few square feet of yard or garden space, or somewhere in between. This can be your yard, an empty piece of land nearby where you live, the dirt alongside the edge of any alley, the woods or a meadow nearby where you live. Really, any patch of dirt where you have reasonable and safe access to be. Please stay focused on your personal safety and common sense as you visit and interact with this place. If you don’t have access to any patch of dirt or land, you can also do this entirely in your imagination. You can choose a place that you know in your head and heart; or you can create an imaginary place. You can go through this process on an imaginary planet, or on one of Jupiter’s moons if you like!
Once you have chosen your place, you are ready to get started. Consider each one of these steps as a class period.
1) Define your space. Describe it. What are its boundaries? Write about it. Draw it. Photograph it. In whatever way you choose, develop and communicate a clear understanding of your place.
2) Observe your space. What is its story? Imagine what might have happened here before? In recent time or in distant time. Ideally, do some actual research and find out what happened. Talk to people, read, look-up on the web, whatever it takes to gain some knowledge about the place. Back to the present, what is routinely happening now? Who ‘owns’ this place? What do they do, or not do, with it? Is it legit for someone to own land? What does that really mean?
3) Continue observation. Record the space some more. Draw it. Photograph it. Diagram its boundaries. Now go deeper, observe elements within the space, be they rocks or plants or animals or trash or whatever. Record things within your space. Draw them. Write about them. You are getting to know this space as it is, before changing or affecting it yourself.
4) What is the future of this space? What is likely to continue happening here? What outside things are affecting this space? What is coming in? What about this space is affecting the world outside its boundaries? What is going out?
5) Consider living things in this space. There may be big and obvious things. It may appear to be nearly empty. Look or imagine deeply. List what you can observe is living there. Take what you know about life, and take a guess at what might be living here that you cannot see. Make an inventory of these items. Write about them. Draw them.
6) At this point, you have observed this land for about a week, and are finally getting to know it. Is it changing or is it affected by the fact that you’ve been coming around for the last week? Is it changing youin any ways?
7) Now start to consider taking some action in this space. Think about what you might do to steward or garden this space. Before doing this, and to be responsible, we should think more before we act. What do you want to stay the same about this space? Describe all this.
8) Now explore and propose what you want to change about this place. Why? How? Go into detail.
9) If you begin to change this place, how will your actions affect the living things in the place? Living things outside of the place? Are you allowed to work on this place? Who decides this? Do you feel it is ok and ethical to work on this space? If you change it, is there a responsibility to maintain your changes? What ongoing responsibility are you taking on, or setting up for others, based on your actions? How much are you willing to do? For how long? Who else, now or in the future, may get involved?
10) At this point, you have thought long and hard about this place; and you’ve done the right thing, which is to think through your actions and how they may affect others. Before doing anything, you’ve thought this through from many angles. So the next step is: write and/or draw (or somehow artistically represent) your vision for this space. The vision may be to leave it alone and protect it as is; or it can be to develop the place as a garden. Describe your hopes and vision for this space. To be extra thorough, explain why your vision is for the ‘better,’ and why it’s worth pursuing this vision for yourself or others.
Your teachers, Bob and JT, look forward to seeing your work and learning about the places you share as gardeners. We will be doing this alongside you, and sharing our progress as well. We’re all in this together.