Edible Schoolyard/A Night in the Global Village

The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School offers edible organic delights from their schoolyard. There is a garden and adjacent kitchen which help students learn in many ways. They learn subjects such as math, history, science, and about life. The garden is a center for literacy for teachers and through the amount of preparation needed to plant the garden, students learn a lot.

The garden is the center of attention and the students learn about things like photosynthesis, ecosystems, how to cooperate with each other, and how to work on projects together. A child who is brilliant in one area may not be brilliant in another and the garden gives them opportunity to do hands on learning. The garden is a way to improve school and make kids want to learn. The kids do not think about school as school, but it really is, they are learning lessons that are important for life.



Heifer Ranch is a nonprofit organization that helps the less fortunate families all over the world. While kids and teachers visit the ranch they stay in shacks that represent housing of families that live in poverty. The places represent Guatemala, Thailand, Zambia as well as generic urban slums like Appalachia. There is one group that is in a refugee camp, this group is not allowed to communicate in English, and they do not have a fire or food. Kids are separated into groups or “families” and placed in each country to live their lesson.
The kids of all groups have to learn how to bargain for items they need to survive.

With one member pregnant and one who loses use of a hand, the “family” is at even more of a loss. They all have to work together to communicate to cook their food and ,make a fire. Adults can take the role of elder or of a two year old. If the adult picks the role of a child then another member of the group has to step up and be the leader. Alliances were forms as negotiations continued well into the night. Kids learned how to be independent, how to work out their problems, and they had to wrestle with choice. Most kids found that they need to take imitative in their own community and they lived the lesson.

Both the garden and ranch help the kids to learn valuable lessons and they have hands on learning. They were both very interesting.