Today I helped with a Sustainable Food presentation to 8th-grade classes in a DC Public School. This was part of an educational program where we created and planted raised-bed gardens with the 7th-grade classes. This week, we're leading an educational presentation on the ethics and environmental costs of food choices, with an emphasis on healthy, sustainable, locally-sourced alternatives. This includes bringing students out to harvest salad from the garden, and then preparing a vegan meal including salad, hummus, and pita bread.
We've been working with this school for years, and have great support from the teachers and administration. This was the first year that we'd done this program, and it was quite challenging. From a logistical perspective, the garden hadn't produced a lush crop, so we had to supplement with organic salad from local farmers. Producing meals for 400+ students on a very tight budget, and presenting to all the students in 3 days, took a lot of work and preparation.
On our first day, the teacher we usually work with was absent, so we had a substitute. Several of the classes were very unruly and disrespectful, talking over us, and being disruptive. This is a majority minority school, with students mostly coming from low-income families. I'm used to working with youth like this, because I've been leading nature outings with a low-income community in Southeast DC for over 10 years, but coming in for 45 minutes doesn't give you time to build respect and set boundaries.
While some students in each class were engaged, the presentation went over the heads of many. They'd catch on and react to nuggets, but we were presenting a lot of information in a short period of time - greenhouse gasses, bottom-trawling fisheries, carbon footprints, factory farming, and so on. Some students in each class would quickly lose interest, and start creating their own entertainment.
I have enormous respect for the teachers and administrators working in challenging school environments like this one. One effect of the Charter School initiative in DC is that better students are "skimmed out", and go to charter schools, concentrating the challenging students in public schools. A few challenging students can seriously compromise the learning experiences for an entire class. Overcrowding, a lack of resources, and inadequate support compound those challenges. And many of the youth are coming from problematic home environments - despite the best efforts of parents and guardians, they're exposed to crime, violence, and abuse. I was privileged to grow up in a much more sheltered, supportive environment that I was no more deserving of than these youth are.
Today went well, although we heard that the 8th grade would be very challenging. The teacher was a rock - he set and enforced expectations. When a group of students started to make trouble, one of us would move in and sit close to them, and gently but firmly ask that they stop talking.
I led the harvest part of the presentation, bringing the students out to the garden. Most would react with shock and disgust when I took salad from the garden and ate it - "That's nasty! That's dirty!", they'd say. Each class had at least a few who were curious enough to try it for themselves, and several thanked me afterwards for the experience. Most at least tasted the salad we prepared for them, although we threw a lot out - I scavenged as I could, and ate well.
I felt privileged to be this close to what we're up against - an increasingly urban generation who thinks their food comes from fast food places and supermarkets, public schools without adequate support where dedicated teachers and staff are hard-pressed to create a safe learning environment, and youth growing up in environments that are not adequately safe or supportive. We dealt with indifference to environmental issues, already-obese middle-schoolers, short attention spans, and disruptive and negative behavior. And this was at an elite public school (for the area), one that provides a high standard for educational performance.
But this isn't a downer diary - I'm glad we were able to work with these students. We do educational programs in more privileged areas, where the students are much more receptive and engaged. I don't have high expectations for what these students got out of the experience, but I feel that schools like this are where we can do important work. I'm a strong believer in serendipity, in that I don't expect to witness the positive consequences of my actions.
As Robert F. Kennedy put it (corrected for gender equality),
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time (someone) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (they) send() forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
The teacher we worked with today started in the morning helpful but somewhat detached - he didn't know who we were, or why we were there. By the 2nd class, he was talking about his experiences growing up working on his grandfather's farm, and we worked him into the presentation. He'd tell the students about how his family grew their own food, canned for the winter, and could drink straight from a spring on his grandfather's land. He really got into the harvest, and after watching how many students reacted with shock and disgust to eating straight from the garden, he told them, "I'm glad I grew up in the country, and not in the city!".
The students we worked with today are facing a lot of challenges, many that they're unaware of. They are living in a world affected by the political, social, ethical, and environmental choices of this and past generations. I feel that they have been treated unjustly, and are inheriting serious challenges in the form of climate change and resource consumption, that they had no part in choosing.
I'm grateful that I got to spend one day with them.