At school we actually had a subject called schoolgarden. Every class up to 6th or so had their plot in the schoolgarden to take care of. It was a small school, in a small village, where almost everyone anyway grew food at home in their gardens. Not just for fun. It was for tradition and for having fresh and plenty of veggies and fruits. My grandmother was the full-time-gardener and now I remember this garden as a paradise with all you can wish in a mid-latitude garden. It was her retreat, even though it was a tough job. And everything was ecological. Not because East Germany was such a paradise (in many ways actually not), but because she just grew it the way she always did. The word ecological was not even invented in this context at this time, at this place. Organic fertilizers from neighbors horses and cows for example... And now, as times have changed, and everything is readily and easily available in the foodstores, we have to fight the ecological food campaigns. Scandals about lies with ingredients, partly devastating conditions in food and meat production. A strange change. The old grandma generation (built around 1910) would certainly be overwhelmed and surprised. Do we maybe have departed too much from taking care of good clean fair food ourselves? Where do foods come from, how much efforts does it take to produce? How do things connect in ecology? I think many of us did. Me too. It is easy to just like and dislike in the plenty food-store-selections. When connected to own work and engagement, choices certainly would be different. And now Im trying to recover and built up some gardening practice. And often still bying expensive and not too good food in the store, because it is easier... To conclude this triggering issue, teach kids everything at school they need for a balanced life, together and as part of the huge nature ecosystem. Along with some physical sciences facts teach them social knowledge, cooking, Gardening, Geography, to see and understand differences and challenges. But even geography, the subject about our home, our planet, is often a somewhat neglected subject. Strange and a bit scary to see. Not just from the point of a Geographer...
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:17:29 +0000