The twenty-acre EWS Farm is a place where preschoolers can walk with and observe nature, grade school students can grow and sell produce, and high school students can study and build projects which help to find a responsible balance between nature and technology.
Working with the Earth is enlightening for all grades, but beginning in third grade, it is especially helpful with what is sometimes called “the nine-year old change”. This is a time when a child begins to notice that they are separate from the rest of the world, an experience that can be viewed as analogous to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise.
This is a big change for a child and gardening is a way in which the third grader can bond again with the Earth, but now as an individual. They have a need to feel valuable and important and enjoy the satisfaction of being productive. Learning about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division is easy when counting eggs or selling produce.
In a society dominated by cell phones, television, and the Internet, the forces pushing us towards alienation from nature are great. During adolescence, young people can go through a passage of alienation or experience a loss of purpose. This sense of alienation may have something to do with our detachment from the earth itself. Helping to teach the younger students or working in groups on projects which emphasize a balance between nature and technology can help to unite high school students with nature and their community.
For the dark earth that cradles the seed.
For the rain that brings forth the green leaves.
For the stars that give form to the flowers.
For the warm sun that ripens the fruit.
For all that is good and beautiful.
Oh heavenly spirit we thank thee