growing educational programming on farms
TRANSCRIPT
Growing Educational Programming on Farms
Vera Simon-Nobes
Farm-Based Education Network (FBEN)The mission of the Farm-Based Education Network is to inspire, nurture and promote farm-based education.
Members operate on owned, leased, for-profit or not-for-profit…
Vegetables, animals, fiber, timber...
Single staff person to a staff of hundreds…
In 2008, approximately 70% of FBEN members farmed at non-profit farms.
The FBEN is housed at Shelburne Farms, a nonprofit education center for sustainability, 1400-acre working farm, and National Historic landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont.
Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NY, USA
Farm-Based Education Network A free member network established to strengthen and support the
work of educators, farmers, and community leaders
2,425 members
1,711 unique programs
28 countries represented
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY, USA
Common programs among FBEN members...
Public tours
School field trips
Summer camps
Farm dinners
Harvest Festivals
Fresh Roots, Vancouver, BC
handful of soundsavailable at: www.farmbasededucation.org/forum/topics/changing-the-menu-montreal-2015
Why farm-based education?
Farm-based experiences promote social, moral, cognitive, and emotional growth.
The natural rhythms and cycles seen and experienced on farms leads to a deeper and accessible understanding of the world.
We believe that farm-based education promotes respect for nature.
Hands-on learning on farms builds confidence, self-awareness, and individual and collective responsibility which leads to the sustainable stewardship of our world.
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA
“We have a young goat, Vanilla, who has never been happy with other goats. She’s content when she lives with pigs, however. We use her to talk about differences and relationships. We also have an 11-year-old transgender student [at our school] can really relate to Vanilla.”
- Maureen Doherty, Green Chimneys Farm and Wildlife Conservation Center, Brewster, NY.
Green Chimneys Farm and Wildlife Center, Brewster, NY, USA
“My latest joke as a farm-based educator, which is not actually a joke, is that I tell everyone what I do is farm-based education, but that what I know inwardly is that it should be called farm-based healing. I have watched children from traumatized situations come into the farm in a completely shutdown state, shields up, nerves raw, eyes downcast, hoods over heads, and within minutes, I see them transform. They laugh, they chat, and they smile, all while digging in the dirt, arranging the flowers, cradling worms in their palms. It’s nothing I do, all I do is lead them into the garden and show them what to do, the rest happens naturally, because I believe it is how we are meant to be.”
- Barbara Sarbin, Director of Educational Programming, “Something Good in the World”, Cortland Manor, NY
Something Good in the World, Cold Spring, NY, USA
“The world is the classroom. For example, when we’re planting garlic, 400 bulbs, 100 foot rows. Mathematics! They think they didn’t cared for mathematics, but when there’s a practical application, they care about it!”
-Charlie Gook, Organic Farmer withGreen Chimneys Farm
and Wildlife Center, Brewster, NY, USA
Green Chimneys, Brewster, NY USA
Steckle Heritage Farm, Kitchener, Ontario
Fun!
Farm-based learning takes all shapes and forms!
Many successful programs include…
1) Role Playing
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA
Many successful programs include…
1) Role Playing
2) Connections to ecological cycles
LifeLab Garden, Santa Cruz, CA, USA Hidden Villa Farm, Los Altos, CA, USA
Many successful programs include…
1) Role Playing
2) Connections to ecological cycles
3) Relevance to the wider world
Many successful programs include…
1) Role Playing
2) Connections to ecological cycles
3) Relevance to the wider world
4) Promotion of responsibility and care for living things
“I’m going to take him home and shelter him. I love sheltering animals. I care about him. I love bugs.”
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA
Farm-Based Education can serve diverse audiences
Strategies for Connecting with Farmers -Letter writing
-Locating a farm that is close-by as to limit bus fees
-Tracing a locally sourced product from the school cafeteria back to the farm
-Think inclusively about farm-based learning. Beekeeping, urban farming, potato sorting factory, timber, hay, grain, wool, etc.
-Interviewing retired community members who may have grown up on farms
-Through literature
-Growing indoors and in the schoolyard in the classroom
-Learn how people farm in other parts of the world
How to find a farmer....
-Canadian Organic Growers - Growing Up Organic-Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT)- Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network (ACORN)-Attend a Farmers’ Market-Remember farm-based learning can take place at urban farms and in community gardens, too!
Convincing Others that Farm Field Trips are Worthwhile-Wellness
-Community service - support a community
-Teamwork - group weeding, group planting, group harvesting. Make it competitive!
-Form an ongoing relationship - you can go back multiple times and always see something new.
-Explore a diversity of occupations.
-Give kids who may not thrive in a traditional classroom an opportunity to succeed in a new setting.
Everdale Summer CampersToronto, CA
“Applying for a farm apprenticeship at EarthDance Farms was possibly the most selfish thing I’ve done this year. I wanted to learn how to be a better gardener and to improve my physical health... I wanted to do something for my spirit, which took a beating this year in the struggle to find my way through the messiness swirling about us in Ferguson. [But] nothing prepared me for the gifts this summer has given me. The satisfaction of getting covered in mud, picking a few extra sun gold tomatoes or leaving with a bag of vegetables. The excellent management of the instructors was outweighed by the power of the experience of working with the young farmers who do this with me. Varied as they are in age, experience, personality, and aspirations, they hold in common certain qualities of kindness and generosity that are a joy to find all in one place. Their hopes inspire me.”
EarthDance Farm, Ferguson, MO, USA
