Pensive Tuesday: School Gardens

It's my 50th post today, hurray! I want to thank all of my readers and commenters around the world (from over 30 countries) for making this such a wonderful experience! It's really been a treat. Thank you!!!

Now on to Pensive Tuesday.  The school year is starting up for the Northern Group, and of course, that made me more pensive than usual....

Yes, those kids are upside down, because I often felt upside down at school. I often felt confined, bored, and thoroughly institutionalized. I wanted to be outside, in nature, as much as possible!

But we do have so much to learn, and classrooms are sometimes necessary, I will agree to this. And thank goodness for wonderful teachers who inspire, I remember quite a few from my own school days.

How can mesembs enrich the classroom? That seems like a no-brainer. They are small, do not require watering on the weekends, can grow in artificial or natural light, and they are beautifully weird. I find kids are really fascinated by them.

I think so many classrooms (especially the bunker-like ones without windows) could be so enriched by small gardens, tended by the kids. They'd add oxygen and beauty. Kids would learn about caring for growing things.  Much better than keeping a poor little rodent or lagomorph hostage in a noisy corner, don't you think?

Would a classroom garden work in your area? Have you seen it done? Have you tried it? Would the kids you know like one in their classroom?