Confessions from TEACH(FARM)ERS

Decades back tree shade used to be classrooms and students did not require illustrations for explaining the magic and beauty in the plant kingdom. Now, urbanization, though responsible for a huge number of advancements, has isolated city dwellers from nature. We felt the same in our schools and found that students, living amidst concrete jungles, do experience plants only through books. We wanted to change this and connect our lovely people to nature – discussed by our Teachers team during the Kartka Kasadara Teacher Initiatives phase

In the coming weeks our teachers went through joy, fear, surprise, anticipation, anxiety and love. The following passages are collection of thoughts from our teachers which they had while setting up the garden. We interviewed our teachers and arranged the thoughts in chronological order so that the readers can comprehend easily

“The execution shouldn’t be a problem and the idea sounded simple and good. Such a menial task with great benefits was a welcome move and was well received by my colleagues too. We have decided to start the proceedings tomorrow using a small monetary contribution from the school as well as teachers.”
“Tonight, we must formulate the complete plan for the proceedings. So, how do we begin? Probably seeds and branches. Nope, there is no open soil area in the School. We arrange for it first then, pots it is. How many pots? And where do we get the soil from? Do different plants require different types of soil? Should the pot be filled with multiple layer of soil? Manures? Seeds? Water? Location?”

“Oh my! This is not going to be such a simple thing. Although, things should fall in place once the plan is complete. The School has agreed to give 700 Rupees. The amount which seemed to be sufficient few minutes ago seems completely miniscule now. Should we collect more money from teachers? Or better drop the plan? Ah! But children can learn a lot from growing the plants. They can learn farming, Botany, Chemistry, arts, life lessons and so on. How am I going to accomplish this?”
A week later:
“The soil vendor ended up being a cheat. He has adulterated red soil with brick dust. Some timely introspection from our fellow teachers have saved the day. But whom should I source the soil from? It is better to ask from the horticulture department. They could help us with this too as they did earlier in providing timely advises on selecting seeds and getting manures.”

“Let me have a look at the checklist once again.
* Pots, vegetable skins, garden tools – Collected from teachers (includes continuous supply)
* Seeds – Bought using School funds from Pallavaram Sandhai
* Fertilizer – Bought using pooled fund
* Water – Will be arranged by the school
* Maintenance – unchecked
* Sustainability programs – ???”
“Few more ticks. Once they are done, we can get a connect to nature amidst this concrete jungle and establish the importance of environment among our students”

Two weeks later:
“Never have we thought that making a terrace garden would be such a tedious task. As difficult it was, so interesting was the journey. Those difficult process of separating the seeds, layering the soil, hours of googling for plant care… Wondering how we were able to sail those.”
“Of course, it would have been impossible if not for the team effort. Everyone in the School were so involved in this. Principal, teachers and staffs. They helped in every way possible. We should bring students too in groups to take care of plants.”

“We can use these plants for practical illustrations in class. Oh! Did the touch-me-not plant arrive this weekend? “
“Ah! We miss my plants during the holidays. By the way who waters those plants during weekends”
The next day:
“We feel like Vallalar now!
Stop not, Cry not. A pile of water now would bring back our darling to senses. Now, we should think of a way so that this doesn’t repeats”

Now:

The school has a terrace garden with some medicinal plants, some organic vegetables and some flowers. The garden is ready for children to experience real plants, flowers and vegetables in school itself. Children plan to take turns to water and maintain the garden, Teachers spend time in doing the best for the garden, Leaders see to it that the garden is used at its best and reaches the goals that was aspired.

Like this garden, even classrooms should be organic and every person should contribute for the best of the children in classroom is the learning that Teachers and the Vidhya Vidhai team learned in this entire process.

– Edited by Bharath R (Team Vidhya Vidhai)