Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 13 No. 2 (2003) ISSN: 1546-2250 Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning Grant, Tim and Littlejohn, Gail (2001). Canada: New Society Publishers; 136 pages. $16.95. ISBN 0865714363. Children spend 20-25 percent of their time inschool in the schoolyard—the equivalent of 257 days by the end of sixthgrade (Grant and Littlejohn, 5). This makes one consider how andwhere children are spending that time. Does the time count? Is itpause, recreation, or education? What kind of education does a childget in an environment that is analogous to a parking lot? Consideringthe current sociopolitical emphasis on academic standards, studentachievement, and high-stakes testing (at least in the United States),could more be done with the space that is typically paved in asphalt tomaximize its educational value? Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning is aresource and design guidance manual aimed at supporting teachersthrough the entire process of a schoolyard greening project fromconception through construction, and ultimately to teaching in the newgrounds—unique outdoor learning environments that replace plain asphaltor turf. Written by teachers for teachers, the book presents designersand researchers of children’s environments with insights into theobstacles and opportunities that educators face when putting theoryinto practice. Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn, the book’s editors, are formerhigh school teachers and also editors of Green Teacher magazine, anonprofit quarterly published in Toronto since 1991. Both the book andmagazine are geared towards “K-12 educators and parents who seek tofoster environmental literacy and global awareness in young people.” While I agree these are important objectives, as a reader and designpractitioner I question whether they will gain broad support from thegeneral public or the school administration? Working with a design firmthat has focused on changing school environments for 30 158 years, we areconstantly faced with how difficult it is to implement changes becausethey require leadership and support at the school and policy level. Greening School Grounds is a well-structured compilation ofshort articles linking the environment with education, written byteachers and environmental educators described in the introduction as“North American pioneers in schoolyard greening” (vi). The bookillustrates through case studies how the transformation of schoolgrounds from bleak expanses of underutilized asphalt or turf intomulti-sensory, natural learning environments cultivates improved socialbehavior, enhances the environment, provides opportunities forlearning, and nurtures an environmental ethic. The editors state that greening schoolyards supports the more“real…broader and deeper” purposes of education than the preparation of“people to compete in a high-tech, global economy” (vi). Contributorsof individual chapters within the book describe from their variousperspectives how this mission can be accomplished in an outdoorclassroom. This book comes at a time when several schoolyard greening initiativesin North America are underway. The first article outlines a history ofschoolyard greening that spans 150 years. The movement resurfaced mostrecently in Britain in the 1980s as the Learning Through Landscapesprogram and since then, schoolyard greening programs have been on therise. Though these programs face pressures of budget cuts and anacademic climate (in the U.S.) that measures student achievementthrough standardized tests, teacher and parent groups are taking thetransformation of school grounds into their own hands as a way toachieve broader child development and educational goals they feel arelacking in schools today. The book acts as both a reference work with sections on a variety oftopics, and as a “how to” book that, if followed from start to finish,offers a plan of action for implementing a greening project. The eightsections in the book are set in a good sequence, from a generaloverview of the basic views of the benefits of greening school grounds(such as improving behavior, as a supplemental teaching tool, anddeveloping an environmental ethic) to specific 159 examples of design orspecific actions one can take to accomplish a greening project. Thetopics are well-selected and relevant to each phase of the project. The “Getting Started” chapter describes important factors forsuccess—getting the right people involved, funding the projects,publicity, planning, strategies, and educational value. Another chapteroffers examples of schools that have developed entire ecosystems suchas natural wetlands, desert gardens, and prairie restoration. Articlesin the “Attracting Wildlife” chapter offer project ideas on how toincrease a school ground’s learning potential by attracting...

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