Even with the best teachers and best technology, sometimes the best learning happens in the garden. Many school grounds have gardens for visual reasons, but the benefits of having flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees go far beyond beautification.
“While so much emphasis put on the use of technology in the classroom, many kids today are missing out on the experience right outside the school doors,” says Brittnay Haag, a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator.
School gardens create hands-on learning opportunities for students that aren’t typically found in a classroom. Classes where students are able to plan, plant, and care for a green space have been proven to benefit not only the youth but also their community in a variety of ways. Research shows gardening activities can be brought into a variety of subjects and bring learning to life for science, social studies, math, writing, visual arts, health, and nutrition.
“Imagine being able to dig in the soil to explore its makeup instead of looking at pictures,” says Haag. “Students can observe firsthand the act of pollination and the life cycle of plants, or be inspired by the garden while writing an essay or painting a picture.”
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The garden can also be used for health and nutrition lessons or a place to practice physical fitness while pulling weeds or spreading mulch. By growing fruits and vegetables, children’s food attitudes and behaviors can change for the better. They are more likely to eat vegetables they have grown themselves and share those preferences with others.
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Young learners need a place to play, explore, and learn. School gardens can be an asset to every student and teacher, offering a place to get outdoors, connect with the natural world, and explore new concepts through experiential learning.
Illinois Extension horticulture staff are available to assist schools and childcare facilities of all sizes and grade levels with starting a garden, reviving an existing garden, or connecting the curriculum to the garden. To connect with an educator in your area, visit go.illinois.edu/ExtensionOffice.
Illinois Extension leads public outreach for University of Illinois by translating research into action plans that allow Illinois families, businesses, and community leaders to solve problems, make informed decisions, and adapt to changes and opportunities.
My Town: Clint Walker’s memories of Coles County as pulled from the archives
Cosmic Blue Comics
From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a “greenspace”.
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured, Shelbyville’s Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin’s Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an “Ocean Pacific” kind of kid.
Icenogle’s
Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle’s…but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that’s not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills
I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam’s Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I’m seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music
Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn’t buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all went down. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver’s license fresh in your wallet, you’d be right. But it’s the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year’s Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette’s
Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out at Vette’s back in it’s “heyday,” and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough in parking lot fights.” If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.