When reading “The Pull of The Earth”, you understand one thing right away. This story is not about a Jonesville school or about one teacher. It is a story of a whole system of education in which it was proved that you can make a change. A small change with one little garden can start a movement.
Laurie Thorp approaches many sensitive topics in her book, basically, we can start with the question of what is wrong with our system of education. How to fulfill the needs of children, who not only need teaching but also need parenting? In the case of the children mentioned in the book who are from different ethnicities, their parents work hard to earn the money, as a result of their absence, the school becomes the first teacher and parent for those kids.
The garden curriculum was a proposal, or in other words an idea that might have changed something in the relations of the kids and the educational structure. The main idea is the connection which linked the teachers and kids and gives them something to care about and see what the results are.
The involvement of the kids in the process along with giving them the opportunities of feeling related to the work they have done, picturing them in the process was fun by itself. The connection of the school’s main subject to the garden is a matter of participation and finding a practical usage of the subjects studied while relating them to a small process. This process of taking care of a garden, while being small, in fact, has a huge meaning for the kids being a participant of the event they are a direct part of and its main makers.
The process involved learning and at the same time having fun. The main part of Jonesville elementary school’s kids was from poor families. The feel of hunger they were feeling most of the time, so the idea the author found was in reaching two goals at the same time. The idea of the lovely knowledge was being used. The lovely knowledge of having joy and fun with the fresh food while watching the process of how this food is produced was a simple task. The task reached despite the presence of difficult knowledge of questions that needed answers. Questions such as why in a country so rich which has plenty of everything kids go to school hungry. This question if was not answered was never asked at least for Jonesville Elementary.
The author gave an idea, a hint, and a seed. The research she made gave many people a reason to look at their selves and make changes. The educational system that needed revising found a symbolic answer. The answer was a garden, a small garden that had the ability to teach the kids and to feed them. The garden gave them the chance to imagine and dream of places they had no access to. This example shows us how participatory research could turn out to be effective, and the strong will of the people involved in this project could overcome the difficulties they faced and proved that nothing is impossible. The great missions start with ideas and the small change started with a garden. I think the cultivating moment of the garden will have its followers and that is a tradition to start and to be proud of.
Works Cited
Thorp L. (2005). Pull of the Earth: Participatory Ethnography in the School Garden. Altamira Press.