Monday, March 15, 2010

Growing Benefits

Whenever it starts turning warm outside, I find myself flipping through different books and researching on various websites for information about gardens. While I love all kinds of trees and flowering plants, the type of garden that brings me most satisfaction is the vegetable garden.

I remember the first garden I planted. I was a “city” girl and never actually thought about where vegetables came from. I had married into a farming family that grew all their fruits and vegetables and raised all their meats as well. My father-in-law took a lot of pleasure in my initial reaction to digging a garden spot. It was not a good reaction. However, after the planting was completed and all the seeds sprouted and became plants, I became hooked. There is something so fulfilling seeing those neat, tidy rows of plants growing right where you planted them. Sure, you had to weed them, water them, and fertilize them, but the results were fantastic. Unless there was some sort of poison resistant bug invasion, you were rewarded with wonderful tasting vegetables that you could eat or preserve for later in the cold winter months.

I think I liked gardening so much because it allowed me a sense of accomplishment. I started out as a middle school teacher (grades 7 – 9) and there were days that I wondered if I had accomplished anything at all. I liked my students and they liked me. I enjoyed coming to school everyday and I truly wanted my students to be successful. I was a resource teacher and my students were often viewed as “bottom of the barrel” kids. They were in school filling their time until they could drop out. I had thirty students (ages 12 – 16) and all were in my class at least four hours a day. I tried everything I could think of to help them learn. At that time schools did not separate students by handicapping conditions so I had students who were FMD, students who were learning disabled, and students who were slow learners. I had emotionally disturbed students and I even had one gifted student who was placed in my class because no one wanted him in their class. They were a real mixed group but I really connected with them and did everything I could to teach them english, spelling, math, science, and social studies. I soon found out that many of them were poor readers so reading was added to the list as well.

As a first year teacher, I soon found out that I didn’t know what I needed to know to teach these students. So, I spent time trying to learn “on-the-job” from whatever resource I could find. And, eventually, as that first year ended and the second one began, I continuously added knowledge and skills to my teaching arsenal so that I could help these students learn. But it was not easy. It wasn’t like planting seeds. These students didn’t stay where I placed them. They didn’t respond to my watering and care like my plants did and they definitely didn’t always bear fruit, even after the most intensive care.

So, working in the garden became my therapy. I was in full control there. I could predict, with fairly certain accuracy, how my plants would react. In fact, it was not at all like teaching. Don’t you wish it was?

I know that all of you have stories just like mine to share. None of us starts out as a master teacher. Many work years to get to that point and everyone can make it. It is hard work being a teacher. Much harder than most people realize. When my summer garden was over, I could till the ground under and wait for next year knowing that it would bring a fresh start. Of course, teachers start a new year each year as well but the fruits of our labors, our students, are still in our school. We see them each year until they graduate, move, or dropout. And if they do dropout, we ask ourselves, “Could I have made a difference in this child if I had done something different?’

Teaching is hard work. I hope that you find something, whether it’s gardening, fishing, woodwork, cooking, etc. that you can use as your therapy. Because with gardening, it is very nice to look at what you have accomplished from beginning to end. You can see the results of your labor. I hope that all of you will come to the graduation this June 4th to see the fruits of your labor because when that child walks across the stage it is because of his/her pre-school, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10, 11th, 12th grade teacher. It takes all of us to grow a "graduation garden".

About Me

Dr. Rita Cook, Superintendent of Middlesboro Independent School District, has over 35 years of experience in education. She has taught all grade levels and been an administrator for the last 22 years.