THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607290027
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 111 lines
Through gardening, several S.H. Clarke Academy students have found a way to reach out to their communities and a hobby that has given them a better handle on academics.
Every Wednesday morning, seven to nine students spend nearly three hours cultivating the elementary school's flower beds, tending its 60-by-50 ``community garden,'' or harvesting crops that are shared with nearby residents.
Horticulture and science teacher Michael Huff guides them through the work - always making a point to slide in lessons on insects or plant development.
Public schools across the country increasingly have turned to student gardening projects as a hands-on way to stimulate interest in science and the environment.
Clarke's gardening project also is part of the school's effort to keep students' minds on learning during the summer break. Most of them said they were attracted by the chance to be responsible for something of value.
``It's fun helping the plants live, and then helping people with the food,'' said 9-year-old Warren Elliott, one of the summer volunteers.
Eleven-year-old Larone Downing, another volunteer, will attend Hunt-Mapp Middle School this fall. But he says he'll stay involved in Clarke's gardening activitiesbecause he enjoys the work and he's seen a payoff in the classroom.
``I think the gardening club helped me in science,'' he explained one recent morning, shortly before he and his buddies set off to pick green beans.
Clarke's gardening club itself blossomed last fall.
``When I first came to Clarke last year and started in the gardening club, I had difficulty with science,'' Larone said. ``. . . At first, I was getting D's, just straight D's.
``Then Mr. Huff told us that science is involved with nature. And science is like gardening because you got to learn about the seeds and the roots and the sprouts. And the bugs. We always find so many bugs!''
His D grades soon improved to C's, B's and A's, he said.
Yet for many children - especially the disadvantaged - summer break is a time when achievement gains made during the school year often fade because no one reinforces skills, said Clarke Principal Daisy M. Murphy.
To that end, the school has organized a host of summer activities for students, in addition to gardening.
The activities - paid for with money from school fund-raisers - are open to the gardeners and other Clarke students. They include a summer reading program and recreational outings, like an upcoming trip to play miniature golf.
``Reflective'' writing assignments are part of the fun.
``I believe for urban, inner-city students, one of the most tremendous threats is 10 weeks of mindless time,'' Murphy said.
During the past school year, the gardening club's nearly three dozen members studied basic plant anatomy and later planted and harvested pumpkins and other crops. They also planted the marigolds, begonias and daisies now in bloom in front of the school, as well as some alphabetically arranged flowers out back.
Club members donated flowers and food to nursing home residents and homeless families.
Summer volunteers who didn't sign up for the club last year said they would do so this fall so they, too, could be full-fledged ``Gardening Angels.''
It doesn't take long for the kids to work up a sweat. But they say gardening beats spending summer days doing little more than hanging around the neighborhood.
The work also has them thinking about their own roles in taking care of the environment.
``We learn vegetables and different kinds of bugs and how nature works and how to help it,'' said Carlos Franklin, 10. ``And we have basic experience in gardening - in case when I grow up, I have a garden at my house.''
Students say the best days are those on which they gather ripe vegetables and fruit - everything from cabbage to squash - and deliver the bounty to needy residents in the Jeffry Wilson and Ida Barbour housing complexes.
``It makes me feel good when people are trapped in and you go to take them food; it's just fun,'' said Franklin, referring to several bedridden or elderly recipients of the harvest.
``You let people know that you care.''
Huff, who also runs the district's horticulture program for high school students, which is based at Clarke, said strengthening the school-community bond is one of the project's greatest benefits.
``It's all about reaching into the community, making a connection with everyone,'' he said.
To reward the kids, Huff often takes them swimming after gardening work is done.
Mozella Parker, an Ida Barbour resident, was taken aback when Gardening Angels showed up at her doorstep one recent afternoon, carrying goodies picked earlier that morning.
``We're the Gardening Angels of S.H. Clarke Academy, and this is from our garden,'' several said in unison.
``Oh! Wonderful, wonderful! Thank you!'' Parker said as she accepted the gift, still not quite sure what to make of it. ``This is very sweet.''
Minutes later, after having had time to think about it, she told a visitor:
``Things like that just motivate the goodness that's deep down inside the children. Shows them another side of life.''
Veronica Ward, a Clarke parent, says the project also motivates grown-ups.
She's one of about 14 residents with a private plot in a separate, 60-by-50 patch adjacent to the garden students work in.
This past school year, Clarke received a National Gardening Association grant that made it possible for the school to share tools, seeds and other donated goods with adult gardeners.
Plots were assigned this spring on a first-come, first-served basis.
``I feel the gardening helps because it gets me more involved in what's going on with the school,'' Ward said, ``and it brings the people in the neighborhood and the children together.
``It shows that the school is reaching out. It's all exciting to me.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
VICTOR W. VAUGHAN
The Virginian-Pilot
The project is part of S.H. Clarke Academy's effort to keep kids'
minds on learning during summer break. Here, Warren Elliot, 9,
checks out cabbage moths. by CNB