GARDENING LIFE

LESSONS
FROM
THE PAST
More than a century ago,
Nature Study advocates
sought to connect school-
children with the science
of landscapes and gardens

have you ever shared your love of

gardens and gardening with children,
your own or someone else’s? It can be
as simple as showing a three-year-old
how to make a snapdragon flower
open and close its “mouth” or as
involved as working with a third-
grade class to plant a three-sisters
garden (corn, pumpkins and beans,
organized as Native Americans tra-
ditionally did, with beans vining up
cornstalks and pumpkins spreading
below to shade the soil).
Whatever the gardening wonders
or techniques being shared, the
impulse is often the same: the belief
that children benefit from direct
learning in the natural world. A
garden offers a great place to do that.
While that belief has inspired
much informal sharing about plants,
it also undergirds a long tradition
in the field of formal education.
One such initiative, which enjoyed
unusual longevity and reach, was
the Nature Study Movement. Active

MARY PURPURA works as a writer and horti-

Public domain

Above: These images from the early 1900s show students and teachers
in Missouri participating in Nature Study activities, including observing cultural therapist in the San Francisco Bay Area.
trees and shrubs in a local park and potted plants in a classroom. Her Horticulture column explores the connections
between people, nature and gardens.

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