Both physically and mentally handicapped children benefit from opportunities to manipulate the natural environment and especially to nurture. Arlington has seen a tremendous influx of immigrant families, and teachers at schools such as Glencarlyn Elementary have found schoolyard projects to be a way to engage non-English speaking students. We didn't anticipate that schoolyard projects would become a stimulus for community building. Sutton explains that each grade level has responsibility for a particular garden or other part of the courtyard. A pond and garden club meets on early release days to clean and maintain the student-built pond.
Kindergarteners raise crickets to feed the frogs.
The Viet Namese custodian brings aquatic plants and expertise. With schoolyard gardens, Glencarlyn has found a way to attract otherwise reticent immigrant parents. Indeed, gardening is a wonderful platform for multicultural education, as the crops, herbs, and flowers we grow display both our cultural differences and our universal agrarian heritage. Schoolyard projects have everywhere been a magnet for parental and community involvement. It's as if the adults remember viscerally both the barrenness of their own childhood schoolyard and the rich, wild places they sought out when given the chance.