Topic: School visit today seemed like a waste of time

[Squash64]

A group of children aged 8/9 from a local primary school visited us this afternoon. I asked the teacher what sort of things they wanted to see and she said they just wanted to "see things growing". 

We split into 3 groups and I took one group plus the teacher around.  We looked at various plants and it was obvious that they children didn't have a clue about how things grow.  The only plant they recognised was a strawberry and that's because it had some ripe ones on it. 

The only things they showed any interest in were the scarecrows, Felix the cat, donkey manure and the toilets.

The teacher didn't seem to have prepared them for the visit, they had no questions to ask, no particular things to look out for, and a teacher who told me she didn't have any interest in gardening.

The last school group came prepared with a check list of things to look out for and questions to ask.

If another group wants to visit I think I will ask for them to be prepared before they come.

[Ben Acre]

I agree Kids today hey? some have pertinent questions but are discouraged by the others if it considered a stupid question, The teacher should have prepared them I agree but I think i  you have an interest in gardening it will come from the home not school anyway.

[Jeannine]

Before I retired from school I did quite a bit of work with kids and gardening and I found if they were given the right encouragement and help almost all kids enjoyed it. The fault lay with the teacher. It takes a very good teacher to  encourage kids in something she herself doesn`t care for, it would appear she was not one.

What a shame.

I took kids to my plots and found them very interested.

Another thing that came across very loud and clear was if I got the kids interested, the kids got their parents interested too, great bonus for our school.

Keep up the good work..

XX Jeannine

[Digeroo]

How sad.  It would seem not only was the teacher not interested but she had bred disinterest in the children.  Why did she birng them round. 

Perhaps you have done more good than you think, and a little information about growing things will have percolated through. 

[lavenderlux]

We have several primary school groups visit our allotments (some come several times during the summer term) and we are lucky in that we have a community building we can take them into first to talk to them (ang get them to ask questions) before we look round.  At the moment we start visits with a talk on 'peas' and look at dry ones from a packet, ones soaked overnight, ones just germinating and ones sown a month or so ago which we take out of the soil so they can see the roots;  then we look at the 'pea bed' where we have ones of different height growing.  Then its into groups to look round.
On another visit our field secretary will give them a talk on 'worms' - different types and why they are important - which they love, we provide gloves so they can handle the worms!  We are lucky enough to have slow worms on our site and there's usually one or more under a piece of corregated iron on the large compost heap.
Some groups also visit early in the Autumn term and we do 'apple tasting' to show them that there's lots of different taste to apples - we have a small heritage apple orchard now.  Very often, after a visit, we will be sent drawings of what they have seen, I had some come in the post this morning from a group who visited last week and saw the slow worms.
Its very disappointing that the teacher hadn’t prepared them for the visit, as there’s such a lot of things of interest on an allotment visit

[shirlton]

Problem is you get the kids that want to learn and others that just want to disrupt.We see it when the school visits one of our sites.The kids that are more interested are the ones from Stuart Wilson handicapped school.Its lovely when they come. They all muck in and despite their problems they really do enjoy coming to the allotment. Just wish I could remember all their names cos when I do perhaps remember one of them and say hello they are so happy.

[Obelixx]

I was interested in gardening as a child but got absolutely no encouragement from the parents and gave up.  It was rekindled in my 20s when I lived in a flat with a balcony and made myself a window box and then took off when we bought our first house and had a garden to deal with.

I think it's a great shame the teacher didn't prepare better so yes, insist that next time they prepare the class.  Maybe have a word with the head teacher about preparation and motivation.   You could mention the RHS schools project which supplies support and structure and materials for teachers and has a huge success rate with kids of many ages and backgrounds.

You could make suggestions yourself such as the above mentioned pea comparison and the worms talk.   Maybe you could get such visiting kids to sow some easy seeds such as peas,  beans, cougettes or sweet peas or sunflowers and let them take one home in a wee pot to nurture in class and see how they grow or label each seed pot with a child's name and invite them back to the plot to see their plant in situ.

[antipodes]

As is, kids are not always that interested in gardening. But in general they are interested in nature, I always find that they like the creepy crawlies!! (not that we want to always encourage those on our plots!!) But they enjoy looking at how compost is made, and looking at the worms and bugs in it. I agree, teacher should have prepared them. A good idea would have been to have them prepare some plants at school way beforehand, some courgettes, or beans or peas, and for them to really plant them in a small area! Then to come back and check up on them!
It's sad that kids don't know how things grow. Although I admit that the other day on the plot, my youngest said to me, oh the beans are ready! I thought, I doubt it, they were only done the other day... and when I turned around she was pointing at the peas!  :-\ So much for my educational qualities! (I pointed out the difference but she was then more interested in eating some of the raw peas!!!)