Why is the Learning Garden there?
The John Muir Learning Garden is made so that students in San Francisco Schools can learn more outside of the classroom. The Garden builds on what students learn in elementary school and gives them a chance to get real-world experience that goes along with what they learn in the classroom. Students in San Francisco schools can combine what they learn in the classroom about reading, math, science, history, and language arts by taking part in activities in the Learning Garden.
Reaching out to the community, the Learning Garden offers services to parents, neighbours, and volunteers who are interested. Mentor gardeners plan learning opportunities with teachers and students. One interesting project going on right now is the sustainable composting programme. This programme takes organic waste from San Francisco school lunches and uses it to fertilise garden projects instead of putting it in landfills. This is just one of many projects that teach people how to garden while also taking care of the environment in the real world. Students and people in the neighbourhood can learn about how to protect the local environment and how to study nature in an urban setting by going to the park's events.
People who work with the Learning Garden
The Learning Garden would not be possible without the help of many people in the neighbourhood who gave their time and money. The Learning Garden was set up with help from businesses, organisations, and volunteer groups in the San Francisco area. The Learning Garden, which is in Daniel E. Koshland Park, has been helped by the Hayes Valley Neighborhoods Parks Group's two part-time garden mentors. Rebecca and Aubrey are part of the local community because they put on events that make people more aware of the environment.
The San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Recreation and Parks Department, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and the San Francisco Zen Center have all helped out as well. All of these groups have given their time and money to make the John Muir Learning Garden an environmental centre for the people of San Francisco, especially the kids at John Muir Elementary School. In particular, the John Muir Learning Garden owes a lot to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, which gave the first money to start the garden and continues to work with John Muir Elementary School as an active member of the community.
Taking a Look at John Muir Elementary
In the San Francisco Public School System, John Muir Elementary School is one of a kind. In the Western Addition of San Francisco, it is a professional development school where education students from San Francisco State University's Muir Alternative Teaching Program can practise their skills in the real world and learn how to adapt courses for the urban classroom.
Students at John Muir come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, and they are helped by the school's language and literacy programmes as early as preschool. Students at John Muir Elementary School and their families can also take part in the programmes. John Muir Elementary School is a BASRC (Bay Area School Reform Collaborative) leadership school in the San Francisco school district. It has a clear focus on literacy for the whole community.
