Metaphor — Teaching is Gardening

            In the Eng­lish lan­guage, we often use the idiom to “plant/sow the seeds of knowl­edge” to rep­re­sent teach­ing.  I find this metaphor is apt one as I see var­i­ous par­al­lels between teach­ing and gar­den­ing.  Both are nur­tur­ing acts that require tremen­dous patience and per­se­ver­ance to bring about pos­i­tive results.  The envi­ron­ments we cre­ate for our stu­dents will help them learn and grow, just as we do so with gar­den­ing.   Despite our best efforts to cre­ate an inclu­sive and pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment, teach­ing like gar­den­ing, can also be adverse­ly affect­ed by exter­nal forces beyond our con­trol, and we must be proac­tive and adapt­able to give our stu­dents the space they need to grow and mature.   Just as fenc­ing can pre­vent out­side intrud­ers from destroy­ing har­vests, teach­ers can arrange class­rooms to give them struc­ture to bet­ter keep the atten­tion of stu­dents.   Exter­nal forces like exces­sive rain or drought can dam­age crops and are beyond a gardener’s con­trol.  Stu­dent learn­ing can like­wise suf­fer exter­nal­ly when there are per­son­al prob­lems at home or in the com­mu­ni­ty, or when a pan­dem­ic occurs and lim­its the avail­able time and learn­ing resources. 

            One of First Peo­ples Prin­ci­ples of Learn­ing (FPPL) states that learn­ing involves patience and time (First Nations Edu­ca­tion Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, n.d). This is equal­ly true for gar­den­ing as it is for teach­ing.  We must give plants and fruits time to grow as they absorb the life-giv­ing ener­gy from the sun, the water and the nutri­ents from the soil. This will let them stretch-out their roots and claim their place in the world. Like­wise, to help stu­dents learn, teach­ers must also nur­ture them.  We do this through pos­i­tive role mod­el­ing, instruc­tion and praise, there­by boost­ing stu­dents’ self-esteem along the way as they begin to mas­ter the skills of lit­er­a­cy and numer­a­cy need­ed for self-learn­ing and self-exploration.

            Gar­den­ers need to have a vision or plan when plant­i­ng their gar­den.  They can­not just throw seeds every­where and hope to have a suc­cess­ful yield. They need to plan the lay­out of the gar­den, deter­mine what it is they wish to grow, and con­sid­er the sea­sons as to when to do it.  Sim­i­lar­ly, teach­ers must also have a vision as to what to teach, under­stand the cul­tur­al diver­si­ty of their stu­dents cul­tur­al­ly and as well as stu­dents with spe­cial needs.  Luck­i­ly, teach­ers have the B.C. Cur­ricu­lum guide and the FPPL to help deter­mine what to teach and how to approach teach­ing in a holis­tic and respect­ful man­ner that sup­ports cul­tur­al diversity.

            One aspect to teach­ing that may break the gar­den­ing metaphor comes from Park­er J. Parmer who sug­gests that “good teach­ing can­not be reduced to tech­nique; good teach­ing comes from the iden­ti­ty and integri­ty of the teacher” (2007).  I am unsure if iden­ti­ty and integri­ty has the same effect on gar­den­ing as it does with teach­ing.   Tech­nique might be enough with gar­den­ing, but hav­ing the heart to care about the things that we are grow­ing might just be in line with Parmer’s idea.  After all, when teach­ing I nev­er give up on my stu­dents as I believe in them and trust they will do their best to suc­cess­ful­ly grow on their own.

                                                                        Ref­er­ences.
First Nations Edu­ca­tion Steer­ing Com­mit­tee. (n.d). First Peo­ples Prin­ci­ples of Learn­ing.
            FNESC. Retrieved from https://fnesc.app.box.com/s/vk9ovfe78fxo3qji3sw9r12ru562cyt4

Palmer, P.J.  (2007) The Heart of a Teacher. 
            Retrieved from http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/heart-of-a-teacher/