The Stoddert Garden: Lessons being taught outside of the classroom at a DC elementary school

WASHINGTON — Stoddert Elementary School in Northwest D.C. teaches students kindergarten through fifth grade about the importance of caring for our environment.

"We're thinking, how can we better our planet. How can we – if the planet could talk, what would it need?" said Curt Canada. From soil health to plant behavior, Mr. Canada is educating students through discussions in his Garden and Food Literacy Class.

Canada added, "Certain people teach, I'm about dialogue. They're on the same level as I am. Our visual, our cognitive and auditory and all those different parts of us, I think they're stimulated and heightened here with curiosity and adventure with being out here."

Zack Johnson MacClellan, who graduated from the fifth grade this past spring said, "I like how we go from like math or like whatever subject you're in and like take a break from it to start planting things in the garden."

Canada added, "There's a reverence about outdoor learning, there's a reverence about being out here. It's about the planet. You know and it's about us, we're a part of all of this."

Canada went on to say, "I think more than anything else I'm modeling healthy behaviors. I know that some kids are not eating vegetables and I'm not trying to drive them towards that. But I know that the more they're around this they're probably going to make some decisions that would include more vegetables or plant-based foods in their lives."

Canada is also teaching students the importance of growing food in the right environment. 

"We learned that if you nurture the soil correctly and stuff it can help plants grow better than if you just take a pile of dirt from the ground and grow your plants in it," said Zack. "We have leaves here and we take them in our hands and crush them up. So when all the composted leaves fall in the soil it helps neutralize the soil."

Fourth grader Charlotte Lewis said, "I like making soil that helps the environment and also helps our own plants grow."

"I was really amazed that literally this could turn into something pretty big and I think it's really kind and generous that Mr. Canada lets us take it home," said Camille Bagdadhi, a fifth grader at Stoddert Elementary. 

The food grown in the Stoddert garden as well as homemade Stoddert soil is then sold at the schools weekly farmers during the fall and spring, and it is completely run by students. From the sales to the cashier. 

Proceeds from the farmers market go right back into the Stoddert garden to ensure these valuable lessons are passed down to students for years to come.

"I think we're here to do things in which to help each other," said Canada. "If we're caretakers of the land we're going to be caretakers of ourselves and we'll do a better job of how we treat each other. If plants can coexist, so can we."