Lacoochee, again

No photos today, but many kids in my head. My mission this fall as a volunteer at Lacoochee Elementary School is to mastermind a "science challenge" group of eighteen fifth graders who will be doing a 4-H project of a vegetable garden. This needs to be accomplished in 45 minutes a week. Yikes!

I started out with a name game so we could be acquainted with each other (their names are daunting to me, such ones as Brasheeka and Image, and ordinary ones spelled funny), and then we went on to eat broccoli and dip. I asked them what part of the broccoli they were eating. The leaves? The roots? The stem? Finally, one little girl said, "the blossoms?" Oh, yes!

After many "eeuows! and Icks", they pronounced the raw broccoli very good. They liked the yogurt dip. Then we went out to inspect the place of the proposed garden. We checked the water supply. It was working.

I had small pots for them to use to plant kale and zinnia seeds. They carefully carried the pots back to a place outside the science room and they promised to water their seeds every day. It was obvious that these kids have had no experience at all with caring for plants. When I return next week, we'll see what has grown-or not.

There is only 45 minutes for this activity! How can we create a garden in only this amount of time every week? The science teacher seems very laid back, easy in her job. I would love to organize her room and install an interesting aquarium, cages full of hamsters and guinea pigs and mice, butterfly chrysalises waiting to hatch. I would love to see paper cups full of experiments, crystal things dripping, the mess of science. Today I saw adult disorganization and very little that was inviting to a child. I did see a lot of expensive scales and science tools. I wish that schools could get rid of those horrid "canned" bulletin board things that no one ever looks at anyway.

But, so, I have hope for this project. I am connected already to several of the kids. Of course I will continue to be critical because I believe that these good and patient children deserve the best we have to give them.

Lacoochee Elementary School in rural Pasco County of Florida is not faintly related to Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. or the Chapin School in Manhattan. The vast socio-economic gulf is so deep and wide it is beyond imagining. And yet, I believe that from time to time a Lacoochee kid will rise like yeast and make it big in this world. Many others who do not make it big will be solid citizens and good and caring Americans of all colors.

I am on the forward edge of those boomers. We are going to make a difference as we get out there in critical mass as volunteers who act, speak up and care for our neighbors, our country, and our planet.