Blue planet – The network of domestic school gardens is also extremely successful at the world level

János Áder, referring to the upcoming start of school, asked the expert about the function and history of school gardens. András Halbritter said that school gardens – which include kindergarten and nursery gardens – basically serve educational, educational and recreational purposes. When asked by the former head of state about the renaissance of the school garden program in recent decades, András Halbritter recalled that in Germany this process started after the Chernobyl disaster, and in Hungary after the regime change, and accelerated in the early 2010s. The expert called the school garden program’s goal, among others, to return the love of the earth to the children, to bring the sustainability approach to the fore, to encourage young people to pursue a career in agriculture, and to impart practical ecological literacy.

A school garden is perhaps the easiest way to bring children into nature within the fence of a kindergarten or school

Children need to be in nature, today’s “pathological lack of nature” can lead to psychological illnesses – said András Halbritter, indicating that experts have found a connection between, for example, cases of attention deficit disorder, autism and other problems if the child does not have a way to stay in nature. The former head of state highlighted: it is worth instilling in the heads of the generations that come after us from childhood that they “have something to do with the earth”. In response to János Áder’s question about how the self-organizing network of school gardens is growing, the expert said: In 2015, together with several school gardeners, they founded the School Gardens Foundation, which is extremely successful and already has three hundred members – including kindergartens and nurseries – in Hungary and the surrounding countries. There are not many places in Europe that have a school garden movement: in addition to the American movement, the German, Slovenian, Czech and Hungarian networks can be said to be successful, and of the ones listed, we are the only ones that are free – highlighted András Halbritter. He added that a national governmental school garden development program has also been launched, in which 337 institutions have already received support for the creation of school gardens or kindergartens, and to a lesser extent for their development. As part of this, teachers can acquire knowledge and training on the design of the garden. The goal of the program is to bring education to school gardens in as many subjects as possible, he said.

The expert also touched on the fact that school gardens are the most receptive age group of preschoolers and elementary school students

This is the age when attachment to nature can be best developed, so education should start early, but an important goal is to maintain interest in the subject even among older children – he emphasized. András Halbritter also spoke about the fact that a small area is often sufficient for today’s school gardens, since the goal is not to transfer production and agricultural knowledge, but to educate about sustainability. The most common size of these gardens is only 10-100 square meters, and they can often be created in downtown areas. The expert said about the goals of the Iskolakertekért Foundation for the next period, that they consider it important to further strengthen international relations so that professionals from the European Union can be organized into a network in the future.

MTI