Dapi Elementary School: The Vegetables We Planted Together in Those Years!
Text by Lin Ming-yuan and Hsu Yen-chi; photos provided by Dapi Elementary School
"Teacher! Today's vegetables are so sweet!" "So delicious!" "Homegrown vegetables taste the best!" The children tasted the fresh vegetables just harvested from the school garden while eagerly voicing their opinions one after another.
Watching the children chew the vegetables they had planted and harvested with their own hands, I felt a twinge of emotion. Seeing the look on their faces as they savored the flavors of the vegetables, thoroughly enjoying a taste that moved their bodies, I could not help but also savor the excitement and sense of accomplishment on their faces.
Moved to speak, I asked, "Children, I think the vegetables on everyone's plates today have another flavor too. What do you think it is?" The children whispered among themselves, discussing the answer.
"It's salty!" When I suddenly gave this answer, the children looked at me with puzzled faces, covered in countless question marks. I then went on to explain slowly: "Do you remember, not long after school started, when I took you to the LOHAS Farm to plant vegetables? Some of you could not even hold a trowel properly, some did not know how to use a watering can, and some even buried almost the entire seedling in the soil. But today everyone can taste such delicious vegetables. This is all thanks to your classmates watering on time, and I am grateful for your classmates' efforts in diligently pulling weeds. As we eat the vegetables, it seems we are also eating the sweat everyone shed while farming. That is why I think the vegetables in our mouths seem to have a salty taste!"
With the children's half-understanding eyes, I could not be sure they fully grasped my deeper meaning, but I am certain that through this vegetable-planting activity, a small seedling has already been planted in their hearts. As they continue learning in the future, it will surely grow into a great tree of "gratitude and cherishing blessings."
Yunlin is the agricultural capital of Taiwan, China, and most of the students are from farming families. Unfortunately, however, children today lack opportunities to farm, let alone understand the concept of "organic." Therefore, the Education Department has recently been vigorously promoting "campus organic vegetables," hoping to build children's understanding of the value and meaning of "organic vegetables" from an early age, and through hands-on participation, to appreciate farmers' hardships and learn an attitude of putting knowledge into practice.
Dapi Elementary School has run a campus organic garden for many years, and during this summer vacation, teachers, parents, and students together newly opened a plot of school land inside the wall on the northwest side of campus. Everyone worked hard from scratch, pulling weeds and clearing stones. Teacher Jiansheng, who is used to farming in daily life, also drove a tiller to loosen the dry soil, while everyone worked together pushing carts full of leaf compost and mixing and spreading it over the newly created field.
Under the principal's guidance, everyone used discarded pallets from the train station warehouse to build a fence around the garden. Gradually, an organic garden began to take shape. After the garden planning was completed, teachers and students from each grade began discussing together what kinds of vegetables to plant, and teachers of each class also pooled their ideas to design organic garden teaching activities, leading the students in hands-on practice.
We also did not forget to invite students' parents to participate, arrange teaching activities, design worksheets, and combine art and humanities courses to beautify the farm, deeply rooting the educational meaning of the entire "organic garden" in the children's hearts.
Teacher Yawen, who specializes in art, led the students in decorating the garden gate with dry branches. Everyone named the garden "LOHAS Farm," and the teacher also used spare time to guide students in painting various Yunlin agricultural specialties along the walkway. As one student spread vegetable paint, he laughed and said, "The colorful road is so beautiful!" In an instant, this teaching walkway leading to LOHAS Farm - Flower Field Road - came into being amid the laughter of teachers and students.
The students in the special education class squatted to one side, some working hard to pull weeds from beside the vegetables, and some intently observing insects on the leaves. Teachers and parents led several students in setting up a net house enclosed by mesh bags, experiencing the difference of net-house cultivation. The children's pant legs were covered in mud, and their cheeks were covered with sweat and dust, but their smiles were simple and pure!
Teacher Jiyi led a few children carrying dustpans, pouring the leaves from the dustpans into the leaf compost area. This solved the difficult problem of handling fallen leaves on campus, and also provided the organic garden with its most primitive and environmentally friendly source of fertilizer. As everyone lifted dustpan after dustpan, it seemed they were also pouring in abundant raw material for environmental protection.
After the vegetable harvest, the children looked forward to cultivating again. Teacher Wangzhang and the children of Class 6 Zhong were preparing to plant asparagus seedlings anew. The teacher rolled up his pant legs, and the children took off their shoes and socks one by one, freeing their soles and walking barefoot in the garden, stepping on the warm soil. Oh! It feels so good to breathe with your feet!
Yes! Standing barefoot on the land, your heart can feel the heartbeat and call of the earth. You will treat it in the most primitive way, and cherish it with the most natural attitude!
In those years, in every child's heart, the vegetables we planted together!
