Mission and Principles

Mission:  “To Grow Understanding”

Guiding Principles:

• Children Learn by doing and benefit from contact with natural reality.-  “Hands on” learning activities have a special appeal and effectiveness to middle school age students.  Exposing our students to the seed to table path of our food helps them perceive natural reality.

• Food is a powerful force.- The Garden will harness the powerful force of food to steer students toward natural, healthful, safe, and satisfying nutrition and will aim to instill life-long healthy eating habits

• Children benefit from natural aesthetics. – The aesthetic sensibilities of our students will be enhanced by exposure to the natural and man-made aesthetics of the garden and orchard.

 

• Children benefit from an exposure to the cultural heritage of a location. – Carver County, Minnesota is a location whose historic cultural heritage was closely connected to the land and an agrarian sustenance.  The Garden will help students connect to their ancestral pasts.

 

• Land is a resource. – The availability of this piece of land proximate to Clearwater should be utilized to its fullest potential to provide positive growth experiences for students, the community, and the area.

• Garden practices must be sustainable and transparent. – The “profit” we seek in the garden is educational, social, and sensory rather than economic.  Priority will be assigned to educational purposes as opposed to production purposes.  Judicious use of agricultural chemicals will be openly discussed and justified.