High School’s Greenhouse Program Teaches Self-Reliance

These days, a phenomenon is growing at North Branford High School.

It’s the phenomenon of lettuce, and it can be found in the school’s greenhouse behind the cafeteria. Though the plants are young and the grounds outside are covered in snow, students working in the greenhouse are enjoying the results of a nearly 96 percent germination rate. The lettuce will soon be transplanted and watered, and eventually sent out to plant.

North Branford is a town built around its farms. It is only natural, then, that basic agricultural practices be taught to those who might someday be running it.

The greenhouse is a stepping stone for students who will someday take it upon themselves to study agriculture elsewhere. North Branford has no plans to start a vocational agricultural program.

“The program is meant to act as a supplemental resource for current curriculum and as a foundational asset for possible future curriculum,” said greenhouse coordinator Ian Gibson. “It is a vehicle for civic service and sustainable education.”

Currently sharing the greenhouse are, INTERACT, the school’s civic service club, the life skills class, and the environmental science classes.

Through those programs, students are learning a number of lessons, ranging from the importance of basic growing skills to larger lessons that could help shape character.

“It’s a chance for everyone to get their hands dirty and for the kids to get involved in kind of grassroots gardening,” said Gibson, who stressed that basic gardening skills must be acquired before the larger animal of agriculture can be taught.

“Farming is a really good way to teach consistency and accountability,” Gibson explained. “You can’t just have fun with it for a week and then walk away. We’ll see what happens. We have a lot to work with. There’s not much in there right now, but it’s going to grow.”

In the greenhouse, students are learning the correlation between a plant's health and the soil it grows in.

“The kids are using things like peat moss and amendments and minerals,” Gibson said.  “They’re building their own potting soil so they know that soil isn’t something that they took out of a bag. They know exactly everything in that soil. They know what’s growing.”

The greenhouse has garnered support from the North Branford community, which has pulled together its resources so this unique opportunity could come to fruition. Last summer, students were able to work on a portion of land across the street donated by local farmer Larry Augur. A number of local businesses, too, have come forth to assist with equipment and supplies for the students.

Still, Gibson maintains, it is the students who are responsible for the work.

“The key is having the kids do the bulk of the work,” he explained. “It’s experiential learning at its finest.”

Gibson hopes that through hard work the program could teach students the importance of self-reliance.

“I think it's really important that there's a level of self-reliance involved,” Gibson said. “I think people are too reliant on social institutions sometimes. They're too reliant on the supermarket, or the concept of the supermarket.”

“I think self-reliance is one of those great American traits that we need to get back to,” he said.