The Atlantic columnist and gadfly Caitlin Flanagan created quite a stir with her column Cultivating Failure: How school gardens are cheating our most vulnerable students, published in the magazine’s January/February issue.
Flanagan’s main point is that California’s innovative and extensive school garden program not only doesn’t help improve students’ test scores, but might be particularly detrimental the system’s marginally performing students.
While there may not be research showing direct correlations between the California gardening program and standardized test scores, there is, according to Cornell’s Garden-Based Learning Program, “…a significant body of research to support garden-based learning, some of which points to increased academic achievement, in addition to the myriad other benefits, from improved nutrition to enhanced environmental awareness.”
Read the Program’s full response on the Garden-Based Learning blog.
Visit the Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program website to read about studies documenting the benefits of garden-based learning.