View Life Lab’s Education Director Whitney Cohen’s inspiring description of how Life Lab is changing the nature of education to the audience of our 2014 Benefit Brunch.

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For those who prefer words, here are some highlights of Whitney’s talk:

“There’s a real difference between knowing about something and knowing something. A child could know everything there is to know about carrots; but when she wriggles her first carrot out of the soil here in our garden, and she washes it and she goes to our kitchen and learns how to chop it up safely, and adds it to the collective class soup, and then enjoys that soup with her classmates at lunch, she knows that vegetables are delicious, she knows that the food we eat comes from the earth, and she knows that she’s part of a web of life.”

“Here at Life Lab, we are working at the intersection of two essential questions: What does this world need? And what do children deserve? And here is what we believe: We believe that the world needs informed, inspired, creative, and collaborative leaders, ready with the skills and the motivation they need to work for justice, and sustainability, and healthy communities. And we believe that this garden, and those like it all around the world, are an ideal space for growing just such leaders.”

“What do kids deserve? We believe that kids deserve to know what it’s like to love to learn; to be intrigued and inspired; to have their ideas seen and heard; to be fully engaged by rigorous, exciting learning and leadership opportunities that feel relevant to them; to eat healthy food and be part of a healthy community.”

“We all know that hands-on experiences are critical to learning. No one would dream of teaching technology without computers: in fact, in many schools today they are mandating 30 minutes of screen time per student, per day. Why on earth with this understanding are we trying to teach earth and life science without giving them exposure to earth and life? These garden classrooms, this one, and those like it around the world, are spaces, outdoor classrooms, where students can learn science and apply math and language arts, again in a context that feels relevant to them. And what might happen if we elevated the status of hands-on, experiential, outdoor learning? What might happen if schools started mandating 30 minutes of dirt time per student per day? This would be time where they could apply what they’re learning in the classroom outdoors to the world around them and develop a connection to it. Well that’s what we’re here to find out!”

“The potential for Life Lab right now to lead this charge has never been greater. I realized this recently when I got a note from Lola Bloom, a new friend of mine who attended a workshop with me about 2 years ago that Life Lab led in New York. ‘Guess what?!’ her note said. ‘I’ve been invited to plant the White House Garden along with my Young Gentlemen’s Cooking Club.’ Well I was so excited to hear this, so I followed the press coverage that day of the Sixth Annual White House Garden Planting and when I saw the first photo of the event, I could not believe my eyes. I recognized every educator in the White House garden that day, because every adult there who had brought children, everyone other than the First Lady, had been to one of our workshops in the past couple of years.”

“So what does this mean for young people today? This means that children from the largest housing project in Brooklyn, to Washington, D.C., to gardens across San Francisco, to even Las Vegas, Nevada, are digging their hands in soil, building a connection to the natural world, discovering a love of healthy eating that will serve them in being strong and healthy for years to come, and remembering what it’s like to love to learn. “

Read more about Life Lab’s work in our Program Highlights found on our Annual Reports page.