California Resolution Will Create More Outdoor Spaces at Schools

While students were enjoying their summer vacation this year, the movement to green school grounds and connect children with nature took an important leap forward with the adoption of a new California state resolution that encourages school districts to design and construct schoolyard green spaces and use them to teach academic curricula outdoors. Authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco (D), the Living Schoolyard Month resolution (ACR-128) adopted on June 16, 2014 also establishes an annual, statewide celebration of school grounds to be held each year in May.

Support for vibrant outdoor classrooms has been gaining momentum over the last two decades in California, across the U.S., and around the world. California has been a national leader in the school garden movement since 1995, when then Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin collaborated with chef Alice Waters to create the Garden in Every School initiative through the California Department of Education. In 1999, the state established the Instructional School Gardens Program (AB 1014) to support garden-based learning.

Over the years, tens of thousands of children have enjoyed school gardens inspired by these efforts, and learned firsthand about horticulture, nutrition and a variety of academic disciplines. ...