Bleary-eyed

At exactly 8:15 AM, the fourteen members of our ASB group, bleary-eyed and filled with Eggo waffles and coffee, piled into our vans, ready for our first day of service. Our first community partner was Kid’s Grow Outdoor Classroom at Husley Elementary School. Everyone was awestruck at the sight of an entire garden in the backyard of this elementary school, featuring rows of neatly labeled vegetables, herbs, and other fresh produce. The garden functioned, as a hands-on teaching tool, educating the children about agriculture and healthy eating. Our service this morning was to facilitate different stations that taught the children about water, specifically its distribution around the globe. I worked at the hand-washing station, where I helped the kids learn about proper hand-washing techniques to stay germ-free, and how in certain areas, diseases are prevalent because of lack of access to clean water. Having worked with kids before, I am always amazed at their profound insight to topics we often graze over. They are not afraid to ask the difficult questions. For instance, when we were discussing the fact that in many underdeveloped countries, children walk for miles in order to obtain fresh water, many students inquired, “Why isn’t the water closer by?” It seems like such a simple question until you really stop to think about it. Why isn’t the water closer? Why do certain countries lack the government infrastructure to create better water distribution systems? Is it a geopolitical issue? An economics issue? Or is it far more complicated than that? These points themselves can lead to extensive discussions, but they all stem from the fact that this child had the insight to ask “why?”

This is why I love the Kids Grow Outdoor Classroom program. As the name implies, it is truly an interdisciplinary learning tool for these children. The garden’s purpose is not only to promote ideas of sustainability and healthy eating, but to foster a sense of interminable curiosity for learning. This is such an important concept to promote, especially in low-income school districts where children are considered academically “at risk”, where they read below their grade-level and do not have strong academic support from their families. During our post-service discussion, we talked about the complexities of these social issues, and how their root causes intertwine in surprising ways. After all, even though the overarching theme of our ASB trip is “Children’s Healthcare”, how can children be healthy if they don’t possess the knowledge about how to pursue these healthy lifestyles?  For me, it all boils down to education, which is a social issue I am very passionate about. Working with the children at Husley reminded me of why I enjoy working with children so much - they have this sense of unbridled eagerness and raw passion to learn and share what they have learned – to their peers, to their instructors, to the world.

On the wall of the tool shed at Husley Elementary, friendly primary colors exclaimed that “We are Scientists”.  And that’s exactly what I aspire these children to be. We are all scientists, and must keep exploring these complex social issues in effort to instigate positive social change, one city, one outdoor classroom, and one child at a time.

~Jessica Lu