LABINCLUSIVE: “Our hands in the soil” A GARDEN IN THE GARDEN for an inclusive educational plan

Abstract

The School Community is the place where tomorrow’s citizens are formed, where students learn to relate to each other, to their surroundings and to themselves. Appropriately in light of this, cultivating a vegetable garden at school contains numerous meanings, such as (re)discovering the relationship between man and nature; nurturing ancient knowledge; learning through the teaching of learning-by-doing in order to reappropriate a manual skill and an experiential teaching that younger generations do not always have the chance to put into practice; learning through the teaching of social learning where students cooperate and act as an inclusive team. Therefore, the most important meaning is to "cultivate humanity". Through this laboratory activity, it is possible to put in relationships knowledge related to environmental sustainability and food education. In fact, following the life cycle of a vegetable, students can understand where the food they eat comes from and the operation of simple agriculture with vegetable bulbs typical of the region Emilia-Romagna. Hence, cultivating directly in the School Garden allows young people to deeply understand the value of what they eat and the importance of protecting the environment by consuming zero-mile products. Therefore, whether the Laboratory “Our hands in the soil” is included in a specific educational program, the function of food education in the garden becomes the engine to deepen fundamental concepts for the new generations and the environmental challenges that we are all called to support. As an educator of a student with special educational needs — attending the third class of the middle school in Lido Adriano, Ravenna — the focus of this dissertation is first to achieve pro-sociality and inclusion, which are reflected on the entire class-group. Consequently, cultivating a Garden at School has not only the aims of making learners aware about our territory, the seasonality of plants and the life cycle of Nature, therefore the focus includes raising consciousness about taking care of a collective good and knowing how to work in a team where everyone represents a fundamental key piece. In fact, it is an inclusive and multidisciplinary activity, where learners can more easily overcome barriers, encouraging dialogue and various constructive exchanges while putting into practice manual skills and practical activities and learning the art of waiting and care. The inclusive component — which appears to be a key element of the aforementioned dissertation — is extensively discussed in the first two chapters. In the first chapter the focus is on the inclusiveness of students with Special Educational Needs and the meanings of the terms "integration" and "inclusion", referring to the class group examined for the following educational laboratory. As an educator, my aim is to educate students in social and prosocial skills, and therefore the second chapter focuses on skills, diagnosis and educational plans created specifically to support the student (A.) with Special Educational Needs (BES), useful to understand the right interventions to be used and to put in place during the various school and extracurricular activities. In the following chapter (ch. 3), the Experiential Laboratory Project "Our hands in the soil" is introduced: the students of the class group of A. are involved in an active interaction between their peers, learning in action and in cooperation. Through this experimental activity, the learners have the opportunity to learn content and to mature experiences, collaborating with local associations. The garden becomes a "didactic experience" since minors can experience the value of care, the times of nature, the power of cooperation, the gratification of carrying out a personal and a shared project at the same time, etc, while achieving prosocial abilities.