Asphalt to Ecosystems

Shanti Melon of On Earth interviews Sharon Danks

Shanti Melon: Can the schoolyard help replace the nature that's vanishing from most of our lives?

Sharon Danks: I read an article that chronicled how far each generation of kids in a single family ventured from their home to play. As an 8-year-old, the grandfather roamed four to six miles to go fishing. The father wandered about two miles from home, and the son about half a mile. Our kids are lucky if they walk to the end of the block. In many cases, school grounds are their only exposure to outdoor play, and if all they have is asphalt and some liability-engineered version of climbing, I’d say they’re missing out.

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Sarah Henry interviews Sharon Danks- A Planner Who Favors Edible, Eco Education and RIsks- Berkeleyside

Sarah Henry: Can you give some examples of model green schoolyards around the globe?

Sharon Danks: At the Coombes Primary School in England the children have woods to explore, a pond, and a fire pit in their play area, which is near a large patch of stinging nettles. On the day I visited, the children were making stinging nettle pasta on an outdoor stove. The only people who got stung were the adults. As the director points out: how will we raise capable, responsible humans if we don’t present them with some risk in their environments?

Americans confuse safety and liability but these are not the same things.

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This interview also appears on Sarah Henry's blog

Green Playgrounds Spring Up Around Bay Area- The Daily Californian

While elementary school students usually spend recess in yards with endless asphalt and harsh metal structures, children in any schoolyard designed by Berkeley-based environmental planner Sharon Danks instead play in blooming gardens, shaded ponds and nature trails.
     "A green schoolyard ... allows the teachers to teach their classes outside, to provide play environment that is richer than the traditional one - that has creative play and active play balanced, and one that reflects local ecology in a number of ways," she said. "Around here, it usually means having less asphalt."
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California Academy of Sciences to carry Asphalt to Ecosystems
The Naturalist Center of the California Academy of Sciences has announced Asphalt to Ecosystems as a new addition to it's library. The Center names it as a great choice for teachers and parents. For more information, click here

Glen Kizer of Energy Seeds and the Foundation for Environmental Education interviews Sharon Danks

Glen Kizer: Since schools have classrooms, why do you feel it is necessary or important to make the schoolyard part of the curriculum? Aren't schoolyards for play and classrooms for education?

"I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!"  An Interview with Sharon Danks

Juliet Robertson: What is "Asphalt to Ecosystems" about?

Sharon Danks: When you think about "school grounds," what type of image first comes to mind? For many people, school grounds are places covered by paved surfaces and uniform sports fields, adorned with a few nondescript shrubs and trees, and one or two ordinary climbing structures purchased from a catalog. Most school grounds in a given city or region look like all of the others, with very little variation to reflect unique aspects of each school community, the neighborhood's environmental context, or the teachers' preferred curricula and teaching methods.At the same time, children's domain—the areas they can roam on their own outside of school—have been shrinking over the last few generations, leaving many children with only the schoolyard to explore to discover how the world works. If what we are providing them is limited and bland, how will they develop their curiosity, their sense of adventure, and a well-rounded world view?
    A movement is growing around the world to give our children a richer environment at school—to provide places for teachers to teach their lessons in a hands-on manner outside; places for children to explore a corner of the natural world to see how it functions; and places to run, hop, skip, jump, twirl and play in active, challenging, and creative ways.