One of the classes I enjoyed by in Grade School was art class. Back then, we had several teachers in the art department. Each of them worked with their own form of art. There was a teacher who was an expert in painting and watercolor, another one was good with paperworks and handicrafts, as well as a terror teacher specializing in art history/criticism.
Every year, each class was assigned to one of these teachers and, depending on their specialization, our weekly art lessons would revolve around the teacher's artistic forte.
For a year or two, our class got stuck with this art teacher whose specialization was gardening. I remembered the first time he entered our classroom and told us that we'd spend the rest of the school year working with plants.
I was disappointed when I heard this. I was looking forward to doing some painting or drawing -- the usual stuff kids would do in art class. So while my friends from the other class were drawing comic book superheroes and studying the works of Van Gogh , we were out in the school yard learning about trees, shrubs and all sorts of green vegetation.
Despite my initial reluctance, I began to enjoy the lessons. Looking back, I suspected that my art teacher was probably an ex-hippie or an activist focused on environmental causes. He knew a lot about plants and gladly shared it with all of us.
Over the next few semesters, we made several dish gardens and bottled terrariums, created garden art from recycled plastic, made our own recycled paper, grew small fruits and vegetables in old tin cans.
Eventually I realized that gardening is a form of art. It takes a lot of a patience and effort to cultivate plants and make them grow. And there really is some sort of satisfaction and when you see the seeds you planted grow into something green and beautiful.
It would have been nice if I had continued to learn about plants and working the earth. But we had to leave the garden and return to our books and school work. But thanks to my art teacher, I came to appreciate the value and wonder of all things green.
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