Welcome. The project started from a placement at university. Looking at the situation of school gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. There are many pieces of the puzzle and eco-justice, social justice, food security and education all find a home at my Blog.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

I found a really interesting quote today when I was searching for information on complex adaptive systems theory. I thought I might re-quote this as I start to think about complexity theory in relation to gardening.




When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world” (John Muir 1911)




I really like this quote I found online. It says so much in relation to ecological systems. We are all part of one world and each of us tugs away at it in our own little way, bit by bit. I remember when I was a child learning about the rain forest and thinking, wow, its huge, its being chopped down, but I am thousands of miles away in my little corner of England and it wont affect me. Learning about something so far away didn’t make sense to me.

As I grew and as I travelled, I realised how we are all inte
rconnected with each other and with our world. What I do in Thunder Bay may well affect people in Australia, a kind of butterfly affect. What I do in my little corner of town also affects what someone on the other side of town might be experiencing and vice versa.



Gardening can be seen as a complex system. Gardens are dynamic and ever changing systems. As a seed grows, it changes and produces a beautiful flower that produces pollen that attracts bees and butterflies that pollinate it. You can look at complex systems in ant colonies and bee hives. I think the point being here is that there are systems wherever we look, they are complex because they are dynamic. There is nothing that cannot be taught to children, whilst in a school garden/outdoor classroom. From food and nutrition to math and science, children all over the world are being encouraged to be outside and learn. 

As Sir Ken Robinson says in his lectures about creativity, life is not linear. We are not linear beings, but constantly evolving creatures in a dynamic world. Teaching children about gardening is one aspect of this idea and bringing children outside into the outdoor classroom is a perfect way to teach children how life is constantly changing. In this way, children are able to learn about individual and collective behaviour and how it impacts everything around them. 

Complex adaptive systems are dynamic networks of interactions and relationships not aggregations of static entities. They are adaptive in that their individual and collective behaviour changes as a result of experience.


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