Whiteley Creek Homestead

Today, Dick and I attended an Ecofest at the Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, Florida a northern Tampa suburb. The event included workshops, demonstrations, vendors, music, food – all of the traits that comprise a stellar festival. There was so much to see and do that we camped out there the entire day from 9:30 to 3. The environmental focus of this publicly funded charter school is evident immediately upon entering the grounds. Well-worn paths meandering through sprawling wooded acreage beckon students to outdoor classrooms that include a variety of ecosystems, vegetable gardens, a greenhouse, and chickens housed in a stationery pen and portable coops. I love this nature-inspired planting enclosure that partitions off a section of the larger garden. It adds a quirky "room" that draws you in, creates a natural flow, and slows the pace of a busy world.  

Canvas canopies drape the tree branches to provide shade outside the separate buildings that house each K-6 grade level. (Phase one of a new energy efficient campus for grades 7 through 12 is scheduled to be completed for the 2014-2015 school year.)    

How easily I envision a teacher with students clustered together in the cool morning air underneath this canopy of canvas and tree branches… immersed in the beauty and meditative calm of God's creation while learning participles, long division, and expository writing. A quote on the Learning Gate Community School's web site perfectly captures their philosophy. If we want children to flourish, to be truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth  before we ask them to save it. David Sobel, Beyond Ecophobia Note: At this event, several environmental engineering students from the University of South Florida demonstrated the use of a garbage disposal composter to speed decomposition of compostable materials. Dick and I immediately began to plan our own version on a much smaller scale. More to come in the spring…