Cleveland School Gardens
by Joel Mader
The Cleveland Public School's tract garden program was one of the most successful and innovative programs of the school system. The organization and beauty of the gardens attracted horticulture educators from all over the United States, South America, and as far away as Japan. From its humble beginnings in 1904 as a project to beautify vacant lots in Cleveland, it grew into an educational tool that taught thousands of children the respect for nature and its bounty. At the tract gardens' height, the amount of land under cultivation in the middle of the Cleveland urban landscape approached 100 acres. By 1970, there were 27 horticultural centers servicing all Cleveland schools. Centers were located next to schools, in housing estates, at fairgrounds, at a home for the aged, and on museum property. A few of the centers are now neighborhood gardens. The photographs in Cleveland School Gardens show that the Cleveland Public Schools knew the importance of being "green" 100 years before it was politically fashionable.
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English
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Title: T-TALK: Book details Cleveland schools' gardens Author: Staff Writer Publisher: Tuscaloosa News Date: 8/23/2010 For most of the 20th century, the Cleveland Public Schools ran a garden program that was emulated by schools across the United States and as far away as Japan. Joel Mader, a retired English teacher with the school district, looks back at the innovative program in the book "Cleveland School Gardens." The gardens started in 1904 as a way of beautifying vacant lots and evolved into outdoor classrooms where children learned about science and developed a respect for nature. The undertaking grew to the point that by 1970, horticulture centers had been established throughout the city to serve the schools. Some of those centers live on as neighborhood gardens, even though the program ended in the late 1970s. The book tells the story of the garden program in more than 200 vintage photos and captions. "Cleveland School Gardens" is part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series. It sells for $21.99 in softcover.
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