Mount Pleasant Park Community Garden, Ontario Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
January 25th 2022
Post by – Kate Shapiro
Today our group decided to focus on an element of the Early Learning Framework “wellbeing and belonging”, in relation to our overall theme of “How can we enhance community in connection with the land?” at a community garden near our home.
I explored a question from the ELF, “What can I do to contribute to a child/person’s sense of pride in their gifts?”, in relation to the Mount Pleasant Community Garden (which I visited). The smell of the fresh air, and crunching of the leaves underfoot, and the hand-painted garden signs were all awakening to my senses.
Two lines of thinking that I really enjoyed exploring were:
- how does a sense of pride impact our ability to be an effective member of a community, and
- how does being involved in a community garden build our pride and sense of community?
I reflected on an individuals sense of pride, and it made me think of our sociology class, where we learned that motivation is driven by Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. In a community garden individuals can exercise their autonomy (choosing what to plant, when, how to tend to it), and build their mastery (practice makes progress, as well as learning from those around you in community!), and find a sense of purpose (caring for ourselves and the environment, feeding ourselves and others, making something beautiful).
I love the idea of how by working with the land and in community, we can strengthen our own feeling of pride and self worth, and therefor also be more likely to feel whole, and even better able to contribute to a community. I am coming to see this as a bit of a chicken and egg discussion, or a self-fulfilling prophecy 🙂
By working and being together, we are better able to feel good in ourselves and our abilities, and to contribute meaningfully to a community, which reinforces that pride, motivation and connection.