Principal, School, and Neighborhood Go Green in New Orleans
by Elizabeth Koenig, NYLC Program Coordinator
Early last spring, community members, teachers, and students stood amidst pallets of concrete blocks that would become raised beds in New Orleans’ first schoolyard and community garden. This green space will not only be a place for lessons to take place during the school day, but also will offer a safe place for community members to gather and garden in an area of New Orleans known for high crime rates.
Wanda Brooks, principal of Johnson Elementary School, addressed the group of volunteers, speaking passionately about the importance of the community coming together to around this common space. “The time that you spend building this garden is invaluable. You allow us to do so much more than we could do on our own.”
Fostering community partnerships before beginning the garden was an important step toward ensuring that the neighborhood was just as invested in the project as the school. While Brooks made it clear that she is not a fan of the outdoors — preferring air conditioning and remote control to dirt — she is a vocal advocate for teachers, students, and the community.
A lifelong resident of the city, Brooks became principal of Johnson Elementary when she returned after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina — something she shares in common with many of the Johnson students, only a third of whom are from the neighborhood. Recognizing that a change in school culture was necessary, she and the teachers developed the new motto, “Growing Green, Planting Character,” adding expectations that students write, read, and are read to daily.
She sees great benefits in the learning-by-doing that the garden encourages, noting that sixth- and seventh-graders figured out a basic irrigation system for the redbud trees they planted that surround the garden. “They didn’t realize they were actually learning, applying thinking skills, figuring out how to carry less water.” As a testament to the efficacy of this approach, Johnson students have nearly doubled their scores on the state assessment of grade-level performance. Not only are the students performing better on tests, but their eating habits also are changing. And as they change, so are those of their parents, who are having their children cook more fresh produce, as evidenced in a recent survey that was administered in a community and school gathering.
Brooks says that they also are bringing back a salad bar that had been unpopular before the garden, and looking forward to the day that they offer cooking lessons in the garden kitchen. “Everything the students plant, they’ll taste,” says Brooks. In this project that is helping bring a community back to a neighborhood uprooted by hurricanes, Brooks is championing the sense of pride that comes from producing what you eat. She points to a screw that she helped drill in the rain barrel stand. “That’s mine,” she says.
It is clear that she has far more than that to be proud of.
This story first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of The Generator.
Photo: Wanda Brooks, Johnson Elementary School Principal
