Let’s face it: A majority of teenagers in today’s world HATE  reading anything longer than 140 characters. Unfortunately (13 characters) for these teenagers, most reflection and true learning occurs through reading and discussion of much longer passages.

I LOVE reading and therefore I LOVE to cause great discomfort to my students in the classroom. Discomfort= growth!

Two years ago, my agriculture teaching partner introduced me to an amazing documentary style novel called, Animal Vegetable Miracle, (I simply call it AVM) by Barbara Kingsolver. Mrs. Kingsolver tells the story, along with some commentary by her husband and nineteen year old daughter, about their journey through one year in which they only ate foods that they could either grow or obtain from with their county in the Appalachian mountains. Kingsolver is a brilliant, witty, and very real author. She uses their journey to explain the economical, environmental, and nutritional reasons for supporting local farmers and local food options. She presents a very detailed side to the local foods argument. Many farmers would call her “left minded,” but she opens up the discussion for local food practices being applied on a national, or even global, scale.

My students are completing a semester long book study on AVM. We hold class discussions, complete individual reflections, and the students try to understand her humor. (By the way, for the first time EVER, I have a student who gets ALL of her jokes!) Check out these lovely kiddos reading on a sunny, early spring day…

What is better than reading outside?!

I am so glad to be able to incorporate this book study into my KFP curriculum. I am even more glad to see another semester’s worth of students get a glimpse into what it is really like to eat the food you grow.  Oh, and yes, I am glad about our “End of Semester Book Party” in which students prepare local food dishes based on seasonal ingredients in May….let the strawberry desserts roll in!