Where the Wild Things Should Be
School districts love to brag about statistics that prove they’re giving your children a great education. You’ve probably heard more than once about student-teacher ratios, the number of computers per child, and exceedingly high test scores. But has anyone at your child’s school ever mentioned how much land they manage, or how they make use of it?
“Probably not, and that’s a shame,” says Sharon Danks, founder and executive director of Green Schoolyards America. This national nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, seeks to change how educators design, use, and manage public school grounds. Too many schoolyards are mostly treeless, open spaces in suburbs, or seas of asphalt in urban areas, making them ecological dead zones. As a result, this land remains an untapped ecological and educational resource.
An accomplished schoolyard designer, Danks established the nonprofit to inspire and enable communities to transform their public school grounds into ecologically rich parks. This means
