Presented at the CiRCE National Conference 2022.

The metaphors we use shape the way we live. How does the world contained in the garden teach us more about education? In his essay, “Education by Poetry”, Robert Frost writes, “All metaphor breaks down somewhere. That is the beauty of it… You don’t know how much you can get out of it and when it will cease to yield. It is a very living thing. It is as life itself.” In my decades of creating and stewarding gardens, their care and cultivation have generated endless parallels in my work as a teacher. Gardens, by their nature, are generative spaces, and the cultivation they require instills the virtues of hope, patience, fortitude, and perseverance within the gardener. In this session, we will explore what gardens give to the pursuit of education and the fruitfulness of this metaphor.