Photo by Patrick L. Myers - Student Celia Ramos started class by grabbing the necessary equipment and spraying her Mustard Lettuce.
There has been a push from society to get vocational practices back into the school system, so that kids can learn how to be self-sustaining and be able to provide for themselves, as well as tangibly enact the concepts that they learn in the classroom. South Bend High School has taken a step in the right direction with the implementation of their Horticulture Class as of the 2015-2016 school year.
The class came about as an item on a survey that Superintendent Jon Tienhaara and Principal Jason Nelson put together in the 2014-2015 school year, a sort of list of things that the students could choose from to possibly have the next year. Tienhaara sited that Horticulture was a good candidate to be on the survey, because they were looking for activities that would give the students an opportunity to get hands-on experience while still learning. After it was decided that they would have a Horticulture Class the next year, money was raised to start building a green house, and South Bend's wood shop class contributed by crafting growing tables, and then they also crafted the enclosures of either end of the greenhouse.
This year has been a sort of test year for the new Horticulture Class, taught by Mr. Steve Lazelle, and the students have been growing certain vegetables to see if they are suitable to be grown during the school year, a sort of trial for the class. Students explained that when they started the year in the class, it was about a month before the green house was finished, and the students had to do a lot of text book work during that month but have since been out in the greenhouse learning to grow different vegetables.