It all started back in 2015.
At my previous school, we had a mother who came to us for help. She was a single mom with two children battling cancer. She asked if we could support her children’s education even after she passed away. I told her of course, and without hesitation, I promised to help her. But I was still troubled. This was probably the first case I encountered: a single mom, suffering from cancer, taking care of two children.
I kept thinking, apart from education, what else could I do for her? So, I started asking around to doctors I knew, and I came across a very interesting medical doctor, Dr. Lemuel, who was also a farmer! What a combination. He gave me a whole new perspective that I had never thought about: the reason why he gave up being a doctor to be a farmer is because he believes prevention is better than cure, and he wanted to get back to the root of the problem.
I got the idea, but I probably only understood 1% of what he said. The only thing I cared about was finding a solution for the mom so the children could be with her.
Their organic vegetables were on a subscription basis with a very high demand. However, they agreed to help the mom by giving her fresh and organic vegetables with high nutrient density. I was super excited, and the mom was super grateful. It’s a happy story.
Later, the farm told me a problem: The mom couldn’t pick up the vegetables as the farm is quite a distance from where she was staying, plus she had gone through chemotherapy and was too weak to drive. In fact, my house was even further. But I’d decided to help, so I traveled to the farm every Saturday morning, picked up the vegetables, and then delivered them to the mom. I’d been doing that consistently for quite a while until the mom decided to stop.
Initially, I also felt like it was an extra chore for me, but it was the best thing ever. The farm opened up to the public for tours to provide a better understanding of organic practices, composting, microbes, etc. I always picked up vegetables at the time they were having farm tours. Out of curiosity, I joined the farm tour too, instead of just going over to pick up the vegetables. I was also curious to find out what’s so amazing about the vegetables there.
Eventually, that became my “Dating Saturday” with my wife, going to the farm, understanding what they were doing, picking up the vegetables, and delivering them to a couple of cancer patients, including the mom.
It’s All About Timing
At that time, I was reading a book called “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids-and How to Break the Trance” by Nicholas Karadaras. The author, an experienced addictionologist, has written an alarming book about the potential dangers of screen time for kids. New technologies sometimes positively change societies and cultures. However, this change may come at a high cost. The book documents how the digital age affects neurochemistry and brains, particularly those of vulnerable young children. While the benefits of mobile technology and the internet are almost universally espoused, the author warns that we haven’t fully appreciated the significant dangers.
That book caught my attention because I was very concerned about my son, who I knew would be born as a digital citizen. So, honestly speaking, understanding more about nature at that time felt like discovering a gold mine.
Eventually, I started subscribing to the vegetables for my family, and later for Stellar Preschool. All the children and staff at Stellar Preschool in the earlier days were thoroughly enjoying fully organic food until the farm could no longer cater to our needs.
I volunteered myself to go through the whole process and learn in greater detail, starting from picking up food waste from restaurants and sending them to the farm for composting. So, I spoke to Dr. Lemuel about this: I felt that being in touch with nature is such an important aspect of education for this generation. Since I couldn’t possibly bring the children to the farm daily, why not bring the farm to the school? Hence, we later partnered with the farm to build a 5-senses edible garden so our children could be in touch with nature. So we did. The kids planted and ate their own vegetables. We incorporated food waste composting, vermicomposting, aquaponics, and a rainwater harvesting system as part of our educational initiatives. For four years, we used rainwater for cleaning purposes. We stopped our rainwater harvesting system after the pandemic as the whole system was destroyed due to prolonged lockdown. Later on, it was banned by the local authority because it could be a potential breeding site for mosquitoes.
That experience has formed an important foundation for the philosophy behind our education. We have a very different understanding of the word “sustainable future,” which is part of our school vision. That’s the story behind such a vision. Beyond that vision, it’s a way of life.
Leave a Reply