With Jasper Junior/Senior High School as our backdrop, the seeds were planted, while Landon Shepherd and Kim Weir from Parks Canada reminisced about being classmates at the “old” high school. They also invited young Jasperites to think about the notion of legacy and how these seedlings will become part of a storyline that was almost lost.
Plains rough fescue has become an elusive part of Jasper National Park’s native grassland habitat due to years of fire suppression, but last summer, it was spotted near the Jasper airfield.
Shepherd went on to describe the ancient quality of the harvested fescue seeds that we held in our hands.
Old school thinking? I think not!
In fact, it’s hard to fathom the complexity of the blueprints that these seeds hold. I can only imagine their tales of resiliency: from droughts, floods and fires to interactions with several different species.
With the awareness that we were about to plant something so precious and ancient, we got to work.
We filled our containers with dirt, gently patted the grass seeds down, and dusted the surface with a sprinkling of more dirt. We labeled our respective plugs and brought our flats back to our classroom windows. We covered them with a sheet to keep the moisture and heat in. We watered and waited for two whole weeks.
And then it happened. The green shoots poked out—thin, spindly and very delicate, but undeniably vibrant.
Lesson one witnessed: the miracle of the seed.
The next lesson happened on a day when the winds outside were strong.
Using social activist Craig Kielburger’s catchphrase, I invited students to imagine shifting from “me to we.”
I then proceeded to remove each one of the student’s carefully crafted labels. A small protest ensued as we could no longer identify our individual plugs. I then randomly distributed the plugs and we went outside in the playground where our Desrochers counterparts were waiting. We shared our experiences of tending the seeds and then the two classes were invited to exchange their seedlings.
When we returned to our Grade 3 classroom, we had much to reflect upon. Much like the rough fescue grasses, our students demonstrated their incredible resiliency in being able to adapt to sudden changes in their environment.
They chose to respond with flexibility and were consequently able to let go of what was theirs by inviting the collective into the process. Furthermore, they extended their collaborations beyond their own classroom.
They were then able to come full circle and back to the initial task of tending the seedlings by reorganizing and redefining their roles.
These divergent thinkers accomplished all of this in one hour.
Lesson two is still sitting with me. I am recognizing that the best way to learn about resiliency is through careful observation of nature. Nature has created the most wonderfully resilient animals and plants.
The plains rough fescue, along with the children of Jasper, is a perfect example that illustrates the inherent resiliency in all healthy living systems.
I am grateful for these reminders of flexibility, responsiveness and collaboration. It makes the “we” a total “oui, oui” for me.
Paula Klassen is a Grade 3 teacher at Jasper Elementary School.
