As a part of the Young Adult Class, students at the Beacon School maintain a yearly greenhouse taking away skills they can use after they leave the school.
In a small, misty greenhouse located just about three miles from the Athens campus, students at the Beacon School are growing veggies and, at the same time, useful life skills.
With some assistance from the teachers and co-teachers, the Beacon School, a school helping those with developmental disabilities, has been teaching the Young Adult Class for more than 20 years. The Beacon School teaches students with developmental disabilities from preschool age to 21.
“(The Young Adult Class) is the last class that they have until they go out into the world,” Susan Cablish-Kristofco, long-term substitute teacher for the Young Adult Class, said. “This is why they’re doing this — to develop that idea that ‘Oh, this could be a job.’ ”
Every year, the hands-on project begins around March when the students decide what vegetables they would like to grow and which ones they think could survive in a greenhouse environment. In addition, for four years, the Beacon School has maintained a separate, smaller outdoor garden that is near the greenhouse.
Ohio University students from a number of departments, such as music therapy, give their time to the school by either volunteering, earning class credit or taking internships with the school. For instance, Cablish-Kristofco said many OU students are going to volunteer at the school’s Special Olympics on Earth Day.
“(The Beacon School students) absolutely love it. … They like to participate,” Cablish-Kristofco said. “When the music therapy students come in, they get, you know, sometimes overly excited. They really do like people coming in. … You’re never going to find a place that’s more welcoming.”
Motioning over to a table scattered with dirt that could be easily approached by a student who uses wheelchair, Cablish-Kristofco said even those who need a little extra assistance are able to fully participate in the project.
“Some of them … can do it independently, and some need some assistance or hand-over-hand (help from the teachers) to scoop the dirt,” Cablish-Kristofco said. “But it’s no big deal, one of the kids with a wheelchair can come in and you just assist him.”
Lettuce, spinach and other veggies are grown in the garden.
“(At the) end of the year picnic … we were actually able to serve a salad made out of all the things they grew. That was cool,” Rebecca West, a former teaching assistant in the Young Adult Class, said. “I mean, most of the kids here, the food appears before them on the tray. They go to the cafeteria window and the food is given to them on a tray. We wanted them to see where the food came from, how it was grown.”
Along with the hands-on life skills the young adults learn from the class, the students get to participate in Job Club, in which they get to learn about different jobs available after they leave the Beacon School from different speakers the school brings in.
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Teaching the students how to work consistently at something is the focus of the greenhouse, Cablish-Kristofco said. It's helping to prepare them for getting a job after the Beacon School if that is what they choose to do.
The class not only focuses on helping students grow the plants, but actually selling them for a small price once they are done growing.
“We feel the Jobs Club coupled with the actual practical experience of watering the flowers, planting the seeds, helps them get ready for life after they leave the Beacon School,” Cablish-Kristofco said.
A sense of accomplishment might be the most rewarding aspect for students, Cablish-Kristofco said.
“I just think it’s something that gives them a sense of accomplishment," Cablish-Kristofco said. "These are their flowers. These are something that they grow them and then they get to see what happens to them.”
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