{"id":1163,"date":"2014-04-25T00:33:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T04:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2015-01-27T08:50:43","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T13:50:43","slug":"the-chief-eternal-optimist-of-bronx-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/?p=1163","title":{"rendered":"The Chief Eternal Optimist of Bronx County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4854<\/a>
I grew this!<\/figcaption><\/figure>Stephen Ritz introduces himself as the \u201cChief Eternal Optimist of Bronx County\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a place that needs optimism.<\/p>\n

The Bronx is a tough neighborhood with high unemployment and the rumble of food insecurity. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger reported in December, 2013 that nearly 49 percent of Bronx children lived in a household with an inconsistent food supply.
\nEqually alarming, children in the Bronx have little access to fresh food, often eating foods high in sugar and fat, but low in nutritional value.
\n\u201cWe have some of the greatest rates of juvenile diabetes and juvenile obesity in the nation,\u201d Ritz says. \u201cAnd we can change that. We absolutely have the power to change schools in this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

So where does Ritz get this optimism?
\nHe grows it\u2014with his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe excitement and joy that these little kids feel putting a seed in the ground and watching it blossom\u2014OMG! \u201c Ritz exclaims. \u201cIt\u2019s game changing! It\u2019s empowering!\u201d
\n\u201cWhen they know that they can grow their own, they really start changing the way they see their relationship to the world and their place in it,\u201d Ritz says. \u201cThey are growing, the plants are growing, and they are responsible for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vegetables are sprouting in trays, on walls, and from the sides of tower gardens. This growing infuses the classroom\u2014and their lessons. Students learn the science of nutrition and growth. Names of vegetables teach consonant blends. The price of supplies and earnings help students learn math. Growing puts green in their wallets and trains students for jobs and business. With their learning aligned with their lives, students can create, taste and count real reasons to come to school. School attendance grew from 40 percent to 93 percent. Students are heading to college, not jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so many, food is the problem. Yet for all of us, food is a solution,\u201d Ritz says.<\/p>\n

In places adults didn\u2019t think could grow plants, Ritz and his students are growing an answer to poor prenatal nutrition, the cause of 70 percent of learning disabilities. They are growing an answer to dropping out, unemployment and powerlessness with relevant learning, work and constant encouragement. \u201cWe are Ameri-CANS!, not Ameri-can\u2019ts, \u201c Ritz proclaims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a farmer,\u201d Ritz says, \u201cBut I\u2019m planting. I\u2019m planting seeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritz has planted success in his students with this approach. But there is only one Stephen Ritz. How do we grow crops of transformative teachers and learning projects?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Ritz introduces himself as the \u201cChief Eternal Optimist of Bronx County\u201d. It\u2019s a place that needs optimism. The Bronx is a tough neighborhood with high unemployment and the rumble of food insecurity. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger reported in December, 2013 that nearly 49 percent of Bronx children lived in a household […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1,200,25],"tags":[208,270,112,104],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-multimedia","category-stem-environmental-learning","category-stem-learning","tag-gardening","tag-school-gardens","tag-stem","tag-stem-learning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions\/2370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.coolgreenschools.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}