Sowing seeds of wisdom for a greener future

This presentation was originally given at the 5th Global Botanic Gardens Congress (5GBGC) held in partnership with the 6th Biennial Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand Congress.

Over 300 delegates from 43 countries attended this BGCI and BGANZ Congress in Dunedin New Zealand 20 – 25 October 2013. Worldwide there are over 3000 botanic gardens with networks at global, national and regional levels. The ‘hot topics’ for the 5GBGC were:

Defining a botanic garden in the 21st century

Tackling broader global environmental issues

Sharing plant collection data

Participation for all

Achieving global plant conservation targets

Communicating science

I have added a few slides from my PowerPoint presentation to this paper.

Janelle Hatherly 2021

Introduction

Many cultural institutions use terms such as ‘inspiration’ and ‘public engagement’ in their mission statements to articulate the need to make meaningful connections with their visitors and the broader community. This paper reflects on the contemporary role of education and the communication challenges facing cultural institutions – be they botanic gardens, museums, zoos, libraries, art galleries or historic houses.

It puts the spotlight on learning and education and deconstructs these terms to identify the very essence of personal fulfilment and collaborative mindfulness. This is supplemented with best practice examples from the Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (the Trust) in Sydney.

Botanic gardens are uniquely placed to foster mindfulness and educate about plants and the environment, despite increasing urbanisation and global disconnection from nature. The ubiquity of plants in our everyday life sets botanic gardens apart from other recreational attractions because they can provide an immersion learning experience that can continue both around and beyond the garden walls.

Most botanic gardens are well equipped to mount indoor exhibitions, themed garden displays and an assortment of public programs for their visitors’ enjoyment and education. Coupled with outreach programs (including community gardening) we can sow seeds of wisdom for a greener future.

Inspiration, engagement and learning

In essence, inspiration is part of the highest form of learning. A familiar and useful explanation of why we learn was postulated almost seventy years ago by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow’s research into ‘hierarchy of needs’ tells us that humans are motivated to learn to satisfy needs, a condition that has evolved over tens of thousands of years.

Learning is both a process and a product of thinking. Fundamentally we must all learn what it takes to survive and once these needs are met, we can strive to belong and connect with others. When humans take learning to its highest level, they become inspired, insightful and creative. They can experience the eureka effect – or what I like to call, A-HA! moments – and are rewarded with a sense of personal fulfilment and creative output.

Maslow noted that very few people become fully self-actualised because our society tends to reward motivation based on money, status, love and other social needs. Although capable of achieving our full potential, most of us are unlikely to do so. Yet, our world today is the product of centuries upon centuries of individualistic and collaborative mindfulness. Humanity’s creative achievements are all around us and the natural world has been the primary source of inspiration for many artists, poets, architects, scientists and other creative thinkers.

Thanks to those who have learnt before us, today we have reasonable explanations for why and how we learn and, with relatively recent advances in neurobiology, we now know what happens in our brains when learning does occur. Neuroplasticity (neuronal plasticity) has replaced the formerly-held belief that the brain is a static organ. Brain cells (neurones) can be generated throughout life. There is some truth to the adage ‘Use it or lose it’!

We no longer believe that individuals are born smart or dumb with a limited ability to generate neural cells, losing more neurones than are made at around 20 years of age, and then it’s downhill after that. Basically, brain imaging studies show that every time we learn a new task, our brain structure is altered as we grow more neuronal extensions. PET and MRI scans confirm that new neurones are generated throughout life.

Physiological changes also occur in our brain when we learn: performing cognitive tasks causes the release of a chemical neurotransmitter (dopamine) in the human amygdala (in the mid-brain) and we feel happy. This feeling of happiness motivates us to try again until we learn more ... and more. In this way, learning promotes learning and, with practice, every individual can experience a degree of self-actualisation and identify with something bigger than themselves.

This medical advancement is having an impact on school education, with teachers and children implementing the findings. They are moving away from a fixed mindset which promoted an interest in looking/being smart at all times to ‘having a go’! When the learning doesn’t come easily, individuals with a fixed mindset, behave badly rather than risk failing and revealing their limitations.

With a growth mindset, intelligence/IQ can be cultivated through effort and education, by confronting challenges, by making mistakes and persevering through failure. A growth mindset supports the notion that the harder we work, the more our ability grows. Children and adults feel safe to make mistakes and see the value of effort when they adopt a growth mindset.

Interestingly, this is not a new phenomenon and many great thinkers throughout history have espoused this approach.

The addictive nature of video games works because we learn from making mistakes. The user is presented with achievable challenges, is rewarded incrementally and is provided with lots of accurate feedback and positive reinforcement. But computers can be more than mindless electronic toys. They can also be used for on-line education, using the very principles behind video games to raise a love of learning. Let me introduce you to some research you might want to explore for yourself on-line.

Actress Goldie Hawn’s passion for mindfulness and early childhood education resulted in her setting up a Foundation in 2003 to launch Mind UpTM – a simple and fun e-curriculum for mindful learning, especially for disadvantaged kids. With input from Dr Judy Willis and a team of neuroscientists, behavioural psychologists, educators, and leading researchers in the field of social and emotional learning, the results have been very impressive. Several other programs, like Shaping Brains program and Cogmed, rapidly followed.

Advances in neurobiology and medical technology are having a profound effect on our society as a whole. We are also currently witnessing a wave of television programs and on-line games specifically developed for adults to ‘train their brains’! US President Obama recently announced US$100M funding for The BRAIN Initiative. He is calling to the scientific community to pursue Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies to get a dynamic picture of the brain and better understand how we think, learn and remember.

Many books are being written on the subject (e.g. Brain Rules by John Medina – importance of exercise to get your brains moving and stave off dementia) and there is an increase in philanthropy for educational institutions. Last week Nicola and Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest pledged A$65 million to all five West Australian Universities, less than a year after Louise and Graham Tuckwell’s A$50 million donation to Australian National University. Education and learning are becoming popular trends.

Botanic gardens as lifelong learning spaces

The above advances are also great news for botanic gardens. Our gardens are capable of stimulating all the senses – and educators can develop public programs to cater for all learning styles. Kids are naturally curious. They are born that way. With our support and encouragement, they can start a lifelong learning journey. With instruction and activities designed by trained teachers, they can make bigger connections.

These little children are taking part in a ‘What we get from plants?’ lesson at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. As you can see, they are totally absorbed trying to work out if certain objects (rubber bands, cork, paper, cotton clothing, marbles etc) are made from plants. The lesson goes on to ask: What happens if we must harvest plants, chop down trees for our needs? It’s easy then to get across the message that we are to sustain our environment which means we should reduce, reuse and recycle.

Many students go on to experience an ‘a-ha’ moment when they realise all of the products humans use ultimately come from plants or rocks. Thus begins their lifelong connection with conservation of Earth’s natural resources.

It is easy to see ‘a-ha’ moments of self-fulfilment and creative output on these children’s faces. We can’t hang on to our youth but we can stay learners all our lives.

Plants and botanic gardens are the best teachers. Those of us involved in botanic education always marvel at how easy it is to get people excited about plants and gardening. Gardening is hands-on and truly interactive and can be done by people of all ages, backgrounds, social status, interest levels and abilities. The rewards and sense of achievement are instant (the satisfaction of successfully planting something) and ongoing (watching it grow and produce flowers or fruit). And negative feedback is accurate and timely when our plants wilt or die due to our not doing enough of the right thing.

If the key to education for sustainability (EfS) is to be ‘futures focused’, then what could be more optimistic than undertaking a garden project? Imagining the future and planning for change – whether it is next week, next season or next year, marks gardeners as futurists.

At the Botanic Gardens Trust (Trust) in Sydney, EfS is top of mind in our on-site schools and public programs, stand-alone exhibitions and themed gardens, and in our outreach partnerships such as Community Greening.

What is education?

Education is any process that fosters learning. Learning occurs when experience causes a relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behaviour. The change may be deliberate or unintentional, for better or worse. This is why we need trained educators!

The very term ‘education’ holds negative connotations for many people because of bad schooling experiences. This has even impacted on the current naming of this operational branch in cultural institutions.

Basically, teachers educate and learning is learning! In the best cultural institutions, everyone is involved in learning but we foster positive attitudes, knowledge and behaviours when our public exhibitions and programs utilise the expertise of trained and experienced educators.

The challenges facing cultural institutions (museums) today

Much has been written about the relevance of cultural institutions in contemporary society. In his recently published book Transforming Museums in the Twenty-first Century, Graham Black notes that the question being asked is ‘Are museums worth what they cost?’ rather than ‘Are museums worthwhile?’

Black challenges us to consider whether we need museums at all and do they make a difference or merely exist. It is difficult for museums to demonstrate that they are for the benefit of the public when there is a collapse in society of the concept of ‘the public good’. There is also a growing perception that the museum as a business model is fundamentally flawed.

Those of us who work in cultural institutions are being torn in all directions and are finding it difficult to articulate ‘what we stand for’. We like to see ourselves as gatekeepers of the cultural memory of humankind mirroring what society values and considers important. But the economic drivers are pressuring us to be entertainment venues and we’re left wondering if people interested in our collections can be satisfied by simply accessing information about them on-line.

In June 2007 Adam Gopnik, essayist, thinker and long-time staff writer for the New Yorker, wrote an insightful article in the Walrus magazine called The Mindful Museum. In it he describes the evolution of museum (his generic term for collecting institutions) as 5Ms:

The function of the first museum was to put us in touch with the past (object-focused), the second to productively educate us about the present (learning-focused); the third to provide popular and social meeting places (people-focused). In their efforts to create experiences rather than exhibits, many museums may have turning into malls.

Gopnik goes on to describe ‘The Mindful Museum’ encouraging us to optimistically look to the future. He advocates museums should be conversation places where contentious societal issues can be debated – safe places to explore unsafe ideas. Focusing specifically on botanic gardens, I had fun translating his 5M concept into 5Cs. Either way, it’s all about exciting the mind and having a focus on the future!

Like Adam Gopnik, I feel we are at risk of going too far in our quest to make our cultural organisations entertaining and popular. Just as museums can easily turn into malls, botanic gardens can easily be transformed into public parks where the plants become ‘green wallpaper’ and the main appeal is the use of our open spaces for rock concerts, family picnics and sports.

The diversity found in our living collections and themed garden displays can provide powerful ‘in the round’ settings for contemplative, theatrical and memorable experiences. We can mount exhibitions and public programs that change attitudes, evoke feelings, demonstrate processes, convey significant ideas simply and directly and engage people in ways that create lasting impressions.

Cognitive research shows that where people are also affects how they think and behave. In the peace and tranquillity of a botanic garden all our senses are stimulated at once and we find time to think. We attempt to make sense of our surroundings and make meaningful connections. The information from each of the senses is stored in different parts of the brain but they are all interlinked by dendritic extensions of neurons. When a similar interest is triggered, often much later and in another environment, multiple neurological pathways fire at once and memory making is strengthened.

We all learn differently and have preferred learning styles. More than any other cultural institution, botanic gardens can cater for all. In 2009 many cultural institutions around the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species. In Sydney, the Trust devised a dynamic year-long program of events and exhibitions to celebrate Darwin’s scientific legacy. A spectacular sculpture comprising six mirrored letters, each over two metres high spelling out Darwin’s name was installed in the Myrtales Bed. Natural selection was interpreted through historic and contemporary quotes on its reflective surface and helped visitors ponder what it meant to be human. Our indoor exhibition called Darwin’s Descendants: 200 years of Scientific Discovery in the Red Box Gallery showcased the Trust’s current scientific research.

Participation for all

In Transforming museums in C21st Graham Black asks: ‘Are we doing enough to support active, prolonged and meaningful public engagement and are we looking outward to reach and engage them?

The need to go beyond the garden walls is the fastest growth area in botanic gardens education. The social role of botanic gardens is outward looking and I believe this is why it is currently enjoying such popularity. Outreach education programs and communal gardening have empowered many botanic gardens to address environmental and social responsibilities ‘beyond their garden walls’.

In 2000 the Trust in partnership with Housing NSW set up Community Greening. It involved helping disadvantaged communities (mainly living in social housing) establish communal gardening projects on unused and neglected public land across the State.

Community Greening is fully externally funded and employs Trust-based education horticulturists. It is supported with significant contributions both financially and in-kind by government, businesses and philanthropic organisations. Its success and the reputation of the Trust’s long-standing Arbor Day and RBG Goes West resulted in further funding becoming available in 2008 for an offspring program called Youth Community Greening.

I was involved with the program’s inception in 1999 and am proud that despite all the originators having moved on, the program is still thriving under the stewardship of the next generation. Phil Pettitt, the current Community Greening coordinator, has provided me with the latest statistics.

The most significant element of the Trust’s outreach program’s success was the formation of the partnership between the Trust and HNSW in August 2000.

It was like a marriage ... and all these years on ... I can say it was made in heaven. HNSW has a vision to improve the quality of life for social housing tenants and the Trust wants to inspire the appreciation of plants and the natural environment. Together they could achieve their respective aims through communal gardening beyond the garden walls. Like traditional marriages, it came with a dowry (a cheque for one year’s funding) and like modern marriages, it had a prenup in the form of a partnership agreement (this has been renegotiated every four years).

HNSW is big and strong and the Trust is small and beautiful. They are sufficiently different that there is a lot to learn from each other about doing business. The partnership had the blessings of its parent body, the NSW State Government. Like any good marriage, this one was built on trust, mutual respect, compatibility (not cloning) and its whole is better than the sum of its parts. Together they lived through hard times and struggled to find ongoing funding but Community Greening has not only survived, but prospered.

Community Greening is like a child to all of us in HNSW and the Trust involved with it – like parents, we enjoy watching our offspring grow. We know that we can’t lead its life or direct its future but we can offer advice and guidance – but only when it’s wanted – and we look for the characteristics that can be nurtured to bring it to personal fulfilment.

The supporters of Community Greening – benefactors, horticultural industry, mayors of local councils etc. are like extended family. Like aunts and uncles, they watch over the program and help it weather bad times and they join in celebrating the successes. And Youth Community Greening is like a little sister born eight years on with a life and future of its own but strongly connected to its big brother, parents, aunts and uncles.

As well as greening the urban environment, Community Greening goes a long way towards promoting social cohesion, healthy lifestyles and lifelong learning.

Conclusion

What distinguishes a botanic garden from a park is the ability to create opportunities for people to make meaningful connections with well-documented collections. If our institutions create public programs and exciting spaces that are well-received and of real value to society then their future is assured. This is our Unique Selling Proposition.

So let’s all sow seeds of wisdom for a greener future by being future-focused and create a culture where everyone embraces challenges, is intrigued by learning, makes and learns from mistakes and puts in the necessary effort to ‘make a difference’.