Planting Seeds Of Respect And Empathy At Westwood Elementary
Friday, September 12th, 2025
Allison Mitchell came to Dalton earlier this year to serve as the City's new community garden specialist. In that role, she oversees the new Trammell Street Community Garden and the community garden at Lakeshore Park and leads workshops and classes for the community. She's also developed a new partnership with Westwood Elementary School, located a short walk from the Trammel Street garden. Westwood has plots in the garden where students can learn how plants grow, but Mitchell is doing more than just helping the kids develop green thumbs. She is also helping with the school's new service learning class.
The "REACH" class is new this year at Westwood. Short for "Respect, Empathize, Act, Contribute, and Help", the program was developed by teacher Mary Ellen Pierce when the school needed a new "specials" class (classes like music, physical education, art, etc.).
"When I heard that the new special was going to be service learning, I realized I had found the job I wanted to do when I grew up," said Pierce, who has taught for 29 years. "I thought, I want to do that. It's a great shift from the academic to building character and building the love of community among these kids that we have at Westwood because they are absolutely amazing."
Caption: Community Garden Specialist Allison Mitchell (right) helps Westwood Elementary students with their nature scavenger hunts
"Her whole idea with the class is trying to get the kids to contribute to the larger community and their community at Westwood," said Mitchell. "She's thinking about how she can implore them to be good humans that are ultimately going to go out into the world and impact society. Which is a really cool concept, and I was extremely excited to have her want to work with me because that's sort of aligned with what I want to do with the garden and the larger community of the garden as well, (to) positively impact the environment, our society, and having people sort of think about things other than themselves"
Mitchell recently spent a week with the REACH class, leading them outside to the school's butterfly garden for a scavenger hunt. The lesson focuses on respect and empathy for nature. Items on the scavenger hunt checklist included tasks like identifying different flowers or observing a flying insect without touching it.
"One of the things we found out is that a lot of the kids were scared of – or leary, may I say - of bees," Mitchell said with a laugh. "So, one of the lessons is if we respect their space, then they'll respect ours. Because in truth, they're much more interested in the flowers than they are in us. So, we had them go and explore and just observe nature, really, without trying to change it too much."
Once the scavenger hunt was completed, Mitchell and Pierce led a discussion with the students to get their thoughts on the larger lesson. The REACH program includes all of the school's grade levels, meaning that all of the school's students took part. Mitchell said that regardless of the age level, the students had similar thoughts.
"We would sit down and ask them what respect meant to them. And they had a myriad of answers... not being mean to other people, even if somebody was rude to you, then you don't be rude to them back... they had these thoughts going in their minds," Mitchell said. "And when we posed the question of respect for nature, there was definitely a common theme of 'don't litter, pick up trash if you see it, don't disturb insects. be kind to animals, plant trees'. So it was really cool that they had already been thinking, and they know some of these things, because there were these common threads through all the classes."
Caption: Allison Mitchell (center) helps students examine a tree stump during their nature scavenger hunt
"And that kind of tied in with empathy as well, thinking about the animals and the trees and the flowers and how... looking at it from their eyes, we wouldn't want our homes destroyed or us to be attacked," Mitchell continued. "Therefore, we shouldn't do that to the creatures of the Earth."
Pierce says her students have been coming to class asking if "Miss Allison" was coming back ever since the scavenger hunt, and the answer is yes - the pair is working together on future lessons using the outdoor classroom space and also a project to beautify a courtyard at the school with new raised garden beds and greenery.
"Allison has been developing the curriculum that we're going to use. And then we talk through it together and then we implement it," Pierce said. "We're going to start working on the courtyard, and the kids are going to be part of the entire process from doing the work to keeping it maintained."
"Often when we do large projects, you think, 'okay, well, who's going to maintain it into the future?' But, you know, Westwood and the students will be there for many, many years to come. So that is sort of intertwined into the long-term, long-term goal there," Mitchell said. "We've already gone through the spaces and located some things that would be feasible for the kids to do, depending upon the age group. Things like staining benches, that would be perfect for an outdoor classroom. Rebuilding some garden beds, removing invasive species and vines. So it's going to be a lot of hands-on work in the next couple of months moving into the cooler weather is what we were kind of waiting on."
Developing appreciation for nature is just one part of the extensive curriculum for Westwood's REACH class. The students are learning about the concept of "pen pals", and are writing old-fashioned letters to new friends. The students are collecting pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House to learn about contributing to charities. The students are writing notes of "get well soon" encouragement for a local pharmacy to include with prescription bags. And they've made a game with homemade paddles made from plates and popsicle sticks to share with local nursing homes which will be delivered along with balloons. And some residents at Royal Oaks will get to visit Westwood to play the game with students.
"The world is a scary, crazy place right now and my goal is for these children to understand that they matter," Pierce said. "What they do in this world matters. Their community matters and they matter to their community."
Caption: REACH teacher Mary Ellen Pierce (left) and Allison Mitchell (right)
Mitchell said that she's happy to have the opportunity to contribute to the program.
"I thought it was really an interesting thing that is just kind of something different that I haven't heard of many other schools doing," she said. "And when I was there for the full week, I was so, so humbled by Westwood and the teachers and just how much effort they put in. I'm not used to seeing kids every day, all day, and they do it with just the biggest smile on their face and just love outpouring. So I was just really impressed with them. and appreciative of their work there."
