A few months ago, I decided to cultivate a small terrace garden, mainly to provide a more pleasant view for myself. As I’m a novice gardener, I contacted a local nursery and went with their recommendations of a random assortment of plants for my gardening experiment. When I asked the supervisor about caring instructions, he told me to water the plants once a day and add compost after a couple of months.
That’s easy enough, I thought as I embraced my new hobby with gusto. I religiously watered all the plants daily and also sprayed the foliage to ensure that the leaves didn’t get dusty in hot and humid Chennai. As a child, growing up in Bangalore, I remembered seeing the gardener spray the leaves as well. So, I just mimicked what I had seen as a child. “This isn’t that hard,” I told myself, without realizing my own naivete.
Dealing with hiccups
Within a few weeks, I noticed that the leaves of the frangipani tree, potted in a large container, were folded over. I didn’t make much of it until a few days later I saw some white furry spots on a few leaves. I called a relative, an expert in gardening, and he told me to treat the leaves with a diluted spray of neem oil and baking soda. Later on, when I looked online, the folded leaves were an indication that the leaves were not doing too well.
I sprayed the recommended dose of neem spray and continued with my daily watering of plants. A few days later, I was dismayed to find that the white furry spots had morphed into small greyish, white worm-like creatures. I also saw small white specks on a fern. That’s when I turned to Chat GPT for help. While it suggested the same neem spray, it probed further to identify the root of the problem. One of the more common reasons for fungal growth in a place like Chennai, the bot told me, was watering of leaves. Apparently, in humid climates, spraying leaves creates a highly moist environment for fungal spores to germinate. By blindly doing what I had seen done to plants in Bangalore, I was harming some of the plants.
I stopped spraying the leaves and the white fungal growth on the frangipani receded only to be replaced by some brown spots on the leaves. Again, the bot advised me that I was probably watering the soil too often. Apparently, trees like frangipani do best when they are drenched and then let to dry out. So, I stopped my daily watering of frangipani and within a few weeks of intermittent watering, the plant is healthy again.
Similarly, when I complained to my relative that the bougainvillea’s leaves were yellowing and the plant was not flowering, he advised me that it needs a “tough love” approach. Too much watering or fertilizer can produce yellow leaves followed by an abundance of fresh leaves with no flowers. In this case, when I drenched the plant, the soil was bone dry the very next day. As we are in the peak of summer, the plant seemed to need daily watering.
When I consulted Chat GPT again, it said that my drenching was not soaking the roots as the water was draining too quickly. The soil had become compacted and hydrophobic. To correct this, I had to water in stages. I had to add a little water, wait a few minutes, then water again, and repeat this process three to four times to ensure the water penetrated the roots. When I did deep watering in this manner, the yellowing stopped and hopefully the bougainvillea will start flowering soon.
Just as I was figuring out the unique needs of every plant, there was a spell of unseasonal rain and all the plants got more water than they needed. But they seem to be fine and hopefully they will each continue to thrive. Even as I’m continually learning on how to be a more responsive gardener, I cannot help draw parallels with education. What is it like for a new teacher who first encounters a classroom of children?
Similarities with teaching
Even if they hold a degree in education, many teachers, who are new to teaching, tend to teach the way they were taught. At first, they might treat all pupils alike, not knowing the individual needs or proclivities of each child. But as they start to work and watch them, teachers realize that students have unique profiles that require slightly different approaches.
Like a motley set of plants in a garden, children too are variant. The teacher, like the gardener, has to get to know each one, their peculiarities and preferences and tweak inputs to meet their unique needs. While my plants can be grouped into broad clusters depending on the type of care, whether they like stress, balance or daily watering, students too may be grouped based on their needs. Even as grouping may make our job easier, we still have to watch for individual needs within groups every now and then.
Just as there is no ‘average’ plant, a perceptive teacher also realizes that the “average student” cannot be pinned down. Moreover, designating certain plants as ‘special’ or ‘gifted’ doesn’t really help unless we understand the changing requirements of each one. While plants require different care in summer, spring and the monsoon, the needs of students are also dynamic. Both require vigilant observation and responsive action.
For example, even a so-called hardy plant like bougainvillea that benefits from “tough love” requires special care, depending on the circumstances. As the soil had hardened, I simply couldn’t follow the usual watering routine of drenching and leaving it to dry. Instead, I had to deep water till the roots received adequate hydration. Likewise, an otherwise resilient student may require extra support when going through a rough spell at home.
Patience is another virtue that a gardener and teacher require. We cannot wish or coax plants to flower on a schedule determined by us. Every plant has its own rhythm and we need to understand and respect their flowering cycles. More importantly, not all plants are flowering but they are still beautiful and are an integral part of their ecosystem.
Though the metaphor of a teacher as a gardener may be cliched, only after trying my hand at gardening, did I realize the umpteen lessons that teachers can learn from getting their hands soiled.
About the Author
Aruna Sankaranarayanan is the author of Zero Limits and the co-author of Bee-Witched along with Brinda S. Narayan.