“To me, trees are living beings and they have their own sort of personalities. I’m not being scientific here; I’m just talking about the way it feels.”

— Dr. Jane Goodall

Consider the quote from my personal hero Dr. Jane, who loved a beech tree at her childhood home so dearly, she drew up a will, signed by her grandmother on Jane’s 14th birthday, bequeathing the tree to young Jane. Do you suppose you have kids in your classrooms who feel likewise? Do you further suppose that even more children would feel that way if they spent more time with trees? Dr. Jane’s words resonate so completely with me that I can’t imagine there aren’t other ardent “tree huggers” out there. But I do know that our denuded neighborhoods, parks and school playgrounds, bare of these wonders, limit a child’s interactions with trees. I also theorize our retreat to indoor, sedentary lives, lived through electronic devices has the same effect.

Goodall, Jane. Seeds of Hope. Hachette Book Group, 2015 (page 39) — Goodall, Jane. *Seeds of Hope.* Hachette Book Group, 2015 (page 39)

However, the optimist in me knows that teachers are so incredibly impactful on their students’ lives, that a purposeful introduction to living trees during a school day may be all that’s required to kindle a connection between a child and a tree; the genesis of a life of love with our natural world.

And trees are cool! They are shaped by their environment so no two are the same. There are ancient giants, highly revered and young lithe saplings full of hope. Their roots and trunks support complicated ecosystems, their leaves are varied and valued as an herbivorous food source to millions of living things and they are the air purifiers which we so desperately depend. Trees can warn each other of invading insects with chemical signals and share resources underground through symbiotic partnerships with fungal friends. They give us a lot to consider.

Before continuing, I would like to make something very clear; making time for trees is not limited to teachers who need to meet the objectives of lessons about trees! Anyone can use trees as the subject to teach a long list of other topics. The win is connecting your lesson to something tangible and relatable while quite possibly getting students outdoors during their school day. Here is a list of objectives that could be taught with trees as the subject:

plant anatomy
animal habitats
seasons & climate
natural resources
economics: wants vs. needs
civic engagement-local tree laws
changes over time

shapes & pattens

classification & sorting
poetry/creative writing
nonfiction writing
living things
the carbon & water cycles
human impact on the environment

Resources are widely available. I’ve linked a lesson for every grade pre-K to 12th that incorporates trees (scroll down for that list). And I highly recommend Acorn Naturalists for teaching materials.

But for one moment, let’s go beyond the immediacy of meeting the demands of your job. Teaching children and adolescents about trees is a way to empower them against the news and anxiety children are hearing about climate change. I teach in classrooms ages 2-12, and while I make it a policy to not share the bad news about our environment, especially with my youngest students, they share it with me. Our kids are watching and listening and as vulnerable and helpless as I feel sometimes, that concern must be magnitudes in order greater to a child who doesn’t have the means to act. But teaching them to adopt a tree on campus and care for it; encouraging them to do so at home; planting tree seeds as a class project or even planting a tree on campus is a practical way to empower students. There are many organizations who are working toward lofty tree planting goals to offset the forests being cut daily and as a stop gap to global warming until governments and corporations work out the structural and technological issues of climate change solutions. Have you heard the phrase “the forgotten solution?” Jane Goodall explains it well in this video. Generically it’s the simple plan to use trees to sequester excess atmospheric carbon as one tool to offset climate change.

The Jane Goodall Institute has committed to planting 5 million trees in 2020. The Nature Conservancy started their Plant a Billion campaign in 2008, at first concentrating on reforesting Brazil but have since expanded to the US and China. 1t.org (1 trillion) is an organization that coordinates the global efforts to plant 1 trillion trees as a climate change solution, and I’m guessing many of you have heard of the Arbor Day Foundation. National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday of April, although individual states celebrate at different times. North Carolina celebrates Arbor Day on the first Friday following March 15th. The Arbor Day Foundation advocates for tree care and tree plantings, working in conjunction with towns to encourage healthy urban forests. They have wonderful resources that are free or inexpensive (i.e. trees to plant at school!). They also have an ambitious tree planting initiative, “The Time for Trees” with the goal of planting 100 million trees by 2022 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day here in the US!

I’m not in a position to save the world, but I am in a position to plant and care for local trees and to teach children why they should too. The small act of doing so is a relief from the anxiety I develop from the bad news that floods my airways and news feed. Spending time with trees does the same.