San Dominico students tread the earth gently; campus is ecological workshop for lower, middle, upper schools

National Catholic Reporter, April 19, 1996 by Sharon Abercrombie

One unseasonably warm February afternoon, Langstaff and Valpey took visitors for a tour of the San Dominico campus.

Evidence of earth sensitivity is everywhere. A large statue of St. Francis is a campus focal point. "Every morning, the first-graders put bird seed in his hands," said Valpey.

It was the unexpected, however, which best revealed what San Dominico is about: In the chapel, for example, a liturgical banner had incorporated into its design a tree branch that had fallen to the ground.

The school attempts to use as much fallen wood as it can for campus projects, said Valpey. When the chapel was remodeled, wood from a large altar was recycled into a smaller, streamlined version.

Creation arid the beauty of the earth figure prominently in liturgies and rituals. Students create their own assemblies using The Earth Prayer book by Elizabeth Roberts; they write their own psalms about the trees and the flowers. Valpey hopes that one day there will be an outdoor chapel on campus.

The tour moves across campus to a large garden area. Filled with vegetables and flowers, it features plants that attract butterflies.

A group of 5-year-olds are getting a lesson in how to safely wield kid-sized hoes.

"You're standing on our flowers," a little girl says solemnly, gazing up at the tall interloper who has just invaded her garden. "Stay behind those rocks," she adds a bit more gently.

The child is too young to comprehend "ecological design science," but that's what she's doing when she plants sweet peas, sunflowers and tomatoes with her teacher, Kim Turpin, and when she experiences the wonder of seeds growing into a vibrant panoply of pink, yellow and red.

Mr. Worm uncovered

Ecological design science becomes the delighted shriek of a little boy when his hoe uncovers a fat, wriggling worm. He brings it to Valpey. She is an appreciative audience. "He's a friend of the garden. Oh, my goodness, he's so good for it," says Valpey, who points the youngster in the direction of a safe, quiet spot for Mr. Worm to rest in.

Sustainability is what seventh-graders accomplish when they build a pond for tadpoles, and what seniors learn about when they figure out how their cafeteria can "precycle" by eliminating paper, Styrofoam goods and excess packaging from the food it purchases.

Ninth-grade students have used their algebraic skills to do slope analysis t better understand the geological make up of their campus. Last year, fifth-grade studied topography by making a mode campus. The middle school is learning about the health of a nearby creek by testing the water and soil around it.

The upper school has participated i a food audit to discover the implication of buying factory-farmed meat from faroff Texas, as opposed to purchasing organic, range-fed cattle from nearby Bolinas. As a result of their audit, the cafeteria will also being buying organic produce from small area farms instead of produce heavily treated with chemicals from giant agribusiness outlets.

One day last spring, lower-school youngsters gleefully waded barefoot through a mixture of clay, sand, water and straw. They were building a cob bench. Cob is an environmentally friendly building material developed by the Welsh people.