Arbor Day - school views one symbolic ornamental planted

April 30th was Arbor Day [1].   

As I  went by a park I noticed that a suburban town crew was waiting around a newly installed Magnolia.    My first thought was “Whoa! Look at the taxes go!”   But then I heard the kids coming en masse from the nearby school waving signs and I was a little less cynical about the city tree crew hanging around.   They were waiting for the kids.

Today  when I went to post the image I began to think about what this lesson was for the school kids:   None of them even picked up a shovel or touched the dirt.  

When I was a 6th grader a few of my classmates and I were the lucky kids in the school who got to plant the Arbor Day tree in front of our grade school.  The tree was a Douglas Fir to match a series of other Arbor Day firs planted along the street in front of the school.   

Back then the kids dug the hole…

And our real estate taxes were lower.  

But that's not the point.  

The point is the kid's should work to dig a hole in the earth with a shovel.   It isn't easy putting a hole in the ground.   That's a good lesson to learn.   And today with atmospheric carbon rising, the lesson should include planting many trees, not one ornamental.