A South Bronx Teacher Grows Students Through Gardening

The Leonard Lopate Show | Jul 11, 2017

Stephen Ritz, teacher and founder of Green Bronx Machine, joins us to discuss his book, The Power of a Plant: A Teacher's Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools. The book tells the story of Ritz's time working as a teacher at a South Bronx high school that suffered from crime and a low graduation rate. In 2004, Ritz integrated gardening into his class curriculum hoping that it would help reverse those trends. Not only did that decision turn things around for his students, but it became a movement. Ritz says he has created 2,200 jobs while also building farms and gardens.

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