Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that schools should celebrate National Garden Month through a curriculum that includes outdoor learning.

I thank the gentleman, my friend Mr. Wilson, for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 292, legislation I introduced to encourage schools to celebrate National Garden Month by including outdoor learning in their curriculum.

Mr. Speaker, I want to make special thanks to my friend, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) for cosponsoring this bill and helping me get it to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, the National Garden Association has designated April as National Gardening Month, during which people across the Nation take out time from their busy schedules to plant seeds and bulbs and trees to beautify their lawns and gardens and, ultimately, the communities in which they live. However, this annual ritual does more than just enrich the aesthetics of people's yards. Research has shown that gardening positively impacts environmental attitudes, interpersonal skills, self- esteem and even nutritional attitudes. That is why it is important that we expose our children, especially school-age children, to the benefits of nature and gardening through outdoor learning.

April is a fitting month for consideration of this measure as we celebrate both Earth Day, and in many States, Arbor Day. With conservation and environmental stewardship in the air, we should seize this opportunity to encourage children all across America to

step away from their televisions and turn off their X-Boxes, get outside, get some fresh air, and become the young scientists in the living laboratory that is all around us.

More so than any one generation before it, children today are instilled with the values of environmentalism and conservation. H. Res. 292 builds upon and nurtures this value system and serves as a win-win for all.

With the long-term health of our environment becoming an increasingly hot topic, it is imperative that we teach our children to appreciate, respect and protect our environment. While doing so, it improves and beautifies the planet around us. It also is essential to the physical, emotional and mental development of our children. The practice of gardening has proven to improve landscapes and environmental health, nutrition and personal health and family and community bonds. This bill will introduce more children than ever to gardening and horticulture.

For a more beautiful America, and for healthier and happier children, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlelady from Ohio (Ms. Pryce).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 292, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that schools should celebrate National Garden Month through a curriculum that includes outdoor learning through gardening.

I appreciate the leadership of its lead sponsor, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio.

Around the Nation, more and more schools and youth groups are becoming savvy to the ecological and educational benefits of building gardens. It gives students another reason to get outdoors and use their knowledge and academic skills to solve a real world problem.

Gardening offers active and engaging connections to academics from science and math to nutrition and literacy. Educators will tell you students retain information better when they design experiments, use more than one style of learning, and share their newfound knowledge with others.

Additionally, gardening benefits children's health and well-being, as well as their attitudes toward the environment. Indeed, gardening benefits the whole child. It captivates children's interests, teaches them nurturing skills, and gives them a sense of pride in their accomplishments. It introduces them to healthful foods and provides a way to improve and give back to the community.

I grew up with an appreciation of gardening in that my mother, Wray G. Wilson, was the garden editor of the Charleston News and Courier, where she encouraged the establishment of a municipal parks department for America's most historic city, with the leadership of Mayor J. Palmer Gailliard, Jr. Additionally, my two youngest sons, Julian and Hunter, have developed an appreciation of gardening, the environment and conservation by attending Camp Wildwood, sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the Garden Clubs of South Carolina. I am grateful to Brad Taylor and Steve Bates for their enthusiastic coordination of Camp Wildwood.

For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join my friends, Congresswoman Pryce, Congresswoman Clarke, Congresswoman McCarthy and students across the Nation in celebrating National Gardening Month, and ask my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you for yielding.

I want to thank my good colleague, Deborah Pryce, for working on this bill and introducing the bill. I want to certainly thank my colleague on the Education Committee, Representative Clarke from New York, also, for managing the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.Resolution 292. It is important for our schoolchildren to learn outside the classroom.

I am personally a gardener, and I hope that someday I'm actually going to become a master gardener. I also know that bringing my grandchildren into the garden and showing them, number one, how to grow things, and also the whole life of bugs, I know a lot of people might get a little squeamish about that, but to learn the science and to watch a praying mantis and to watch how they live and how the birds and the gardens work together, it is teaching our young children the wonders of the world. It also gets them interested in science. This world is a very complex place.

It is also extremely good for your mental health. I know that certainly with this job here, and all the years that I worked as a nurse, the first thing I went to was my garden when I got home. Just to put your hands in the soil, it gives you an immediate release of the tension that you might feel. So it is an activity that we are seeing more and more young people getting involved in.

I am happy to say that many of my schools on Long Island have gardens going around the school, number one, to beautify it, but also to teach the children how important gardening is. And growing vegetables. We find that children that grow their own vegetables actually enjoy eating vegetables a little bit more.

I certainly want my colleagues to vote for this. It is a good bill, and it is a good awareness for our young people.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 292) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that schools should celebrate National Garden Month through a curriculum that includes outdoor learning.

Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may insert material relevant to H. Res. 292 into the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H. Res. 292 expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that schools should celebrate National Garden Month through a curriculum that includes outdoor learning.

I would like to thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from Ohio, Representative Pryce, for bringing this resolution to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, the importance of getting children outside and involving them with the environment is critical to the survival of our planet, and this bill takes the first step in that direction. National Garden Month will introduce children, particularly children from the city, such as Brooklyn, where I represent, who would not be exposed to the outdoors an opportunity to involve themselves in gardening and the outdoors.

This resolution is a small step in helping to further our survival. I urge my colleagues to support the environment by supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy), Chair of the Subcommittee of Healthy Families and Communities of the Education and Labor Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.