This past September Something Good in the World, was honored to present its Children’s Peaceful Garden design at the United Nations International Day of Peace, representing Roots & Shoots. After this life-changing event, in which we had the privilege of describing our project to hundreds of attendees, I began spreading the word about this design beyond the New York area where the Children’s Peaceful Garden originated. Because we’ve designed and built five Children’s Peaceful Gardens over the past 17 years, I have a sense of what a successful children’s garden requires. I wanted to help teachers in challenging circumstances troubleshoot…
Author: Barbara Sarbin
Barbara Sarbin
Barbara Sarbin is the director of educational programs for Something Good in the World. She is responsible for the overall running of educational programs, including not only the Earth School programs for homeschoolers, but also those for public schools and private groups, and all of the other SGITW projects: the Blue Star Youth Movement, the Children’s Peaceful Garden, the Sounds Good Music for Families workshops, the Turtle Island Summer Camp, and the Backyard Farmer. She also oversees the GET curriculum for all of the age groups. Barbara has a BA in Theatre Arts with Honors from Brown University. She performed extensively as a professional actress and movement theatre artist, and has worked as an Artist-in-Residence in New York area public and private schools for over 25 years. For the past twelve years, she developed the Golden Education Template (GET) curriculum for Elementary and Middle School grades, and has been teaching home schooled children inside of an “Earth As School” environment since 1998.
by Barbara Sarbin, Something Good in the World My work takes me into quiet places in nature, with children who have experienced things that no child should have to. Often when I am with a group of refugees from Central America, and I discover that one of the girls is only 11 years old, the same age as my daughter, I cannot imagine what her mother has gone through. I think about saying goodbye to my child, sending her on a long journey to cross a distant border alone, on foot, hundreds or thousands of miles away. In my mind,…
