Stephen Ritz is a South Bronx teacher who believes students shouldn’t have to leave their community to live, learn and earn in a better one. After suffering the tragic loss of his twins, he refocused his energy on helping other kids. Stephen teaches science in Public School 55 in New York City’s South Bronx. The school had a 17% graduation rate, violence, poverty, and 99% of the kids attending the school qualified for free or reduced lunches. 77% of the kids Stephen teaches have some form of learning disabilities. If they had proper pre-natal(孕期的) nutrition, many of those disabilities wouldn’t be there.
Stephen was given a box of daffodil bulbs(水仙球) and hid them behind the school’s radiator to prevent the kids throwing them at each other. One day, one of the kids discovered the daffodils had bloomed, and there were hundreds of flowers behind the radiator.
This got Stephen thinking. They could grow food indoors and outdoors all year round, using a new technology that requires 90% less space and 90% less water. Now Stephen and his students have installed over 100 gardens in New York City alone. The Green Bronx Machine project has also created a promotion in the health for everyone involved. The students, many of whom had learning disabilities created by poor nutrition, have also seen an increase in their nutritional health, and overall well-being.
The project, which is fully integrated into the school’s core curriculum, has raised the school’s daily attendance rate from 40% to 93%, with 100% passing state standardized tests. It also created over 2,200 student jobs, and local crime has fallen significantly.
Stephen Ritz has been nominated for the Global Teachers prize for his work on the Green Bronx machine. If awarded the Prize, Stephen would use the funds to invest in the Health, Wellness and Biodiversity Center he’s currently working to set up in the South Bronx—“a place of wonder, inquiry and engagement for students, teachers, parents and the whole community”.
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