Bee Enthusiast and Teacher Spreads his Passion to RCDS Students

The organic garden at RCDS has been, let’s say, a hive of activity these past few months, with film crews visiting the grounds to document students’ interest in the nearby bee hives, a French photographer shooting stills of bees interacting with students, and the local Journal News also taking an interest in its gardener and bee enthusiast, Ron Breland, who heads up the Organic Gardening Program at the school.

The program, which began four years ago, has been open primarily to middle and upper school students, but teachers from the Children’s School have been eager to expose younger students to the garden and to its beehives in particular. Mr. Breland uses his extensive knowledge of organic gardening and bees to teach two classes each semester at the school.

Mr. Breland sees the RCDS program as an initiative where students come to connect with nature while acquiring gardening and beekeeping skills. It is the beehives, however, that interest children the most. “Bees, threatened with possible extinction, are really the glue that holds everything together,” he said, referring in particular to the European honeybee, which was brought to the United States in the early 17th century, but in recent years has been disappearing.

Mr. Breland, who has been an avid beekeeper since 1973, encourages students to maintain a respectful attitude toward the bees, and would like to establish beekeeping as the “gentle art” it once was. Students also learn about the value of the insects and their part in food production. Approximately one-third of the world’s food supply depends on pollination by honeybees.

Perhaps the ultimate goal of the beekeeping portion of the Organic Gardening Program is to take what Mr. Breland described as the “level of hysteria” that has become associated with honeybees and “bring it down a few notches.” “The hope,” he said, “is that at least some of the students will be stimulated by what they learn within the program to take up the torch.”