[wildmanx]

Playing devil's advocate .. it will also get the kids more disconnected from the natural environment that we're embedded in, after all. You know those statistics of so-and-so-many kids out of 100 don't know where beefsteak comes from, where milk comes from or how potatoes grow? Since all they see is the result in the store? This gets worse when the kids change from lack of knowledge to thinking plants grow in glass pots without soil.

Hydroponics may be fun for hackers. But it's a bastardized form of growing plants, that happens to work, but it's a terrible way to convey science (if not taught very carefully and embedded in a much larger picture with actual nature).

Schools should visit more farms instead.

[alldayeveryday]

I'm not seeing a binary here. My first impression of growing a plant was in a small styrofoam cup in a classroom. This impression in no way tainted by understanding of the science or reduced my appreciation for nature. In fact the experience did the exact opposite. We should all think less in 1s and 0s. Why not take kids out into nature and also introduce them to hydroponics? Can it not be both?

[MezzoDelCammin]

Visiting farms is nice to get an impression of how the real system works, but IMO it does little to help You understand the principles. You have to know those ahead to be able to grasp what the farmer actually does and why.

Seeing a growing a plant in a glass from a seed over multiple weeks does just that.

Once You understand / see for yourself why plants need water, air and nutrition, You'll see that farm in a completely different way.

[thrown_22]

There is nothing natural about farms either.

Schools should drop children in a forest and let them fight bears for berries. If it was good enough for 40,000 generations of hominids it's good enough for me.

[drjasonharrison]

Berries aren't available year round, so we should at least tell them to try eating leaves and roots.... /s