Educators play a crucial, yet underappreciated, role in our society. Scratch that, they play thousands of crucial, yet underappreciated, roles. They must be mini geniuses in their subject. Every science teacher is an Einstein, every English teacher a Shakespeare, every History teacher a Kennedy. They must be firm and gentle, humble yet authoritative, personable but private. They must be excellent communicators, make perfect lesson plans, learn every student’s personality, speak to a hundred parents and bend to the sometimes iron will of administrators.

Yet more than anything, teachers are expected to be inspiring and motivational. It is a tough bill to fit. The pressure sits heavy on their shoulders, and everyone – students, their families, the community – is watching. So, who teaches the teachers and gives them the skills they need to become mini Einsteins, Shakespeares, Kennedys? Who gives them the confidence to grow and flourish as educators in the classroom?

The answer, at least at the University of North Alabama, is Gary Padgett.

A pillar among a department of many other amazing professors, Padgett teaches introductory level and secondary education classes, conducts lots of research and, most recently, held his own TEDx Talk locally in Florence.

Throughout his career, Padgett has worked to guide his students, connect people despite their differences and mentor the next generation of educators. And he has done much of it through an interesting medium: nature.

Padgett began his teaching career twenty-one years ago as a high school history teacher in Tampa, Florida. Inspired by his grandparents, who taught him the value of working hard and spending time outdoors, Padgett has always tried to bring nature into the classroom. While still teaching high school, he would take his students to the Hillsborough River (Tampa’s primary water source) for lessons.

“We would actually go out to clean the river, and at the same time, I would teach them how it used to look and the importance of keeping it clean,” Padgett said.

He continued teaching history in Florida while earning a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. Motivated by the desire to have a wider impact and conduct research, he came to UNA in 2013.

“As a professor, I get to help the next generation of teachers develop their careers and their teaching philosophies and styles, which will then get to have that ripple effect on many other classrooms,” Padgett said.

Padgett has done extensive research while at UNA, with much of it focused on ecopedagogy, teaching focused on taking an ecological approach to understanding the world. Much of his research is done in collaboration with Kilby Laboratory School. He has published numerous articles and has won at least eight different awards throughout his career.

“I like working with other researchers, working with people in other disciplines to create that interdisciplinary approach to create better classrooms,” Padgett said

His favorite part of his job, though, is “helping the next generation create their own body of knowledge.”

He has mentored nine different student research projects, and he often has his introductory level classes plan their own lessons at local schools.

While much of his research has focused on nature and ecopedagogy, Padgett often also includes multiculturalism. While he said he knows multicultural education is a “buzzword” that often brings up negative connotations, he feels differently about it, believing that regardless of where we are from, we are connected through nature.

“One of the things that we all share, regardless of what demographic category we label, we all live on this planet,” Padgett said.

“We all drink the water, we all eat the food that comes from here. And that’s the one thing that connects all of us…When you’re in the garden, the plants aren’t going to look at you and judge you based on your race, class, gender, ethnicity.”

Padgett has often applied these beliefs to his research. In one project with a local school, he had students grow some crops divided by their geographic origin, and other crops related to Alabama, in order to show how people are connected despite their
differences. In another, students planted peanuts – a famous crop in Alabama – and researched their origins in the slave trade, discovering that they were originally brought over by enslaved Africans.

“When we start remembering the stories and the people behind it, it becomes a little more meaningful,” Padgett said.

His most recent work combining multiculturalism and ecopedagogy, though, came in the form of a ten-minute TEDx Talk. Padgett’s TEDx Talk resulted from a grueling year-long process full of applications, interviews, and practices, and it culminated in a speech that truly captures his beliefs.

Throughout the talk, he reiterates one crucial point: “The world seems like such a divided place… Sometimes something as simple as a garden can help us remember all the ways in which we are connected.”

Focusing on how issues like intergenerational trauma, depression, and alcohol and drug abuse affect today’s students, Padgett brought up examples of how nature can both bridge the divide between people and give students a sense of belonging in their community. He said we are more connected than we realize, but that “We just don’t recognize it sometimes.”

He finishes his talk with five things to do in order to bring people together: become less aware of the labels that separate us, pass down gardening expertise to the next generation, support STEM and STEAM programs, buy local, and teach children where their food comes from.

On what inspired his TEDx Talk, though, Padgett does not immediately reference studies or his research. Instead, he said, he wanted to talk about something that would be meaningful to his own children.

“For me the solution was going back to the earth and gardening and finding ways to build a sense of community,” Padgett said. The talk was also influenced by research from Japan and Scandinavia, which has demonstrated the benefits of ecotherapy on mental health.

“ If you go out there and you’re interacting with the soil and the land and you’re interacting with each other, the epigenetic research shows that we can start to heal our own genetic trauma,” Padgett said. “I’m not saying it’s an overnight change, but it’s a step that I can take to help me to improve those things.”

However, beyond the benefits of gardening, of supporting STEM or doing research, Padgett hopes people take one key thing away from his TEDx Talk: Teach the children.

“Even if you have no background in any of these categories, teach the next generation what you do know,” Padgett said. “And that sense of connectedness is what’s going to allow our children to see that they belong to the community, which will raise their self esteem but also encourage them to contribute to their community and not cause harm to society.”

Gary Padgett is many things – a father, a mentor, a scholar, a servant to his community. A pillar of the education department, and a professor working each day to help UNA’s mini Einsteins, Shakespeares, and Kennedys grow and flourish as educators.

Despite all of this, according to Padgett, he is just “a simple guy who does his best thinking in the garden.”

But students and faculty here at UNA think he is much, much more