Taken from Eclectic Gardener @ http://www.teachinggarden.org/
written by Alan R Hickman

Nobody likes criticism, least of all me, and that is why I make a point of not reading Peel Teaching Garden course evaluations until the fall.

Months after the last class in April, when the exertions of teaching are a distant memory, I don't get so defensive about negative comments.

Not that there have really been many boo's to get all huffy about.

In practice, it's necessary to go to come lengths to get people to express any sort of dissatisfaction at all.

In their write-ups, students are told not to include their names or anything which might identify them, and the submitted originals are retyped so it is only the transcripts that I eventually get to see.

Because student satisfaction is fundamental to the survival of PTG, at the first class each year, attendees are told that they will be asked for a final evaluation and it's suggested that they make a few notes at the end of each session so they can remember: What they liked, what they didn't like, and what they wanted more of.

Since the first winter gardening course in 2004, each subsequent course has been shaped by the content of the previous year's reviews.

The one constant them, 'Give us more', has resulted in the original four, monthly two-hour classes from January to April, morphing into eight, two and a half hour semi-monthly, classes plus - as soon as the frost leaves the ground - an inserted outdoor group gardening session. See www.teachinggarden.org for the 2011 program.

Despite more than doubling the number of classes, what was requested again this year? More seminars because I don't want the education to stop."

Common themes are easy enough to accommodate but what to do when opinions differ?

"I really enjoy it when Alan goes off topic and takes us on a journey...."
"I wish Alan wouldn't go off on tangents - unless of course I'm the one who asked the question!"
"Alan should try to stay on one topic at a time."
"Alan has a way of surprising me in how he approaches his subjects that keeps me engaged."

Presentation style is one thing, but how might one reconcile: "My favourite class was the one on soil." with "....A lot of emphasis was put on soil...I think a handout with websites might suffice."

As any politician soon discovers, nobody really can please all of the people all of the time.

The best one can do is to stay true to some basic set of principles and objectives, and hope to engage, surprise, or at least amuse, most of the people most of the time.

PTG was conceived as a place where home gardeners of all degrees of experience could gain the knowledge which is almost never included in run-of-the-mill gardening books or magazines.

Publishers have a target audience for their products and editors leave out all the stuff that 'everybody knows' and that their readers are deemed 'too stupid to understand.'

In reality, everybody does not know the difference between a spade and a shovel or for what to use each took, and, if someone will only take the time to explain, most gardeners are quite capable of understanding why a PH of 7 is considered neutral.

From the evaluations, at least some students have clearly understood what the course was all about.

"This is where you learn what books cannot teach you."
"The money I have needlessly spent in my past gardening experiences gives me shudders of horror."
"If when I started out, someone had told me what I have learned at these classes, I'd have saved thirty years of expense and frustration."

Of course, anything laudatory is a good aid for self preening, but my all-time favourite comment is: "Like no other course I have ever taken."

Good, Bad, or indifferent it doesn't say, but it was clearly a memorable experience.

Gardening and learning about gardening should not be a chore so perhaps the last comment should go to the person who wrote: "I hope you enjoyed having us in class as much as I enjoyed being there."

I probably did, and I hope that those who came to learn gained even half as much knowledge as I gained by teaching.

High Temperature:
Actual: -7°C mostly cloudy Wind W24km/h P.O.P.10%
Average: 1°C
Record: 14°C in 1984

Low Temperature:
Actual: -13°C partly cloudy flurries .30cm Wind WSW22km/h P.O.P.10%
Average: -7°C
Record: -22°C in 1980