ABSTRACT
A 6-year old boy named Matthew visited the Arboretum with his school group to learn
about landscape design. Landscape design is a big topic for such a small boy, but there
was no hesitation on his part to experience and learn. He studied the hills closely
—running up and rolling down to get a sense of the topography. He studied planting
formations by lying under the tall pines at the top of a hill and peering through them as
they framed the sky. He heard and felt the river as it rushed over stones. Throughout the
walk Matthew collected twigs, pebbles, and fallen leaves and then, sitting in the middle of
the open valley, was asked to imagine his own landscape, and with the items be collected,
some PlayDoh and markers create a landscape on a plate. Matthew created his own ideal
place of hills, trees, rivers, waterfalls, and bridges on a paper plate with seed pods for
boats. Matthew’s landscape included a very important element that was not overtly taught
in the lesson-himself He was integral to the landscape be was just experiencing. He
placed himself as an object within an object.
