Zürisee School

6 June 2024

Hombrechtikon, Switzerland

Today, Elisabeth Traunbauer and Christian Michael visited Zürisee School on behalf of Friendship with Nature (#FwN). When we arrived at the car park, the headteacher, Muran Müller, was already there to welcome us and showed us where we could ‘park’. Some of the schoolchildren were already eyeing us up with curiosity and anticipation.

First look around the grounds: We walked with Muran Müller through the school’s own vegetable garden, which had been laid out using permaculture principles and was teeming with lush vegetable plants.

Behind the school building, we found a beautiful red maple tree and several wild roses. We will visit the maple tree again later in the workshop, as it holds special significance for the pupils. We packed up our equipment and made our way to the second floor of the school building, under the roof. Right from the first few steps of the staircase, we were met with words and phrases such as courage, community, hope, self-confidence, and the like.

Arrival time here is from 8 to 9 am; the children and the headteacher were very relaxed and greeted us warmly. At 9 am, all the pupils gathered in front of the school in the morning sun for the morning circle to start the day together, shouting “barefoot!”, “barefoot!”, “barefoot!”. Most of the children and the teacher were barefoot, but some preferred to take part in shoes; this was respected. Meanwhile, we set up our things and chose an orchid for making music, which was standing in the bathroom. A sign hung on the bathroom mirror: “You are beautiful!”

At 9.15 am, we began the introductory workshop. We all sat in a circle on sheepskins, with the plant musician in the middle. Sitting next to me was a pupil of about seven years old, who immediately spoke to me boldly and offered to fetch a talking stone. No sooner said than done: we passed the stone round the circle, and everyone introduced themselves briefly. I was amazed at how even the youngest had the courage to introduce themselves. They seemed very self-assured and respectful; some said they were really looking forward to hearing the music of the plants.

After I had explained the theoretical background to plant music to the pupils, aged between 6 and 17, there was great interest, and the children and teenagers asked lots of questions. At around 10:00 am, we then took a snack break.

We had a broth with breadcrumbs and fresh vegetables, no fruit, as experience had shown that fruit and sweets would significantly reduce performance levels until lunchtime.

Refreshed, we all gathered in a circle again, and I fetched the plant music equipment from the next room and connected the electrodes to the plant. At first, the plant made music very tentatively. The pupils had the idea of singing a song together, whereupon the plant played louder and with more variation.

We then divided the pupils into age groups, and the youngest were allowed to interact with the plant first.

One boy rapped, the girls touched the plant’s flowers and leaves and moistened the orchid’s aerial roots. Meanwhile, the older children put their impressions down on paper with coloured pencils to the sounds of another orchid.

The middle age group had some very creative ideas about how they wanted to test the plant’s reaction.

One boy fetched a drum, and then everyone drummed something for the plant for a minute.

The oldest pupils played different genres of music to the plant via smartphone, such as pop, heavy metal and Mozart, and were amazed to discover that the plant reacted to them: