| “I like to
play indoors better ’cause
that’s where all the electrical outlets are,”
reports a fourth grader.
But it’s not only computers, television, and video games that
are keeping
kids inside. It’s also their parents’ fears of
traffic, strangers, Lyme
disease, and West Nile virus; their schools’ emphasis on more
and more
homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to
natural
areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even
organizations
devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on
many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime.
As children’s
connections to nature
diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications
become
apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for
such maladies as depression, obesity, and attentiondeficit disorder.
Environment-based
education dramatically improves standardized test scores and
grade-point
averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and
decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood
experiences
in nature stimulate creativity.
|
In Last
Child in the Woods,
Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious
leaders,
child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the
threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in
which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply
— and find the joy of family connectedness in the process. |
|
Last
Child in the
Woods
Saving
Our Children
from Nature-Deficit Disorder
by
Richard Louv
Algonquin
Books of
Chapel Hill, 2005
Order
a copy.
Reviewed
in The Nature Pages
|
