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"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.
...Publisher Comments |
