Solving Nature-Deficit Disorder in Minneapolis
I read Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder last week. I'd probably have read it when it first came out except that the term "nature-deficit disorder" put me off. (Does everything have to be a disease? Good grief.) But I'd heard good things about it, and when I saw it at the library I checked it out.
Louv's point is pretty straightforward: kids need to spend a lot of time outside, they specifically need to have lots of opportunities for unstructured play in a natural setting (by which he means, woods and creeks and prairies rather than playgrounds and mowed playing fields), and when they don't get this, bad stuff happens. Both to the health of the kids (when they don't spend time outside, their risk of depression skyrockets, along with other mental and physical health problems), to their education (their understanding of science is hampered when they've never spent time staring at an anthill and then poking it with a stick to see what happens, or picking wildflowers, or climbing trees), and to society at large (why fight to preserve an environment you've barely interacted with?)
He's a forceful and compelling writer, but the thing that struck home the most was that I was vividly reminded of how much I loved to play in natural areas as a kid. On the playground at Wingra School, there were two enormously overgrown yew bushes, which became houses and forts and all sorts of other things when we played in them at recess. My yard included a tree I could climb, and my house backed up against a railroad embankment with a fabulous wild area beyond (which I wasn't allowed to wander around alone as a young child, but did explore fairly thoroughly as a teen). I'm pretty good at getting Molly and Kiera outside, at least during the summer, but we usually go to a playground. Which I'm sure Louv would say is better than staying inside, but is not quite what he's talking about.
I had already resolved to try to explore the wilder parks around town a lot more this summer, and then, for extra encouragement, I picked up some "Adventure Logs" from REI on Sunday. The outdoor gear store equivalent of a library's summer reading program, the Adventure Logs include blanks to fill in for ten "adventures," with details like the weather, the distance traveled, and the kid's favorite parts. After their first adventure, the kids can tear out a postcard and send it in to REI and they'll get a whistle with a built-in compass or something nifty like that.
It's been raining for about the last two weeks, but today was gorgeous: blue sky, light breezes, warm but moderate temperatures. I told Kiera that after we picked Molly up at the bus stop, we were going to have an adventure.
( Read more... )
The girls filled in details in their little REI Adventure Log booklets after we got home. Molly's favorite part was falling into the creek.
