#naturedeficitdisorder

A wonderful read discussing the issues surrounding the lack of nature in the lives of children today. There are not only less and less spaces for children to play in nature but there is less of an appreciation for nature in general. Where are the days when children would play outside on there own for hours and only come home when the sun went down? Children are glued to technology, parents fear the for their children’s safety, nature is disappearing and becoming something trendy. What affect is this having on children? Why do they need nature in their lives? How can we implement these ideas into our teaching? 

“She was one of those exceptional children who do still spend time outside, in solitude. In her case nature represented beauty - and refuge. "It's so peaceful out there and the air smells so good. I mean, it's polluted, but not as much as the city air. For me, it's completely different there," she said. "It's like you're free when you go out there. It's your own time. Sometimes I go there when I'm mad - and then, just with the peacefulness, I'm better. I can come back home happy, and my mom doesn't even know why."     Then she described her special part of the woods.     "I had a place. There was a big waterfall and a creek on one side of it. I'd dug a big hole there, and sometimes I'd take a tent back there, or a blanket, and just lie down in the hole, and look up at the trees and sky. Sometimes I'd fall asleep back there. I just felt free; it was like my place, and I could do what I wanted, with nobody to stop me. I used to go down there almost every day."     The young poet's face flushed. Her voice thickened.     "And then they just cut the woods down. It was like they cut down part of me.” -Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods. 

“An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.” -Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods. 

“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”-Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods. 

“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.” - Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods.