Here is the vast, savage, howling mother of ours,
Nature, lying all around, with
such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we
are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is
exclusively an interaction of man on man.
- Henry David Thoreau
I feel quite fortunate that I stumbled across an article by
Richard Louv entitled, Get Your Mind
Dirty from the June 2011 edition of Outside
Magazine, as the content of the piece made me realize how essential the
natural world is to the overall health of our children. It also made me become conscious of the
fact that we, as parents, spend so much time and effort laboring over decisions
regarding education, when the natural world has proven time and again to be a
grand educator. As stated by Saint
Bernard, “You will find something more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that
which you can never learn from masters.”
Nature, if we permit her to, teaches our children
everything from: colors, to shapes, to the changing seasons, the beauty of life
cycles, the fundamental and the more advanced skills that at one time used to
be innate in all of us. Education should expand beyond the traditional
classroom with lessons to behold around every corner of the organic world. Providing our children with the
opportunity to step outside and explore the natural world is a gift that not
only enhances intellectual growth but also allows a child to run free, the way
children should.
Due to the way in which society is shaped today, children
spend far less time outside as in previous years. Louv believes that because
all of life is “rooted in nature,” that the “separation from it desensitizes
and diminishes us.” Louv goes on
to explain that nature aids in learning for children, and boosts physiological
and physical health. And if that
isn’t enough to encourage every parent to get their child outdoors, the latest
string of evidence shows that exposure to the outside world can even enhance a
child’s’ intelligence citing that some of the greatest minds (Einstein and
Gödel) took time each day to ramble in the woods.
After completing the article, I was prompted to quickly
purchase Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods. In his 2005 book, he coined the phrase,
“Nature – Deficit Disorder," which he
uses to describe the “growing gap between children and nature.” The book is complete with seven parts
devoted to the importance of nature in the lives of our children. At the
conclusion of the book, Louv provides a list of future reading on similar topics
and a creative action list on ways in which children and adults can make the
most of their time outdoors.
For parents interested in either the article or book, both
provide further research and benefits associated with children spending time
outside and less time “plugged in” to games, TV and the Internet, revealing that
a balance must be found between the electronic world and the natural
world. With that said, we are
quite fortunate, as Switzerland is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts with a
plethora of well-marked trails, forest schools, and playgroups located in the woods.
Not to mention the vast array of green space. Our children can spend time
frolicking and exploring the world around them, all the while absorbing the
benefits from the great outdoors.
But of those benefits cited by Louv including: increased senses,
heightened creativity, the way in which nature can heal, the ability to think
more clearly, physical health benefits, those that stood out the most were: the
creative freedom supplied in abundance to our children and the ability for
nature to teach our children.. Breathing
fresh air, free exploration, discovery, wonder and awe are all gifts we can
provide our children by simply stepping outside. There is something magical about observing a child when he
or she is free to roam, for a child can find joy in the smallest of
discoveries, hope in the flight of a bird and sheer bliss in the muddy depth of
a freshly formed puddle.
