Nature Deficit Disorder

undefined

It’s no secret that among kids, outdoor activities in the natural environment have taken a back seat to television, video games, the computer, and a demanding schoolwork and extracurricular schedule. As a result, there is an increasing disconnect between them and nature. Richard Louv, author of ‘Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder’, argues that as our kids become more and more enslaved by a sedentary lifestyle, it becomes even more paramount to set them free in the outdoors, and let their imaginations do the work. I am happy that our son Florian enjoys time in nature, like here with his friend Sadie Jenkins, drifting down Peterson Creek on an ice floe near Outer Point on Douglas Island. Besides the obvious health benefits of playing outdoors, we hope that by fostering an appreciation for the natural world around him through unstructured play Florian will learn to care about the environment. Because how could he grow up into an adult citizen who advocates for the natural world if he has no direct knowledge of it?

Share

5 comments

email a friend

John McWhorter - I used to worry my kids would have that, but then I found the Nature Channel. They sit down in front of the tube and “experience” nature for hours. Plus, they never track dirt into the house! ;-)
Seriously, that is a frightening condition. And completely unnecessary. Just the other day a woman asked me to get rid of the bees gathering pollen in the hedgerow. I explained that bees are important to sustaining life. And they make honey. She didn’t care. Her kid was afraid of bees and so was she. (sigh)

Good for you for letting Florian practice supervised risk.

Brad - Charming shot Laurent. Discouragingly, many kids would be petrified even just looking at that picture so it is a perfect poster for challenging children’s familiarity with, and attitude toward, the outdoors.
And bravo for your pleasant underuse of the too-ubiquitous comma! This picture reminds me of a visit to Brian & Sherry’s fishcamp on the Yukon with my son Christopher. We’d have the kids don their PFDs and shove them off the end of the island into the Yukon’s current, wait an hour or so, and then go and fetch them out of an all-collecting eddy five miles downriver.

Wade Willis - That picture perfectly captures your essay … not only are they adrift on a small shrinking island … they appear to have not a care in the world … fascination rules the day .. not a bit of fear – or even an hint that it even exists.

Franz - We are incredibly lucky to live in a place where NDD is (or at least should be) exceedingly rare! Others are less fortunate, but nevertheless have opportunities to experience nature on a small scale. John Clarke started a program in Surrey (BC) to take elementary school kids to vacant lots in the city to learn about plants and animals that most of them had never seen or touched.

Vicki Jenkins - (Sadie’s grandmother) What a big beautiful empty world they’re growing up in! Lucky kids. Great shot, Laurent, you captured that wonderful afternoon.

Your email is never published or shared.