![A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [German]](http://www.adbusters.org/files/magazine/teaser/flag_german_guardian.png?1317158933 "A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [German]")
“Every child,” wrote pioneer botanist Luther Burbank, “should have mud pies, grasshoppers, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pinecones, rocks to roll, snakes, huckleberries and hornets. And any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.”
In our education-obsessed culture, elite kids play piano and speak three languages by the age of four, but just about every North American kid is deprived. In one of the greatest retreats ever, children are vanishing from a critical piece of territory: their own backyards.
And there isn’t a kid on the planet who knows what a huckleberry is, other than a character in a Mark Twain book.
For the average kid only spends 30 minutes a day outside, an amount that shrinks yearly. In this brave new world of Facebook and YouTube, Twitter and Google, iPod and Wii, kids are tuned in to technology, and kindergartners start school with 5,000 hours of TV under their belts.
Typical tweens put in a 40-hour week – a virtual full-time job – watching screens: TV, laptop, cell phone, and so on. They can name dozens of corporate logos and celebrities on sight – Lady Gaga! Justin Bieber! The cast from Glee! – but they cannot name three animals that live in their neighborhood, or three plants.
A first grader can sing every lyric of “Bad Romance,” God help us, but has no idea what a chickadee sounds like.
Adults are colluding in this retreat. Our school system has chained kids to their desks, number 2 pencils glued to their hands. If a kid is outside playing sports, it’s not a pickup game in the sandlot but a league organized by overzealous parents carpooling kids endlessly from one game to the next.
And the geographic world they wander is collapsing like a black hole into their laptops; the typical kid today roams a world only one-ninth the size a child of the ‘70s did. I wandered Long Island’s rapidly decreasing pine forests in the ‘60s, biking and hiking unthinkable distances, alone and with friends, with neither a cell phone nor a dime to make a call. Because inside our houses were the adults, and who wanted to be there? Every last child was outside, in the street, in the yard, on the corner, at the 7-Eleven.
But letting kids go into a forest alone today is unthinkable, heretical. Remember that kid who was allowed to take the train in New York alone? “Child abuse!” we screamed at his parents. Even my own kids, raised by me, a naturalist, have never been allowed to go unattended into a forest. I am always there: stranger danger, ticks and West Nile have all taken their toll, even on me.
This radical retreat from the great outdoors, now called “nature-deficit disorder,” a phrase coined by journalist Richard Louv in his groundbreaking book Last Child in the Woods, is the greatest health catastrophe facing Western kids.
Ever.
Asthma rates are climbing. Attention-deficit disorders are through the roof. Obesity rates skyrocket; diabetes, linked to weight, soaring. Kids who watch too much TV don’t physically move, change the working of their brains and even eat more poorly than other children; there is a distinct inverse relationship between TV use and the amount of vegetables in one’s diet. This next generation might not live as long as their parents.
At the same time, numerous studies indicate kids are physically and mentally healthier if they spend time outdoors and in nature. They calm down when surrounded by green, which seems to ameliorate their ADD. And free play outside lets children develop social skills they can’t get from tube-watching (or from playing sports under adult supervision), and their skills are more age-appropriate as well.
Here’s the kicker: Studies indicate that learning through nature-based programs helps kids score higher on standardized tests. Want your kid to go to Harvard? Have her study outdoors.
But change is blowing in the wind. Louv’s book, the first-ever environmental education bestseller, jump-started an international movement that gave birth to a web site, the Children and Nature Network. Places as disparate as nature centers and urban parks are unveiling natural playscapes: areas where kids can linger and climb rocks, play with sticks, push sand and gravel around, get muddy – do lots of delicious nothing. Nature preschools are becoming popular, too, as places where toddlers spend quality time outdoors. Even middle schools are developing nature-based curricula where the bulk of the student’s school day is given to studying the environment to integrate math, language and social studies into the real world.
In the United States, some 1,600 NGOs representing 50 million people have organized into a No Child Left Inside coalition, a spin on the Bush-era name for his education bill, lobbying Obama for statewide environmental literacy plans that include children spending quality time outdoors.
But it’s a long climb, for culture is the very air our children breathe, and culture conspires to convince kids that everything important can be found in that little box. We’ve seduced children indoors.
Now childhood itself is an endangered species. If we are going to save either the environment or our children, we have to take a surprisingly simple but very radical first step.
End the Great Green Retreat. Unplug our kids and kick them outside. To play. And hear chickadees. And find huckleberries.
Writer-naturalist Mike Weilbacher directs a nature center near Philadelphia.
Yes kids go outside and play
Yes kids go outside and play in those quiet, uninhabited, unrelentingly boring suburban streets...surrounded by rows and rows of the same damn house with unblinking window eyes and gaping garage mouths, fat on late model cars and your perfect family...everything a calming tone of beige.
What the fuck is a huckleberry man, seriously? Jesus when I was a kid I was lucky to find a construction site I could sneak into while lying to my parents, cause they were so high on news stations they were scared I would die a block away from my house.
Reality of actually playing outside:
Lost in your imagination until 10
School wears you down by 14
By 16 all you do is watch TV for the next new thing
Here's an activity for you kids, go outside and burn your fucking houses and schools to the ground.
I only partially agree with
I only partially agree with this. It is good that its being acknowledged that children don't spend as much time outside. At the same time it isnt as safe as it used to be. You used to be able to go anywhere and your neighbors and sometimes perfect strangers were still watching out for you. Now everyone stays to their own and there isn't the same sense of community between people. How can we expect our children to feel comfortable to explore their surroundings when we worry that we don't even know who our neighbors are and end up staring down their necks.. Its a change in culture that we need to make this possible.
So I find this article while
So I find this article while mindlessly 'stumbling' and i think this is so true! Kids should go outside more! Then I realize that I myself, a fifteen year old girl, has been staring at a computer screen for over an hour. I mean, I get plenty of exercise (I run cross country) but I still spend far too much time on the computer/cell phone/tv now a days. I need to go embrace my inner child much more.
things change. deal.
things change. deal.
I completely agree. I'm 16
I completely agree. I'm 16 and I live in London, UK, and even though my parents always told me about how they'd just get on their bike and go wherever they wanted when they were 8, 9 years old, I wasn't even allowed to get on the tube alone until I was 11- and I lied to my dad saying my mum let me to even do that.
I was never very sporty, but as soon as I was allowed to I'd go explore everywhere I could- I begged until my mum let me go for a 3 day walk on my own, walked to school so I could use my money for the bus to get on the tube to get as far away from London as possible.
And yeah, there WERE creepy guys in the park etc, but to be honest, I was probably still safer then my parents, neither of whom were raped or murdered. If anything, I was safer then at school, where a teacher got raped by a pupil. And probably less likely to be raped and murdered then to get some obesity related illness. I'd much rather be gyll scrambling(climbing waterfalls) or making fires then watching Britain's Got Tallent. I kind of feel I was deprived of that, because now I'm an adult, and I have to go to college, then uni then work. I'll never have that much free time again...
I agree with this article.
I agree with this article. our kids don't know where their water comes from
I am a teenager and I have to
I am a teenager and I have to agree with this article. I would read books like Tom Sawyer and wished that my parents would let me out of the house to explore the park by my neighborhood on my own, or wander around and pretend that I was Tom, hiding in caves and finding adventure. The world is a different place, though, and a walk through the woods meant I was on my mother's metaphorical leash and was constantly reminded to reapply sunscreen and bug spray. My father was a bit more liberal in his approach, and we often went on hikes, where he would teach me the names of birds and plants, but in general, I was confined to the indoors.
I am kept to the computer by homework, writing ten page papers on the characterization of Hamlet, or the allure of comedy over YouTube, and instead of watching apples fall from trees I am at my desk, deriving the velocity at which the apple fell. It's sad to think that the world has come to this. I'm hoping that reforms in the future will change that. Unfortunately, that's the responsibility of my generation, not our parents', and if we do not know nature, how are we to teach it to our children?
well put. i completely agree
well put. i completely agree with everything you said.
It is true that the Waldorf
It is true that the Waldorf system steers heavily towards nature but it is also very christian in a scary patriarchal way (evangelic). We have been seriously considering Montessori school.
Dear Mr. Weilbacher, I
Dear Mr. Weilbacher,
I completely agree with everything you say. There is a complete mis-sense of humanity and realism in today's society. Too much for even Kant and Nietzsche to sort out maybe?
But the source of this problem is want: people wanted their kids to see the invention of television so we watched, people wanted their kids to be smarter so we read and people wanted their kids to experience social enlightening so we called, texted and even invented our own language.
Bur Mr Weilbacher all you are asking is more of the youngest youth. There is so much pressure that children don't notice but feel all you are doing, and alike many others, is applying more.
If there is not books to read there are shows to watch if not that texts or calls to recieve/send if not that healthy living to acquire and now if not that you want to guilt parents into forcing their children outside? Well I sincrely hope that one day the older generation, including myself, fuck off for once and allow this youth to grow, preferably outdoors, in the preferences they adore.
Thanks,
Dave
i'm a teenager myself and I
i'm a teenager myself and I never listen to crap like lady gaga or justin bieber, and I'm not the only one.
but that's not the point of the article.
why should I go outside if I can't find any mud pies, grasshoppers, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pinecones, rocks to roll, snakes, huckleberries and hornets?
not because I can't recognice them, but because there ain't any!
well, that's not true, there are trees to climb here, and frogs, and some berries, but thats all.
and yes I DO climb trees and I like to be outside, but there isn't very much time, or opportunity.
besides all these new things (ipad, wii etc), I think THAT's the reason why children spend most of time inside.
If I have children in the future, they will certainly be outside and all the thinks mentioned in the article.
besides, nice I've learned to speak english, otherwise I wouldn't be able to express my opinie in his world.
laura
This is bullshit. I myself
This is bullshit. I myself am a teenager, and I spend many hours a week on a computer, and significantly fewer watching TV. I am perfectly capable of identifying plants and animals, and I enjoy the great outdoors, and I spend several hours a week outside also. I'd tend to agree that many of my fellow teenagers don't go outside enough, but if they don't want to, nobody should make them. Maybe making an attempt to show one's children the charms of being outside, but as a parent-making your kid going outside for no apparent reason will simply make them hate you.
You fail to see the point of
You fail to see the point of the article. While you may be able to name the plants outdoors you must also admit that the consumerist world we live in has created a insurmountable separation between the natural world and the artificial world. After all, who can make any money off of a day spent at the park when you can buy an xbox 360 and escape into a virtual world that has "photorealistic" graphics meant to mimic the real world.
The kids today are seduced by brands and logos at the very age when their brains are still developing. That means that, rather than create the critical social skills by getting hands-on experience with nature, they are convinced to stay and home and experience their world through mediums which are carefully controlled and filtered by the corporate world. Rather than attempt to figure things out on their own and explore they are thought to stop exploring and passively accept whatever the industry wants them too. No wonder we have increasing numbers of ADD!
Please stop focusing on the details of the article and attempt to get the main gist.
Waldorf schools provide the
Waldorf schools provide the environment for healthy learning - no media policies, nature walks with classes every week, playtime (more than 1 hour) each day regardless of the weather, and healthy snacks (quinoa, oatmeal, veggie soup, etc.). People think it can't happen in a school - but we have one in Nashville, TN that proves it can - and it makes such a difference. Kids play and use their imagination instead of imitating what they've seen on TV. Kids talk to each other and explore nature, paint, draw and sing.
This is true, but Waldorf
This is true, but Waldorf schools also don't allow children to use the color black until something like 3rd grade. They indoctrinate them to believe that their Leader is perfect.
There are good things about Waldorf, don't get me wrong. But the underlying bad turns me away from them. I'd rather go Montessori.
In the comments I have read
In the comments I have read so far I have found no one aware of the implications of the Montessori movement for this ability to learn direct from 3-D and sensual and interactive (live!) Nature. But it may require the children and families and communities involved to get rid of their TVs. I hear that a healthy child needs one hour in free play to "excrete" the false authority of one hour of TV. The discussion might begin there. Comments?
Oh so true. I had such a
Oh so true. I had such a childhood in rural India. My two sisters and I and the four children of our staff played with frogs, watched dragon flies, butterflies, snakes and many other wonderful creatues of nature. My mother kept cows and buffaloes at home and we had a pet dog. We had a pond in our yard where every evening all the chldren and the dog would jump in. We shared the pond with fish and tadpoles. It was such fun. I agree...we need to get the children OUT of th house.
Whenever I find myself in the
Whenever I find myself in the forest, no matter how anxious I was before, I find peace and serenity with the trees, especially with a good book.
The artical is correct in all
The artical is correct in all its content, relevant and carrying an important message: however I can't see it being a message that is carried, and I don't think a de-socialising snowball affect being carried down our future generations can be avoided. Our future is going to be bleak: our brains engaged with the media system that tries to satisfy our needs with television to suit different moods, and telling us where to spend our money. Oversimplified I know, but I didn't find this a motivating artical at all, I'm envisioning a future with exceedingly wayward attempts for the management of mental health states, less care for anything other than the satisfaction of self, and an environment irrevocably damaged.
i get your point. creating
i get your point. creating nature-loving clubs and a nature hour once a week or two does not a naturally informed childhood make. spending chunks of time playing in the dirt, climbing trees and collecting things cannot be an organized event -- it's about making a daily habit of just *being* a kid in nature . . . it's possible, and simple, but not something that can be done as a club . . . maybe done as a part of environmental planning (parks and wilderness areas) . . .
Our future is what we create
Our future is what we create it to be. We can only affect change in our individual scope of influence on a personal level. Engage your children or relatives children in a way that will make them want to explore the world or to question why things in nature happen, it's up to US. I'm not saying it's going to get better or there is a way to stop the "de-socialising snowball affect" in all future generations, however you CAN stop it in your children and ones close to you through your actions.
Quite possibly one of the
Quite possibly one of the best articles Adbusters has put out in a while
"Remember that kid who was
"Remember that kid who was allowed to take the train in New York alone?" That mom who let her son ride the train is Lenore Skenazy - that incident and the ensuing publicity led her to start freerangekids (http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ ), a very popular grassroots support group for parents who advocate freedom and personal responsibility for their kids.
You don't find it even a tiny
You don't find it even a tiny bit ironic to post this on the internet?
while ironic, it is the
while ironic, it is the biggest way to draw a message in the dirt.
Yeah, what sell outs! They
Yeah, what sell outs! They should have taken the time to write it down on paper and mailed it to every single one of us! Sellouts! Of course, that would have killed tree's, been horribly unpractical, and you would have responded with, "Why didn't you just post this on Adbusters?" Still, we should criticize the irony of posting this on the internet instead of debating the intent of the article.
I took a semester-long class
I took a semester-long class called "Children and Nature" when I first started college, and we read Louv's book. Quite an eye opener. Anyone interested in this topic may also want to consider reading "Emile" by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Even in the 1760's this guy knew his stuff.
An important thing to consider is that children can have as much or more fun bushwhacking, adventuring, playing in the mud, and just following their curiosities as children in the outdoors than on a carefully laid out plastic playground. All the Earth can be a playground.
I would also like to quickly mention that technology should not be demonized, but rather dealt with in a way that allows one to get the benefits of the grand modern advances we have made yet still holds on to the roots of our ancestry.
Noooooooooooooo I don't want
Noooooooooooooo I don't want to go outside! I'm nourished by the loving glow of my screen.
Great book, "Last Child in
Great book, "Last Child in the Woods", addresses this issue with more depth and provides resources and strategies for parents. Check it.
I grew up in a typical
I grew up in a typical concrete jungle city but forced my dad to take me to parks to catch butterflies and whatnot. I treasure that part of my childhood the most, and every kid should too! Great article.