Leave No Rock Unturned In the Name of Learning

By Sara Kaplaniak

08/18/2009

With school days approaching, I am appreciating how work and home life slow down during summer. There's time to hop on the bike, wade in the creek and experiment in the garden. These short, sweet summer months provide a feeling of freedom, serving as a respite from schoolwork, ballgames, recitals and other commitments that keep my family busy the rest of the year. Now, as the calendar fills up with scribbles, it's a sentiment I'd like to hold on to regardless of the season.

I suspect this feeling of freedom occurs because the fresh air and relaxed pace rejuvenate my family, especially my two young children, a notion that was confirmed when a professional assignment led me to the work of author, journalist and child advocate Richard Louv.

In his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, Louv compiles a growing body of research and anecdotal evidence to support his theory that the absence of nature in many children's lives can be linked with diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses including obesity and depression. Louv's work is supported by studies concluding that young children in the U.S. spend more than two hours a day just in front of the T.V. - more with additional forms of media - but only about 4 minutes a day of unstructured time outdoors.

According to Louv, not only can more exposure to nature treat, even prevent, many of today's ailments, it can enhance physical, emotional and intellectual health. In fact, unstructured play in the great outdoors provides an ideal setting for children to take initiative, solve problems and use their imagination. Also important to an environmentalist like myself, regular access to green spaces has a marked influence on the degree to which children will appreciate and take care of the Earth's lands and waters in the future.

Louv's work has not gone unnoticed. In fact, it sparked the creation of an international No Child Inside Coalition that includes nearly 1,400 environmental, education, business, public health, and faith-based organizations collectively representing 50 million citizens. It's a movement that's gaining steam in its advocacy for environmental and outdoor education programs, including in the halls of Congress where Maryland Representative John Sarbanes introduced the No Child Left Inside Act.

If passed, the legislation would amend the federal No Child Left Behind Act to support outdoor and environmental education in schools and in non-formal educational settings in hopes that children will gain well-rounded instruction about the world's limited natural resources. Supporters of the legislation also believe the bill's passage would prepare a new generation for meeting environmental, energy, and economic and national security challenges awaiting them as they grow into adults. Similar bills have been introduced within state legislatures around the country.

While legislation may be one approach to redirecting this "screen generation" from televisions, laptops and hand-held electronic devices, it may not be ideal in the nation's current climate where economic crises and international conflicts dominate funding. Fostering a "land ethic" (a term coined by the famous conservationist Aldo Leopold in 1949) among a new generation can't be taught only in a classroom setting. It requires getting outside, moving around and exercising all of the senses. It requires a cultural change that begins at home.

I need look no farther than my front yard to know this is true. That's where my kids turn over the rocks I hope might one day serve as a permanent border for the trees, shrubs and flower beds surrounding my house. In the meantime, the rocks rarely stay in one place, for they shelter an irresistable array of slugs, worms and other creepy, crawly things. Few things give me more joy than when my kids choose this pastime of leaving no rock unturned in lieu of sitting in front of the television. Now Louv has confirmed what in my heart, I already knew, that this simple activity also benefits their body and mind.

Would I be thrilled to learn that the local school's curriculum included more emphasis on connecting environmental stewardship and management with other subjects in school? Sure. But truly it falls to me, and to other parents and caregivers, to unplug and encourage kids to build a fort instead of playing a video game, skip stones instead of surfing the internet and cast a fishing line instead of sending text messages. It may even mean forgoing a scheduled, structured activity in the name of old-fashioned, outdoor play.

If it means capturing a little more of the peace and freedom felt during summer, count me in. Just let me get my calendar so that I can pencil some of it in&hellip.