Where will people go, after the garden is gone?
What will people know, after the garden?
-Neil Young, Living with War
Happy Children in Nature month, people! I know April is half over, but with Earth Day week coming, there's going to be a lot more news about this.
Environmental educators have never been known as power brokers, but a groundswell of movement has been taking place over the past year or so, partly inspired by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. Educators, state and federal land management agencies, scouting organizations and a sizable assortment of genuine Birkenstock-wearing liberals are all coming together with a single common cause: getting kids to play outside. This seems like a simple proposition, and a relatively minor one, traditionally the province of mean moms like myself, but on closer inspection it turns out to be critically important.
The block quotes are all from the National Park Service's Children in Nature Initiative:
Our children are less connected to the natural world than at any other time in history. The implications of this, particularly for their physical and mental health, are immense.
People have limited contact with natural environments.
This is likely due to a complex mix of factors, including changes in the physical and social environments as well as technological and economic changes.
Children’s lives have become increasingly structured and adult supervised.
Children spend less and less unsupervised time in the natural environment. Yet, they need unstructured playtime in outdoor settings. While playing on a team remains an important hallmark of childhood, it is not the same as playing outdoors. Outdoor free play, like climbing trees, building forts, peeking under the rocks next to the back steps, and splashing in puddles and streams, allows children to build on their natural curiosity, use their imagination and initiate activities; activities that encourage children to discover and learn about the world around them.
I had a chilling experience last May when I took my little girl scouts to camp last year. We had "quiet time," which meant all the adults took naps, and the kids started causing trouble, until I gathered them together & took them away from the napping moms. I suggested looking for bugs, or building stick houses, and was met with blank stares. When I showed the older girls how to kick over old logs to find bugs, they went at it with a will, and when the little ones discovered that you can make fairy houses out of rocks and leaves, they didn't want to do anything else. I realized part of the problem is that almost none of them had ever had unstructured time in the woods. Wow! A lot of these girls are overachievers, who run from soccer to ballet to spanish lessons to gymnastics all week long. The rest clearly fall into the "at risk" category, above.
Children’s lives have moved indoors and screen spaces have replaced green places. Access to and use of computers, the Internet and hand held devices increased dramatically in the past decade. Studies found that between 1999 and 2005:
***The number of 8 to 18 years olds with access to a home computer increased by 13%, to a total of 86%;
***Internet access for 8 to 18 years olds increased by 27%, a total of 74% of children are now "on-line;"
***The number of 8 to 18 year olds who spend more than an hour online each day increased by 17% for a total of 22%.
**Between 1987 and 2003, the average person spent 327 more hours, that is 13 and a half additional days, with entertainment media.
**Children between the ages of six months and six years spend an average of 1.5 hours a day with electronic media.
**Children between the ages of 8 and 18 years spend an average of nearly 6.5 hours a day with electronic media.
**Nearly one third of children from six months to six years of age live in households where the TV is on all or most of the time.
Last summer our yard got overgrown with monster, 7-foot tall weeds. Before we mowed them down, the neighbor's kids came over to play in the jungle. The boy told me, "This is so cool. If I lived here, I would play outside every day." I answered "But you have such a lovely yard, and a jungle gym, and two horses, and a trampoline. Why don't you play in your yard?" He shrugged sullenly, but I knew the answer anyway. Whenever I go over, he's either parked in front of their massive flatscreen, lying prone in the recliner with the remote clutched in his hand, or in his brother's room, blasting zombies on the Xbox.
Parental fear and perceptions keeps children from playing outdoors.
While almost all parents recognize the diverse benefits of outdoor play, concerns about crime, safety, and injury prevented their children from playing outside. Twenty-four hour news coverage of crimes against adults and children feeds parental fear of "stranger danger" and violent crimes against young people. Yet, statistics from the 2005 Duke University’s Child and Well-Being index show that crime rates against young people have fallen well below 1975 levels.
Last fall, our village contacted me to initiate a "safe routes to school" program for our elementary schools, to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. It's not panning out for various infuriating reasons, but a large one is "It's not safe for the kids to walk to school because of all the traffic." (I point out that if everyone was walking, there would be less traffic) "What if something happened on the way?" (I point out that walking around the neighborhood is a great way to get to know the neighbors and for them to get to know your kids.) One of the SRTS strategies is a walking schoolbus, where an adult supervisor picks up the kids along their route & walks them to school. When I suggested that..."How could I trust someone else with my child's safety?".... At this point, I want to start screaming that their fucking SUV driving, TV watching, Bush-voting habits are destroying the planet for their children, and being insulated from the outside world is totally fucking harmful as well for all kinds of obvious reasons, but I instead just nod and say, "Ah. Hmm. Well, thanks for the input."
The simple act of playing in nature results in healthier and happier children.
A growing body of research confirms that spending time in nature benefits everyone, particularly children. Studies across the United States have found that children who directly experience the natural world are healthier in every major way — physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.
a. Physical Health
Our children face a health crisis. An indoors and sedentary lifestyle has resulted in many children not getting the physical activity they need. The results include a dramatic increase in the number of overweight children since the 1980s, higher rates of (type 2) diabetes and other health ailments. A study by the Center for Disease Control found that playing in natural settings can combat the obesity epidemic and rise in diabetes.
This winter, the Sierra Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors program sponsored a free lecture by Richard Louv. I ran into the Girl Scout camp director, who is my outdoor ed heroine, and while we were chatting, a colleage of mine from the Park Service noticed me and came over. He started by saying how happy he was about the turnout, especially by all the nonprofit groups who are out there making a difference in kids' lives. As a Boy Scout leader he was pissed that the Boy Scouts are too embroiled in the whole "gays or no gays" issue to focus on important Boy Scout stuff, like getting the kids outdoors. He said he has boys who are so fat they don't even make Boy Scout uniforms for them, and these boys can't do the basic physical activities to get their badges. He was both furious at the Boy Scouts of American and heartbroken for the boys of America.
b. Mental Health
People function best in a world filled with natural features. Studies have shown that stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces. Even a view of nature — green plants or a vista — helps reduce stress in highly stressed children. Furthermore, children demonstrate increased attentional capacity and decreases in symptoms of ADD and ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , after spending time in green environments.
c. Social Skills
Middle childhood appears to be an especially important time for emotional and intellectual development. Children who have regular opportunities for free and unstructured play in the out-of-doors get along better with others; demonstrate greater levels of creativity, cooperation, conflict resolution, and leadership; exhibit improved analytical skills; and show reductions in symptoms of attention deficit disorder.
The traditional mother tosses her kids out of the house when they get too rowdy. Kids have a LOT of yayas they have to get out, and there's not enough room inside for all those yayas to go. But these tremendous benefits are not just for kids. We all feel better when we have a little fresh air and greenery. We're all a lot meaner when we've been in our cars for an hour, too.
Did I mention that the neighbor's kids (above) can't read in second grade and have been suspended from elementary school for antisocial behavior? Last week was IEP week for all of us parents of special ed kids, and I was amazed at how many moms confided to me that their video game playing sons are being held back a year. One said, "I don't know why, they say he's not learning." Having had long conversations with the boy in question I know he's a smart kid, he's just more concerned about leveling in his PS2 Spongebob Squarepants game than doing anything in school.
Today’s children will determine the future preservation of the natural areas we treasure Children’s outdoor experiences shape how they interact with the natural world as adults. Will a child want to help save an eagle if she has never seen a robin? If a child has not put his feet in a stream, will he care if it is protected? The future of our planet depends on today’s children forging a connection with the natural world that sustains them.
This is the crux of it. Children get a lot of negative information about the environment, about how it's in crisis, and we have to save it and we have to recycle and be "energy smart" and all these other things that are pretty abstract for a little kid. What it does is make them not like nature because they always hear about it in terms of being a threat.
But nature itself is immediate and engaging and fun once that kids steps outside. As that DFH John Muir wrote, "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." An interesting spider can lead you into a discussion about the food chain, a creek connects a kid to her entire watershed. The change of the seasons, the waxing and waning of the moon, birdsong, blossoming trees, even the smallest things in the smallest yard can reveal the complex, mystical, and awesome interconnectedness of the entire world.
Richard Louv told us an interesting story about going to lobby for the No Child Left Inside legislation. He went into the Interior subcommittee hearing & started talking about these things, and "all of a sudden, there were no Republicans or Democrats in the room," but a group of men remembering the precious moments of their childhoods, the treehouses they built, lakes they swam, fish they caught. They all understood first hand what a terrible loss it is for a kid not to have somewhere to play, and signed on as sponsors for this legislation. The bill now has dozens of sponsors, has left committee, and will be open to debate on Earth Day, April 22.
This act is a step in the right direction, amending NCLB to include more outdoor classroom studies and requiring environmental literacy along with math and reading literacy. Since the bill only covers elementary & secondary ed, the complimentary bill is the National Environmental Education Act, which funds EE programs across the board.
Here's your congressional action item: please contact your congressperson and let them know that you support the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007, (H.R.3036) and the Senate (S.1981). You can add that you also want the National Environmental Education Act renewed and funded.
But as my libertarian-leaning partner says, "Why do we need the federal government to get our kids outside? This sounds like another big boondoggle." I'm not going to argue it's silly for the feds to try to take over the parents' job, but I would argue that it's fine for them to offer money through the schools, the land management agencies, and so forth, to support these activities. But his point remains that it's not Uncle Sam's job to get those kids out every day. It's yours, and the job of every other adult you know who knows kids.
If you have kids, unplug them and throw them out of your house. If you worry about them, go along with them. Plant a garden, build a treehouse (or a teepee or a wickiup), or go to the park. Make sure they spend at least an hour every day playing that way. If you have the time and/or gas money, you can probably find a National Wildlife Refuge within a 100 miles, and that's a great place to see wild animals and other interesting sights. Coming up is going to be National Wildlife Week, so there will be plenty of interesting programs across the nation to attend, or you and the kids can participate in a nationwide wildlife inventory. The National Parks also have great programs year around, including the Junior Ranger program (but again, attendance by kids in parks is waaaaaay down, and surveys indicate kids think national parks are for old people. Grown-ups, don't wait until you retire to go see the Grand Canyon or Old Faithful or Half Dome!). This summer, if you're traveling, consider camping out along the way instead of staying in motels. Forest Service, State Park, and Park Service campgrounds are between free and $20, so you'll save enough money to make up for gas prices. And uh... leave the portable TV at home, OK?
If you don't have kids, don't worry, they're easy to come by. Volunteer or donate to a youth organization that supports kids going outside. The Girl Scouts, the Sierra Club, the World Wildlife Federation, those are just a few. Follow the links in this diary to find dozens more, in your area or nationwide. If little kids make you skeevy, I understand, but high school kids need to go outside too. I am working with one (childless) woman who is supporting a group of high-school girls to plan and produce a full-length documentary about Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico. The group is hiking and filming and hiking and filming, and will culminate in a weeklong camping trip in the wilderness. No reason for this lady to put 8 months of her time into such a project, but she thought it was a fun way to do something important. The girls are loving it, even the tough, rebellious punker girls in the group!
Thanks for making it through this whole durn diary, and I hope you find some way to celebrate Children in Nature month this month. Remember, May is Neil Young month. Hooray!!
Don't need no shadow man running the government
Don't need no stinking war
Don't need no haircut, don't need no shoeshine,
After the garden is gone...