You know the old wisdom-”if people complain you must be doing something right.” When you make a statement that has worth there will be those who will not see the value.
I’ve attempted to provide children a with a love of nature for 35 years. I’ve had many supporters and some detractors. Parents say that their children need a recess, but that suggests that what they really mean is that when learning takes place, it will happen inside in a classroom, preferably at a desk with a paper and pencil.
The fundamental error in that kind of thinking is that it ignores a whole set of important skills and attitudes that children need to learn. Parents too often erroneously think that learning the alphabet and counting to ten will prepare their children for primary school. In reality, there is a complex set of skills children need to master in order to become good learners,
These skills include
- asking the right questions
- curiosity
- being self-reliant
- wondering and feeling awe
- forming relationships
and more.
I believe that children who spend time in a natural environment that includes trees, sand, dirt, grass, animals, a vegetable garden will be happy child learners. The natural environment can instill in them a sense of oneness and completeness. As Humans we have evolved to have a natural connection to the earth. We still are interdependent with everything on the earth and all its living things. Too often in our time this interdependence feels far removed and we fail to recognize it any more.
And yet, without oxygen from plants we would stop breathing, without the plants grown in the soil we would starve, without animals fed from the plants and without their manure to fertilize the plants we would perish. We can act as if we are above it all, but we the reality is that we aren’t.
We have never had a child at Children’s Country House that didn’t run nearly the whole time when they went outside to play. They don’t walk . . . they run! You know, it’s difficult to be overweight when you get so much exercise.
It is difficult for me to understand how can people object to children working, learning, and playing in nature. Instead, I have too often been fed reasons why they should be protected from nature. among the reasons have been the following;
- trees have roots that are tripping hazards.
- animals eat and then have to do do what comes naturally after that
- there are rocks in dirt has sometimes big rocks as part of the landscape
- the sprinkler heads which water the grass and keep it green are also dangerous.
- In one popular evaluation scale it is actually recommended there be only 27 minutes of outside play out of any 3 and 1/2 hour period. This is all that is allowed for outside exploration of the natural world. 183 minutes is recommended for inside activities which is apparently where they think the important stuff happens in learning.
We are suffering from the “nature is recess” mentality.
Fortunately more people are becoming aware of the importance of nature and want their children to learn and appreciate its benefits.
Because we have become so disconnected from nature too many of us don’t know how to relate to it. How many people do you know who are afraid of bugs, afraid of animals and unwittingly pass their mistrust onto their children.
Author Wendell Berry believes that we also lose our sense of community when we lack a connection to the earth. When you work in the ground you become attached to the it. You have to tend it, and stay there to watch over it. You get to know your neighbors . The weather matters and affects all of you together. You might need your neighbors help. you will all meet at the feed store. Somehow this doesn’t happen in the city. But the truth is, you can’t live “happily” without connecting to others.
I will continue my thoughts on how important the natural world is in child development in my next post.
