Why Nature Is Important for Youth
Not too many years ago, a child’s experience was limited by how far he or she could ride a bicycle or by the physical boundaries that parents set. Today ... the real boundaries of a child’s life are set more by the number of available cable channels and videotapes, by the simulated reality of videogames, by the number of megabytes of memory in the home computer. Now kids can go anywhere, as long as they stay inside the electronic bubble.
- Richard Louv, Childhood's Future
There's no way that we can help children to learn to love and preserve this planet, if we don't give them direct experiences with the miracles and blessings of nature.
-Anita Olds
The real disorder lies in the society that has disengaged children from nature and imposed on them an artificial environment for which they have not evolved. Viewed from this angle, children and adults alike would suffer from what might be called nature deficit disorder, not in a clinical sense, but as a condition caused by the cumulative human costs of alienation from nature, including diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.
-Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods - Saving our children from nature deficit disorder
The problem is that we live in a society where youth recognize 1,000 corporate logos and fewer than 10 species of wildlife found in their communities. Having students learn local species’ names and characteristics will create increased awareness and understanding for wildlife, which will in turn instil increased empathy for their well being. Facilitating young Canadians to connect with nature is an important first step towards raising a generation who will care for the Earth’s well being.
-Robert Bateman
Experiencing nature during childhood engenders both curiosity and the passion to learn that reflects a willingness to give and receive information, facts, and ideas. By interacting with the natural world, children encounter a matrix of diverse and stimulating opportunities to engage such affective capacities as wonder, imagination, and joy. Children's experience of nature provides a source of deep and enduring emotional significance throughout people's lives.
-Stephen R. Kellert, Nature and Childhood Development
The results of [our] research and other empirical inquiry lead us to conclude that prolonged and challenging immersion in the outdoors, especially in relatively pristine settings, can exert a powerful physical, emotional, intellectual, and moral-spiritual influence on young people. [The] outdoor experience continues, even in our highly technological and urban society, to be a critical pathway for youth to achieve physical and mental fitness and security.
Stephen R. Kellert, A National Study of Outdoor Wilderness Experience.
As kids become more "wired" than ever before, they are drawn away from healthful, often soul-soothing, outdoor play. The age-old pattern of children spending hours roaming about and playing outside is becoming close to extinct due to a combination of electronics, cyberspace, and parental efforts to keep their children indoors and, in their minds, safer.
- Kevin J. Coyle, Environmental Literacy in America
