Berlin (dpa) - Children need to experience nature with all their
senses. Going on adventures in the woods, hiking across fields,
playing in mud, observing earthworms and experiencing a thunderstorm
in the mountains are examples of things that belong to a healthy
upbringing.
US environmentalist and author Richard Louv says in his book Last
Child in the Woods that returning to nature would be a decisive step
towards promoting our children's healthy development. Experiencing
nature helps strengthen their self-confidence and their ability to
learn, he says.
The book, first published in 2005 and now reaching the
international market, has provided food for thought in support of
more ecological education.
The book is aimed at parents, teachers, city planners, architects,
politicians and business owners. Louv argues that the bond between
children and nature has been severed.
He subtitled his book Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit
Disorder, arguing that a number of physical and mental problems that
children have are rooted in their lack of contact with nature.
Louv used studies and conducted interviews with educators and
scientists to reach his conclusions. He links the high number of
overweight children in the US and the frequency of attention
deficit/hyperactivity syndrome to the lack of contact with nature.
Louv places a lot of faith in the healing power of nature through
experiencing it with all one's senses under an open sky.
Direct contact with the wilderness and its abundance strengthens a
child's self-esteem, his personality and his learning aptitudes such
as reading ability. According to the author, only people who have
strong contact with nature from an early age can be respectful and
protective of it as adults.
Based on his own experience, Louv has placed the bar high. He
recommends children build tree houses, stay in cabins and find ways
to observe wild animals in their environment. These ideas are hard to
fulfill in a city, but the author suggest a number of possibilities
for city children to have contact with nature.
For little children, a few trees make up a forest and a puddle can
offer a window into a natural habitat. Lift a stone to find the
ground teeming with bugs or observe the life of squirrels in city
parks, Louv suggests.
He also recommends that parents have their children work in the
garden, go on hikes to places that are seldom visited or go on hikes
at night. Children should have fun discovering nature and allow
themselves to be amazed by it and respect it.
Many children are afraid of the outdoors because of things their
parents have warned them about or because of things they have heard
in the media. Children can get over this by experiencing nature
themselves. This helps children understand that they are not alone in
the world and that there is another dimension beyond the populated
areas of the world.
Louv also hopes that schools and universities will revive the
study of natural history. The subject should regularly be taught
outside the classroom, he believes, and he also recommends school
gardens or contact with farms, which some schools already maintain.
In Germany some of these ideas are already being implemented.
Kindergarten-in-the-woods is a concept in which small groups of
children spend their entire day outdoors in the woods. There is also
a movement to convert concrete schoolyards to gardens.
Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH