Children & Nature: Australian writer captures what conservation needs from our youth

Occasionally I will come across an article that needs no journalistic rephrasing, no "spin" or retelling.  It is succinct and delivers a message that must be presented undilluted.

Such is the case with an article I came across in the Opinion section of ABC News (Australia).  Written by educator and naturalist Warren McClaren, it addresss the impact on our children when there is a disconnect between ourselves and nature.

Growing up as I did in suburban Southern California, I can look back on my experiences with nature in a very positive way and I can see the roots of my current passion for preservation and conservation of our natural resources stemming from those early moments.  I was not someone who lived 24/7 in the outdoors, but I came in contact with enough to leave a lasting impact.  And, sadly, that is much more than what many children are experiencing today.

Children are hearing about threats and negative impacts on nature and they are voicing their concern.  And that is good.  But if those feelings exist in a bubble, devoid of the first hand knowledge, can we expect their concerns to carry them into adulthood? 

 Without nature, the little children suffer
Warren McLaren ABC Environment 12 Nov 2012

Most adults climbed trees and played outdoors when they were children. But today's young people don't play outdoors like their parents. It's an omission with grave implications.

We come alive for what we hold near and dear. It's hard to be impassioned for a cause which feels remote.

Charities know this. It's why they bring impoverished third world villagers, or cancer suffers, into our lounge room, via the telly: if they can make us connect with the issue, we are more inclined to support it.

Environmental activists are emboldened to speak up because they perceive they are about to lose something. Something they truly, deeply connect with.

"In wildness is the preservation of the world." With these few words, American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, succinctly captured humanity's fate. Nature is unruly, untamed. But it is also our future.

Yet we so often talk of 'The Environment' as if it exists elsewhere else, a distant entity that humankind is not connected to. A naughty, wild child, whom we might put in a room and close the door on, for a bit of 'time out'.

We may have disconnected from nature, but we are delusional if we think we can live without it. Ignoring the value and contribution of nature to our well being is, quite literally, life threatening. 

But ignoring is exactly what we're doing. In his seminal 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, author Richard Louv, gave this ignorance a term: Nature Deficit Disorder. While not a medically recognised condition, there is an ever expanding body of work which supports Louv's central theme: that deprivation of a relationship with nature is fraught with multiple health and welfare issues. For people. And planet. 

There's head-shaking anecdotal evidence of our disconnect with nature, such as the story I was told of kids too scared to play in their own backyard, because they'd heard that insects wee and poo out there.

Scientific corroboration is also abundant. The Children and Nature Network has a collection of research papers, published between 2009 and 2011, which explored benefits to kids from contact with the outdoors. The list of abstracts alone runs to 68 pages.

Research such as Planet Ark's recent examinations (pdf) of Australian childhood interaction with nature today, relative to a generation ago. One of the findings being that, "64 per cent of respondents reported climbing trees when they were children as compared to less than 20 per cent of their children." (pdf) 

The Danish Society for Nature Conservation observed very similar findings in their survey of 2,000 Danes:"59 per cent of grandparents reported visiting a natural setting every day during the summer when they were children, as compared to... just 26 per cent of children today." (pdf) 

Four hundred German and Lithuanian high school students participated in research that found "children's emotional affinity towards nature was a significant predictor of children's willingness for pro-environmental commitment."

A related study in the USA set out to "understand what leads children to continue participating in natural history-oriented professions/education/hobbies as a young adult." The research concluded that a such vocational choice results from "early childhood and is driven by direct, informal and unstructured experiences with nature (from wildlands to vacant lots)."

For many Aussies their introduction to camping and outside adventures began with involvement in Scouts and Guides. Five years ago the international Scout movement celebrated 100 years of life in the great outdoors. But it was a bittersweet centenary. In 2001, Australia had 2,126 Scout Groups, yet by 2011 this had shrunk to just 1,524. A noteworthy decline, coming on the back of a significant modernisation drive within Scouting.

Where did all those budding young Baden Powells go? Inside.

For 98 per cent of Australian children, "watching TV or videos out of school hours remains the most common recreational activity of children aged 5 to 14 years." So revealed the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the 2003 study, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities.

A follow up report in 2006 noted that "[N]ot only was the participation rate highest for 'watching television, videos or DVDs', on average, children involved spent more time on this activity than on any of the other selected activities." In a study published last year, the ABS reported that whereas a tad over half of all children were playing games online in 2006, by 2009 and this had increased to just shy of 70 per cent. The ABS also noted that 17 per cent of kids 8 to 14 had a computer in their bedroom.

Researchers at the University of Sydney discovered that "Children who spend more time in outdoor sport activities and less time watching TV have better retinal microvascular structure." Retinal blood vessels have been linked to cardiovascular disease risk factors and blood pressure.

A couple of years ago the Australian national depression initiative, Beyond Blue, engaged Associate Professor Mardie Townsend of Deakin University's Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences to investigate any health benefits from including the outdoors in our lives. She observed, "Experiencing nature in an outdoor setting can help tackle not only physical health problems such as obesity and coronary heart disease, but also mental health problems - and there is plenty of evidence to support the claim." Laying out that evidence in her 160-page report.

Drawing on the work of Kurt Hahn, pioneer of experiential learning and the guy behind Outward Bound and the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, Expeditionary Learning schools cite as one of their core principles, "direct respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations."

Developing this early connection with nature is not just some bucolic vision of the 'nuts and berries' crowd. It also has a deep and profound influence on children's intellectual health as well. Richard Louv's book is packed with examples, including the school who educated their kids out amongst local rivers, mountains and forests, "96 per cent of [their] students meet or exceed state standards for math problem-solving—compared to only 65 per cent of eighth graders at comparable middle schools."

I'm not suggesting that everyone need spend 738 days hugging a tree like Julia Hill or Miranda Gibson. There are a host of mainstream opportunities for our children to learn about, and from, the outdoors. There's school endorsed outdoor education experiences, or Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden programs as currently embraced by 267 Australian primary schools. From horticultural therapy to care farming. Or Scouts and Guides. And let's not forget family weekends camping in the bush; or simply get down and dirty, rolling in the grass and watching bees in the backyard or nearby park, with Mum and Dad.

For as William Shakespeare penned, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

Source: ABC News
         

Losing Touch With Nature: writer looks at how nature can help our children

Are we losing touch with nature? Is there a generation(s) of children coming up who can only relate to nature distantly, without the true experience of touch, sight, and smell? Today there is more information than ever - more books, more videos, more connections via the Internet for children to learn about nature. But are the oceans, the forests, the plants and animals all becoming just words and images from which we hope that children will grow to respect, protect, and conserve?

Let's hope not, but it is a real concern. I come from a generation who, even when growing up in the populated suburbs of Southern California, chased the butterflies, ate a little dirt, and dreamed of being an explorer. But today, in our hand sanitized, digital screened, concrete mall existence, there can be a real disconnect between the indoor world and the outdoor world.

From the United Arab Emirates, comes an interesting article written by Louisa Wilkins and published in the GulfNews. In How Nature Can Help Your Child, she writes of the changes in how children experience nature and what that can mean not only to the collective fate of the outdoors but to the health, mental and physical, of coming generations.

"In the same way that children need food, water and sleep in order to grow and develop to their full potential, so they need nature. Not only because an hour of play outside in the elements is more physical than an hour on the sofa, but because there are other, more subtle, consequences of children losing touch with nature. [Author, Richard] Louv says, 'Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.' According to his research, the disorder is not just limited to individuals, but entire families and communities. He says, 'Nature-deficit can even change human behaviour in cities, which could ultimately affect their design, since long-standing studies show a relationship between the absence, or inaccessibility, of parks and open space with high crime rates, depression, and other urban maladies.'"

There is a segment of readers to this blog who are parents and who have thanked me for some of the information I have provided for their children. I am most flattered by this as it is the next generation or two who will really have to move the bar forward regarding conservation, building on the awareness that adults today are trying to generate, and making it the norm. Louisa Wilkins' article is a great read for those parents - and for all of us - as a reminder of how we saw and experienced the outside world growing up and what our children may be missing today.

Read the entire article in the GulfNews.

Better Conservation Education: reaching children on the importance of the oceans

When we talk about preserving our marine resources for future generations, we need to ensure that younger people are engaged both actively and emotionally in ocean conservation. Lindsey Wright, who is passionate about education technology, supplies a guest post that reminds us all of how and when children can best learn to appreciate animals. Understanding their development cycle is key. And in the end, the result we hope for is that, as Jacques Cousteau once said, "People protect what they love."

Better Conservation Education

The best way to end up with adults that care about the future of the planet and the species that inhabit it is to start teaching basic ecological principles when children are young and eager to learn new things. Many children never fully understand the concepts of biodiversity and ecosystems until they start taking biology classes in high school or “go to” college at an online school. By that age, they may be too occupied with other things to care about the implications of the loss of biodiversity on our planet. However, it is never too early to start exposing children to information that engages and interests them. Young children may not be able to grasp complex ecological concepts early in life, but a foundation can be built that makes them interested in learning more about science.

The first step in engaging a child in conservation education is to teach them about animals. This is not difficult, because young children are naturally fascinated with animals. Very young children may learn words like "cat," "dog" and "fish" at an early age. However it is common for children to generalize these terms incorrectly for a period of time. For example, a child may say "cat" when they see a rabbit. To an adult, this mistake does not make sense, but the young child is referring to any small, fuzzy mammal as a "cat." That is, the word is more general in their mind than it is for an adult, who has narrowed the word "cat" down to mean domesticated cats and maybe other members of the feline family. In this stage of cognitive development it is too early for the child to be interested in learning the names of animals that they will probably not encounter outside of zoos, but they may still enjoy seeing these animals and looking at pictures of them.

Thus when a child starts to learn the names of animals that are more uncommon, they will probably be very interested in learning about animals that most people do not know about, including endangered species and creatures that inhabit the deep oceans. Children of this age may enjoy going to zoos or aquariums, looking at Web sites with pictures of interesting animals, going on field trips to local conservation centers or reading books with pictures of animals. Teachers and parents work together in educating a child; if a child seems particularly interested in something, their interest shouldn't be ignored.

The World Wildlife Fund website is a good resource for looking at pictures of endangered species, learning their names and reading more information about them. If a child has the attention span for it, watching a visually-stimulating series of nature documentaries, such as "Planet Earth," "Life," or "Blue Planet" may fascinate them. These television series highlight different ecosystems, from the deepest parts of the oceans to the highest mountaintops on Earth, and feature many lesser-known species. There are other resources on television, in libraries and on the Internet. If a child knows about the vast number of unique species on planet Earth, they are more likely to care about what happens to them in the future. Many people simply do not know the extent of the environmental problem because they do not know the extent of the environment!

Eventually, the idea that there are even more species on planet Earth than we know about, and new species are discovered every day can be introduced to school-aged children. Another important concept is that ecosystems, or all of the living things and the environment in a certain area, are in balance, and it is possible for this balance to be disrupted by the actions of human beings. Species are going extinct due to overpopulation, habitat destruction, depletion of natural resources, overhunting and overfishing, pollution and agriculture.

A good way to teach children about extinction, of course, is by teaching them about dinosaurs and fossils. Extinction is not always cataclysmic, however; some ecologists consider the current ongoing loss of biodiversity to be the sixth major extinction in the history of the planet. It is important to teach children that not all species go extinct because of a natural disaster such as a meteor hitting the earth, but that species can and do go extinct silently. Some species that we don't even know about, such as those in the deep oceans, may go extinct before they are ever known to science. Not all types of creatures leave fossils, so there are many species, several that are much older than humans, that we will never know about.

To drive this point home, all that is needed is to do a quick image search for "deep sea creatures" in your Web browser. The oceans cover most of our planet, and we know very little about them. Scientists know more about the surface of the moon than we do the deepest parts of our oceans. As such, it's likely that the pictures that come up in the image search will seem alien, bizarre and even scary, with their odd body forms, large teeth and bioluminescence. If you have never seen these creatures before, you may very well forget which planet you live on. These species are all relatively newly discovered, and there are many more species that have never been seen by human eyes or photographed. This is just one ecosystem. Granted, it is devoid of sunlight and very hard to explore, but there are also many undiscovered species in every ecosystem on Earth.

The best way to get children involved in conservation in our oceans and other ecosystems is simply showing children why it's important to take care of our oceans. A person can not care about a cause that is not real to them. If your conception of planet Earth is a handful of cities, a suburb or a small town, you are unaware of how big planet Earth really is. If you are unaware that there is a problem, you are unaware of how small and vulnerable planet Earth really is.

About Lindsey Wright: Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.