Abstract
One of the salient problems facing us today is children’s alienation from the natural world. They are too creeped out to touch earthworms, they don’t know where their food comes from, and they are afraid to walk in the forest alone. Or, if they are walking in the forest, they can’t see the forest for their iPhones. We, and our children, are easily seduced by the panoply of digital treats. It is so much easier to be a couch potato than to plant potatoes. The result is that twenty-first-century children spend eight hours a day interacting with digital media, and only thirty minutes a day outside.
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Notes
- 1.
Victoria J. Rideout, Ulla G. Foehr, and Donald F. Roberts, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds (Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2010)
- 2.
David Sobel, Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators (Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2008), 114.
- 3.
Louise Chawla and Victoria Derr, “The Development of Conservation Behaviors in Childhood and Youth,” in Susan Clayton, ed., Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2012), 30–31.
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
“School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten,” a film directed by Lisa Molomot and produced by Rona Richter, 2014, www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/school; Rosemary Bennett, “If You Go Down to the Woods Today,” The Times (London), October 6, 2009.
- 6.
David Sobel and Rachel Larimore, Nature Cements the New Learning: A Case Study of Expanding a Nature-based Early Childhood Program from Preschool into the K–5 Curriculum in Public Schools in Midland, Michigan (Keene, NH: Antioch University New England, June 2016)
- 7.
David Sobel, Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities, Nature Literacy Monograph Series #4 (Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society, 2013), 30–31.
- 8.
Niki Buchan, “Bush School—Nature Education in Australia,” Precious Childhood Blog, May 1, 2012.
- 9.
“Acknowledgement of Traditional Aboriginal Territory in British Columbia,” Safe Harbor—Respect for All Blog, April 18, 2014; STAR School website, www.starschool.org.
- 10.
Green School website, www.greenschool.org.
- 11.
The College School, “Adventure Education,” www.thecollegeschool.org/about-tcs/forward-thinking-education/adventure.
- 12.
Appalachian Mountain Club, “Youth Opportunities Program,” www.outdoors.org/youth-programs/youth-opportunities-program.
- 13.
Kroka Expeditions, “Welcome to the Kroka Semester Program,” www.kroka.org/semester/semester_overview.shtml.
- 14.
Rediscovery website, http://rediscovery.org.
- 15.
Ming Wei Koh, “Place-based Education Is Education for Sustainability,” in Educating for Sustainability: Case Studies from the Field PreK-12 (Shelburne, VT: Shelburne Farms Sustainable School Project, 2016)
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Lilian Mongeau, “Oregon Asks, What If Camp Were Part of School?” Christian Science Monitor, August 6, 2016.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Children & Nature Network website, www.childrenandnature.org; National League of Cities, “Cities Connecting Children to Nature,” www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/institute-for-youth-education-and-families/youth-and-young-adult-connections/cities-connecting-children-to-nature; Lauren Fay Carlson, “A Breath of Fresh Air: City of Grand Rapids Aims to Reconnect Children with Nature,” Rapid Growth, October 6, 2016.
- 20.
North American Association for Environmental Education website, https://naaee.org; U.S. Department of Education, “Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA),” www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn; International Association of Nature Pedagogy, “Summary of Erasmus Project,” www.naturepedagogy.com/erasmus.
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Sobel, D. (2017). Outdoor School for All: Reconnecting Children to Nature. In: EarthEd. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-843-5_2
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