Think electronics aren't getting in the way of kids and nature? While it might not be true in every nook and cranny of the country, it is happening in some areas. Take California, for instance. Tommy Nguyen told the San Francisco Chronicle trees are pretty boring.
"I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods," Nguyen said from the comfort of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.
In Yosemite and other parks, he said, furrowing his brow to emphasize the absurdly lopsided comparison, "the only thing you look at is the trees, grass and sky."
This was the hook Chronicle staff writer Peter Fimrite used to get into Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods.
OK, we've all heard plenty about Mr. Louv's book the past two years; he's made a cottage industry out of it. So let's move on to some recent hard data. Again, here's a snippet from the Chronicle:
The nature gap is just as big a problem in California, where there are more state and national parks than anywhere else in the country. A recent poll of 333 parents by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 30 percent of teenagers did not participate in any outdoor nature activity at all this past summer. Another 17 percent engaged only once in an outdoor activity like camping, hiking or backpacking.
The numbers coincide with national polls indicating that children and teenagers play outdoors less than young people did in the past. Between 1997 and 2003, the proportion of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time hiking, walking, fishing, playing on the beach or gardening declined 50 percent, according to a University of Maryland study.
The story goes on to blame urbanization, video games, fear of nature, even higher park entrance fees for the trend.
Fortunately, folks are trying to reverse this trend. Groups such as the National Park Service, which is working with others on outreach, the Outdoor Industry Association, and other conservation groups.
For more information on what's being done and what can be done, check out the Children and Nature Network.
Comments
I'm so glad this topic has finally came up. For years I've noticed children no longer playing out in their neighborhoods during the summer. I have said that it almost looks like an atomic bomb went off...where is everyone?? I'm talking suburbs, country & inner cities (not as bad). I laugh the way people cry the blues when winter never seems to end here in northern Ohio........but when it gets here, where is everyone? Even the summer holidays, where are all the cook-outs? Memorial Day I drove around & did not see one family outside having a cook-out. We have a wonderful park system here in Cleveland & the place used to be loaded with picknickers. I rarely see them anymore. When I was young, we went picknicking every weekend.....& didn't mind driving 40 miles to get there! Kids need to get outside & watch the ants (a favorite childhood thing I did..LOL), maybe get a bird feeder & watch the birds & see which ones will visit, maybe help mom in the garden....the list goes on. As u can tell, I was raised outdoors; drove from Ohio to Grand Tetons, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Colorado, with a tent on top of our car (in the 60's). And there were no showers at the camp sites in those days. I once read that one of the best cures for depression is to get in touch with nature!
WELL MY KIDS GO CAMPING AND FISHING AND FLOATING "KAYAKING" ABOUT 25 WEEKENDS A YEAR BECAUSE WE TAKE THEM
AFTER 3 YEARS THEY ARE TIRED OF IT BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE IS AT THE MALL AND THEY FEEL THEY ARE MISSING OUT ON SOMETHING BUT THEY HAVE SURE MET A LOT OF FRIENDS AT THE RIVER MOST KIDS AT SCHOOL CALL MY 11 YEAR OLD A LIAR ABOUT WHAT SHE DID LAST WEEKEND BUT SHE HAS FLOATED THE BUFFALO AND MULBERRY RIVERS IN ARKANSAS AMONG MANY OTHERS HAS HER OWN KAYAK AND FLY FISHES FOR TROUT AND CAN LIMIT OUT MY SON ALSO DOES THE SAME
BUT STILL ME AND MY WIFE WILL SAY DO YOU REMEMBER BEING KIDS AND MOM AND DAD WERE AT CAMP AND WE WERE RUNNING AROUND WELL NOT ANYMORE IT'S MOM AND DAD RUNNING AROUND AND THE KIDS SETTING IN CAMP I THINK MOSTLY BECAUSE IT ISN'T THE NORM TO BE CAMPING AND YES WHEN THEY GET HOME THEY IMMEDIATELY TURN ON THE TV'S
BUT SETTING AROUND A CAMPFIRE WITHOUT TV'S TO DISTRACT EVERYONE FROM REAL COMMUNICATION YOU GET TO KNOW YOUR KIDS WELL AND WHEN YOU GET HOME YOU WILL NOTICE THE TV SEPARATES ALL TO THEIR OWN LIKES AND DIFFERENCES THE TV IS WHAT DESTROYS FAMILY AND I LIKE IT AS WELL AS THE NEXT GUY BUT WE ARE NUMB TO WHAT IT IS DOING TO US WHAT IS YOU KID WATCHING RIGHT NOW AND
YOU CAN'T BLAME THAT ON GEORGE BUSH OR THE WAR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS
Simple acts like walking or riding a bike to school are also becoming a thing of the past. Kill your TV. Our Christmas season has been so pleasant around our house without cable TV these past 5-6 years. When the kids aren't sure what they want for Christmas and ask mom and dad for ideas, that's a GOOD thing. That means the media giants don't have a stranglehold on them. That means the media superpowers haven't driven a wedge between we the parents and our own kids, and that's a good thing too.
All good points in this discussion. Just to add a bit more substances to the subject from a personal observation viewed today. While heading out to the local Baylands to observe nature in it's fall pattern of bird migration, I couldn't quite get mind off the local golf course ( adjacent to the refuge) which was super busy for Thursday afternoon. The course was pack to the gills with dot comers, business people and old retired farts...most were net working and playing less golf. Very noticeable from the wildlife refuge. It occurred to me while remembering this blog (Kids Detached from Nature) why is this beautiful refuge so empty, when the golf course is so busy, especially when folks are so squirreled up with stress these days. Then I thought of them as hard working parents and wondered about their value system. Is everthing about money and networking, and the most important places to be at the lunch hour....is the golf course? Just a nice walk away, you can commune with nature, and perhaps touch your soul a bit while at the refuge...bear in mind, the refuge was almost void of people. I guess nature takes a back seat to money and it certainly look that way today. Well, in regards to the poor detached kids from nature...I didn't have to look far to see why! I guess the game of golf and making money is far more important then being at the refuge center and learning something about nature, and maybe learn something about yourself in the process, and perhaps teaching your kids something about the web of life...instead of the importance of making a web of money, procuring more frivolous toys and things. So, so meaningless when you have children that can't feel or assimilate with nature today. Such a tragic travesty!
It seems important in discussions like this to try and remember what it's like to be a kid. Trees are, to nearly all kids, really pretty boring. It's not until later in life that the subtle appeal of passively studying the natural world holds much appeal. But kids do love to explore, ride bikes, play in the woods when they're given opportunities. Recreation builds an affinity for natural places, which later in life translates into respect and interest in the subtlities of natural landscapes. Remember that most of the great naturalists of the 20th century -- Muir, Brower, etc. -- started out as climbers, hikers, explorers. The reason, in my view, kids are often turned off by national parks is that they're presented as cathedrals, and not as playgrounds.
I disagree that all you need is to take the kids outdoors and and they start liking it. I have taken dozens of children out in beautiful places. Children who are not exposed to nature in a somewhat regualr basis will not jsut transform within moments being outside. I hear a lot of whining, "when are done " , "I like to go home now", there are too many bugs", "this is boring", "I hate khiking", "this is so boring, I don't want to be here". I could just go on and on.
The majority of children I know spend a wast amount of time on comuter and TV. They are lierally parked in fron of it. It usually starts with the " I got my kids some educational games".
Parents nowadays are so competetive and they often dont see the value in just letting their kids getting dirty in the creek. Richard Louv who wrote the last child in the woods reports that children bond best with nature by free play and exploring.Adults often need to have gools in mind when out in nature. " I like to hike 2.5 Miles today" . There is no time for for play on the hike.There needs to be more education for parents. Yes it does require some work. Kids who are reluctant to play outside will need some structure to begin with such as building a swing, swinging in a hammock in between trees or doing a treasure hunt. I expose my son to nature every day, once he played freely in the woods his curiosity just kicked in and now he just wants to learn everything and now he is having so much emathy for other living things , He is such an awesomehuman being.
I think that's an excellent point by Anonymous of 11:32 a.m. on July 16, and so is Mark E.'s immediately preceding observation, which he posted almost five years ago.
The model of trying to get kids to adapt at the outset to their grandparents' earnest and reverential attitude toward wildlands as outdoor "cathedrals" (to quote Mark E.) seems to have proven itself ineffective. As Anonymous observes, only after you've let kids do what they want to do, which is often going to mean something other than hiking, will they become interested in the setting and perhaps become interested in conservation later.
Obviously there has to be a balance. Kids can't just go around digging things up, littering, harassing wildlife, shooting BB guns, and starting fires. That challenge should be quite manageable, however, in capable hands.
Today's New York Times has an online discussion that's related to what people have been discussing in this thread:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/07/14/when-parents-hover-and-k...
It goes to what Anonymous of two posts ago contended: "Parents nowadays are so competitive and they often don't see the value in just letting their kids get dirty in the creek."