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Garden Reading—Reintroducing Children to Nature
Plants & Gardens News | Volume 23, Number 2 | Summer 2008
by Sara Epstein
My mother once expressed regret that I didn't have the same freedom she had as a child in the countryside, but with the help of my parents, I managed to forge a connection to nature in the city. Growing up in Brooklyn, I loved digging around in the overgrown, "wild" space at the back of the community garden around the corner from our brownstone and playing "farm" in my next-door neighbor's backyard (we'd serve rice and beans—grass seeds and catalpa pods—to each other). Some of the spaces I knew so intimately as a child are now gone or changed, but when I walk down the sidewalks in my neighborhood, I pass street trees I've known all my life, and when I dig in my own backyard, I am still filled with a childlike sense of joy and wonder. I am aware that my experiences don't match those of many urban children. Not everyone has access to a backyard, community garden, or a safe neighborhood park or play area. But every child should.
Books at a Glance
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books. 2008 revised edition. $14.95. Paperback.
Sharing Nature With Children II, by Joseph Cornell. Dawn Publications. 1989. $9.95. Paperback.
Take a minute to reflect on your own childhood experiences in nature—they're probably the memories that stand out best—and think about how they have affected you as an adult. Then consider why today's children (maybe even children you know) spend more time indoors instead of playing outside. Is it lack of free time? Fear? The appeal of TV and video games? In the city, we may have to make more of an effort to find a natural space that is also a safe space, and kids may need to be supervised instead of being left to roam free. But if experiencing nature firsthand means our children will grow up to be more compassionate, more understanding of our interconnectedness with nature, and more interested in conserving nature, then we need to get them out there.
Renewing the Relationship With Nature
In his newly updated and expanded book about parenting, nature, and community, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv writes about how and why kids are spending less time outdoors and the urgent need to reconnect children to the natural world. His work is gripping and highly readable—though he backs up his arguments with solid research, he delivers them as personal experiences. For example, to contrast Americans' attitudes toward nature in years past with those of today, Louv reflects on his own childhood. "As a boy, I was unaware that my woods were ecologically connected with any other forests. Nobody in the 1950s talked about acid rain or holes in the ozone layer or global warming. But I knew my woods and my fields; I knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt paths. A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest—but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move."
As a city dweller, my one gripe is that Louv focuses, not exclusively but heavily, on rural and suburban populations, though he does dedicate a chapter to the urban greening movement. But regardless of where we live, Louv's point is clear: We can and must rekindle our relationship with nature.
Since publication of the first edition in 2005, Last Child in the Woods has generated a groundswell of interest. In response, Louv has helped found the Children & Nature Network (cnaturenet.org), charged to "leave no child inside," and, in March 2008, he published a new edition of the book. The latest edition includes a helpful reading list about nature—Good Books for Kids and Families—and a list of 100 specific actions we can take to change our communities, schools, and families for the better. His suggestions range from activities to get kids outdoors (order a truckload of dirt for the backyard and a few plastic buckets and shovels and let your kids go to town) to supporting or creating community nature organizations to enacting legislation on all levels of government. The additions are a perfect complement to his original work—concrete suggestions to help parents, educators, and other concerned professionals proactively renew our own and our children's relationship to nature.
Last Child was of great interest to me as an educator, but it's also no surprise that you'll find it on the shelves of the parenting section in bookstores. Of course, parents are the best advocates for their children. If every parent read this book and was just a little bit affected by it, imagine the sweeping changes in our current attitude toward nature.
Opening up to the Outdoors
If you are looking for another source of inspiration and additional ways to engage with nature, read one of the books in Louv's recommended bibliography: Joseph Cornell's Sharing Nature with Children II. This 1989 sequel and Cornell's original 1979 book both have a place on my shelves as timeless references for nature games and activities. Most activities are meant to be experienced in the great outdoors, but Cornell also addresses the challenges of working in urban settings and with groups of young people who may never have been in the woods before. Many of his activities work indoors as well as out.
Besides offering new activities, Sharing Nature II details Cornell's "flow learning" teaching model. In his decades of experience as a naturalist leading outdoor education programs and teaching nature awareness workshops, Cornell found an optimal way of sequencing his activities. He describes a four-step chain of events to nature awareness: awakening enthusiasm, focusing attention, having a direct experience, and sharing inspiration. In other words, first you need to get kids excited about being out in nature, then hone their enthusiasm to a particular focus, let them absorb nature firsthand, and finally, guide them as they process and share their experience.
One new activity that I am excited to try with my students at Brooklyn Botanic Garden this summer is "Camera." This direct-experience activity involves pairs of participants; one plays the role of the camera, the other the photographer. The camera shuts her eyes as the photographer guides her to the perfect shot. Once the camera is set in position, the photographer taps her shoulder to open the "shutter" (eyes), then taps again in a few seconds to close the shutter and seal in the picture. The children later "develop" the photo by drawing what they remember.
One of the best parts of my job at the Garden is sharing nature with Brooklyn's schoolchildren during the school year. We investigate and grow plants with students in classrooms throughout the borough and take them on tours of BBG. Almost universally, all children, whether in kindergarten or middle school, love to get their hands dirty. Teachers have been amazed to see normally quiet or disinterested students light up with excitement as they investigate the soil and carefully, lovingly, plant their plants. And even though I have seen it time after time, I always smile at how something so easy and small can be a source of such joy. The sense of pride and responsibility that comes from a successful interaction with nature (albeit contained in a pot) is immense. Starting small is a great way to start.
In Sharing Nature II, Cornell quotes botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey, who was instrumental in founding the nature-study movement and 4-H in the early 1900s: "Sensitiveness to life is the highest product of education." When we feel a bond with nature, we will care for nature and all the living things in it.
New books reviewed can be purchased at the BBG Garden Gift Shop. For phone orders, call 718-623-7286.
Sara Epstein is the coordinator of Project Green Reach, BBG's outreach program for K–8 students in Brooklyn's Title I schools.