by Richard Louv
Review by Kathy Harlan
My grandchildren (both six-years old) teach
me computer techniques, go to inventor’s camp,
and read well above their grade level. But they
have never sat on a three-legged stool, milking
a cow while shooting warm milk into the mouth
of a waiting cat. Although dance recitals,
playing Monopoly, and configuring train
tracks throughout the house are challenging
experiences, they are not the same as taking
a sack lunch on a morning “adventure” into
a forest – alone.
In fact, most young children of the
suburbs don’t go anywhere alone, lest they
get lost, injured or snatched. They don’t
climb trees or catch frogs or swim in creeks.
They live with fenced yards and designer
playgrounds. We now have a “plugged-in generation” of
smart kids who have never held a snake outside of a zoo or spent hours
digging their way to China.
Richard Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he observes that
most kids are so plugged into television and video games that they've
lost their connection to the natural world. This is not only a shame
because of lost experiences for the children. Louv contends it is directly
connected to attention deficit disorder, childhood depression, anxiety
disorders, and perhaps juvenile obesity. He goes so far as to assert, "To
take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to
withholding oxygen."
That is a strong indictment and one that is difficult to prove. Louv
has talked to a lot of people in different disciplines – educators, the
religious community, doctors, and environmentalists – and he believes
the link is clear.
He has legitimate credentials. The author of seven books about
family, nature and community, Louv is on the editorial advisory board for
Parents Magazine, is an adviser to the
Ford Foundation’s’ Leadership for a Changing
World award program, writes columns for several
newspapers, including
The New York Times, and
appears regularly on popular talk shows. Louv’s own
children are in their twenties.
Nature deficit disorder, as Louv describes it,
involves diminished use of the senses, attention
difficulties, and high rates of physical and emotional
illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals,
families, and communities. Nature deficit can even
change human behavior in cities. We all know examples
of sensitive, stable people who grew up surrounded by
asphalt. And there are naturalists with a very limited
worldview. Louv counters with several studies that show
a relationship between the absence, or inaccessibility, of
parks and open space with high crime rates, depression,
and other urban maladies.
Louv is not the first person to lament the loss of nature in the lives of
civilized people. In his chapter headings he quotes Vincent van Gogh,
Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Luther Standing Bear and others who have
expressed concern about the disappearing connection with nature.
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Richard Louv, a columnist for the San Diego Union - Tribune, has written for national publications, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, and NPR’s Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation. He is the author of seven books about family, nature, and community. |
With a spoon and a little bit of earth, kids can still dig for China.
But Last Child in the Woods steers us to new and creative ways parents
and teachers can compensate for the plugged-in habits of today.
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