By Richard Louv
(Louv is the author of “Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children
from Nature-Deficit Disorder”)
A fast train is coming, and it’s headed for this generation
of children, and the next.
Multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of
Facebook, wants to launch an under-13 social networking service. This past week, Headline
News Network’s asked me to write my own commentary about this, on
HLN’s Web site. You
can read it here.
I’d like to elaborate a bit here, both on the growing
encroachment of electronics and about one way to counter the trend—not by
trashing technology, but by offering a balance to it; not by just saying no,
but by saying yes to a nature-rich life for our kids and ourselves.
Not long after the Facebook announcement, Lauren Ashburn, in
a disturbing article for the The
Daily Beast, asked the right question: “In the age of online child
porn, cyber-bullying, and privacy violations, do we really need our children on
Facebook, even if it’s linked to an adult’s membership?”
She and others also took on the complicity of parents.
Some 5.6 million children under the age of 13 are already on the social
networking site, according to Consumer Reports, and over a third of
their parents know it. Many of these helped their children join
Facebook—which required faking their kid’s age.
Ashburn pointed to one study that shows that “poorer
children, who are falling behind in school, spend an average of 90 minutes more
each day than their affluent counterparts playing games with devices their families
bought but can’t really afford, like the Xbox, Wii, and iPad.”
Now consider a recent USDA Forest Service survey using
aerial photography, which found that tree cover in 17 of the 20 analyzed cities
had “statistically significant declines in tree cover,” at a rate of about 4
million trees per year. Particularly in urban neighborhoods, technology grows
as trees shrink.
In contrast to this gloomy news, we’re happy to report that
the children and nature movement is growing.
We’re seeing impressive progress by such organizations as
the National Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has intensified
its efforts to get children outdoors. And such companies as REI, The North
Face, Disney and CLIF Bar are stepping up their engagement.
C&NN is striding ahead, too, as reflected in the results
of The Children & Nature Network 2011 Grassroots Leadership Survey, an
independent survey commissioned by C&NN with funding from the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation. The survey focused on efforts associated with C&NN: the
regional, statewide and provincial campaigns to connect children, families and
communities to nature. Among the results reported:
- The number of children and youth getting outdoors in
nature, as a result of the efforts of the Network and its members, has tripled
from 1 million in 2009 to 3 million in 2012. (As of this month, there are
more than 100 affiliated campaigns and more than 100 nature clubs for families
in more than 40 states.)
- Survey participants reported increased awareness of the
importance of nature for children’s healthy development, more participation by
pediatricians, growing community support, and more development of places to
play and learn outdoors in nature. And more underserved youth were engaged in
outdoor nature-based experiences during 2011.
Here’s more good news. C&NN’s second annual Let’s G.O.!
(Get Outside) initiative was held throughout the month of April in 2012. There
were more than 600 Let’s G.O.! events held in 50 states, with more than 300,000
participants—an almost 200 percent increase in participants from the more than
100,000 participants in 2011.
The barriers to independent play and time spent in nature
remain: Fear of strangers and of nature itself; poor urban design; ever more
people living in cities. And one challenge is growing at a particularly
alarming pace: the reduction of “educational enrichment” in favor of frenetic
overscheduling and technology.
Too many parents and schools are determined to eliminate
free time and independent play. A few weeks ago, while traveling in the Midwest, I learned of a chain of independent schools that
requires preschoolers—preschoolers—to spend three hours a day doing deskwork.
In education, new national standards will be helpful, but in
other ways education
reform could turn regressive. Recent reports suggest the arrival of
“stealth assessment”—nonstop electronic monitoring of students, similar to the
systems that grocery stores now use to track inventory. Also, we see an
increasing dependence on cutting-edge classroom software, much of it in the
form of video games. (This is occurring at the same time that environmental
education faces draconian federal budget cuts.)
Technology isn’t going away, and social networking can be a
force for good. But we need a new balance. The more high tech our children’s
lives become, the more they need nature. Such balance won’t happen without your
help.
That train is still coming, fueled by unimaginable wealth
and technical sophistication, as well as blind faith. We must move faster.
