I spent the weekend at my brothers house in Iowa City. My nephew James, who is in sixth grade, is very ecited because he will soon participate in outdoor education, an annual event at his school. The students spend the week at a summer camp for kids, and sll of their activities and lessons revolve around nature education. The sixth graders then spend one night in the cabins at the camp. I think that it is so wonderful that my nephews school values nature education, and so sad that our Illinois schools do not. Children in our schools are lucky if they even get recess, especially in sixth grade.
This made me think of a really important book called Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. In the book, Louv proclaims that between our digital age and fear, we have pulled our children away from the natural world, which will create disasterous and long lasting consequences. We can spend an entire semester teaching kids about the Amazon Rainforest, but without any real connection to nature, it is unlikely that today's students will actually care. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_deficit_disorder)
So, what can be done? It's simple. Take kids outside. Let them look under logs and find bugs. Encourage them to pick up worms. Let them get muddy. Let them jump in puddles and play in the rain. Turn off the tvs, computers and ipods. Dig in the dirt. Plant flowers. Let them climb trees. Catch fireflies. Take them to the woods, and let them run, climb, jump and explore. Why are teachers and parents so afraid of these things? If a child falls out of a tree and breaks his arm, isn't that a part of growing up? Is it better never to have climbed a tree at all?
A wonderful blog about helping children develop a bond with nature can be found at http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/tag/nature-defecit-disorder/. The importance of environmental education cannot be stressed enough. The future of our planet and of the human race depends on it.
As we discussed in class, schools are trimming the valuable enrichment classes out of the curriculum in order to cut costs and focus on the ‘Basic ‘ core skills. To me, this is detrimental to the development of the child as a complete person. Our children need to attain more skills then just math, reading and science to be successful contributing members of society. In my opinion, nature education falls under the category of enrichment. Through the exploration of nature, children can obtain a wealth of knowledge. One day in the spent exploring nature firsthand can instill a child with knowledge then a week in a classroom reading out of a book. The children will be coming across so many additional teachable moments then originally planned. The hands-on activities are the ones that will have some of the greatest impact on learning. When I was in high school I was not fond of biology or science , but when we went to 5th grade camp for a week, I was captivated by all of the things we were learning in our breakout sessions.
ReplyDeleteKristina,
ReplyDeleteI SO appreciate this article! During the summer, I often co-teach a Vocational Horticulture program at our school. It is AMAZING the wealth of knowledge students learn when "digging in the dirt" and the basic vocational skills they acquire is of huge benefit to them as well!
However, I know that our program is unique and that these opportunities are few and far between, especially in an urban setting.
In the current climate of high-stakes testing, I see nothing wrong with students "stopping to smell the flowers" and literally, "get their hands dirty".
I also think that students need to turn off the electronics and go outside to play. When I was little we would go outside and play for hours. I still remember many times we would pretend we lived in the olden days and had to make food out of leaves, flowers and twigs we found. We would mash them together with stones. We were creative and came up with millions of things to keep them engaged. Sometimes I feel children today need to be entertained all the time. They do not know how to play with things in their surrounding.
ReplyDeleteThey need to learn to go dig in the dirt and get their hands dirty. I believe there needs to be an even balance between adult directed activities and self directed activities.
We have a garden in our courtyard at my school. During recess students can go out and plant in the garden, water flowers and enjoy nature. It is really cool to see students get excited about nature.