Kids today losing touch with nature

[fgoodwin]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050510/LIVING/505100335/

 

http://tinyurl.com/7fvul

 

By Bradford McKee

The New York Times News Service

May 10, 2005

 

Were it not for the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, Neil Figler said, his sons, 7 and 11, might never peel themselves away from the Xbox to go outside and play.

 

"My kids want to finish their homework so they can play video games," said Figler, 47, a salesman and Cubmaster in Goldens Bridge, N.Y. In scouting, his sons have learned to light fires, handle knives and build sleds for trekking through the woods. But even those occasional encounters with nature are planned and supervised by adults.

 

Nonetheless, the outings seem wilder than most anything else going on in kidland these days. Figler said his sons find life easier and more familiar in front of a computer screen. Among the Scouts, he said, "that's more the norm than the exception."

 

The days of free-range childhood seem to be over. And parents can now add a new worry to the list of things that make them feel inept: Increasingly, their children, as Woody Allen might say, are at two with nature.

 

Doctors, teachers, therapists and even coaches have been saying for years that children spend too much time staring at video screens, booked up for sports or lessons or sequestered by their parents against the remote threat of abduction.

 

But a new front is opening in the campaign against children's indolence. Experts are speculating, without empirical evidence, that a variety of cultural pressures have pushed children too far from the natural world. The disconnection bodes ill, they say, both for children and for nature.

 

Author Richard Louv calls the problem "nature-deficit disorder." He came up with the term, he said, to describe an environmental ennui flowing from children's fixation on artificial entertainment rather than natural wonders. Those who are obsessed with computer games or are driven from sport to sport, he maintains, miss the restorative effects that come with the nimbler bodies, broader minds and sharper senses that are developed during random running-around at the relative edges of civilization.

 

Parents will probably encounter Louv in appearances and articles leading up to the publication of his seventh book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" (Algonquin Books). The book is an inch-thick caution against raising the fully automated child.

 

"I worked really hard to make this book not too depressing," Louv (pronounced "loov") said recently from his home in San Diego. He urges parents to restore childhood to the unplugged state of casual outdoor play that they may remember from their own youth. "It's society's whole attitude that nature isn't important anymore," said Louv, 56, who has two sons, ages 17 and 23.

 

Dr. Donald Shifrin, a pediatrician in Bellevue, Wash., and a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, said he sees the signs every day of the syndrome Louv describes in his book. His patients now arrive with fewer broken arms from falling out of trees (soccer and lacrosse injuries are most common), and more video games, cell phones and hand-held computers.

 

"We have mobile couch potatoes," Shifrin said. "The question is, are we going to turn this around with more opportunities for kids to interact with nature?"

 

Even if parents think their children get too much screen time and not enough safari time, many have no idea what to do about it. "It's absolutely a phenomenon that nobody knows how to break," said Mark Fillipitch, 40, a manager for a Caterpillar dealer and the father of four children -- 10-year-old triplets (two boys and a girl) and a 6-year-old boy -- in Acworth, Ga. "It is stronger than we are."

 

No TV till after dark

 

Tracy Herzog, 42, a hospital fitness director and the mother of boys ages 7 and 12 in Pembroke Pines, Fla., in effect banishes her children outdoors, she said, by not allowing them near the television, the Game Boy or the PlayStation until after dark. And only if their homework is done.

 

"As parents, we have to make it uncomfortable for them to be sedentary," Herzog said. "The temptation is to let the TV or PlayStation baby-sit them."

 

Playing on parental anxieties has become an industry unto itself, but substantive data are almost nonexistent on the presumably growing distance between children and bugs, flowers and seashells. Louv, who also is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has studied the topic as much as anyone. He interviewed about 3,000 children nationwide and many parents for his book.

 

Few, if any, scientific studies exist showing that children now spend less time exploring nature or describing the ways they benefit from being where the wild things are.

 

"Who's going to pay for that research?" Louv asked. "What toy can we sell for natural play?"

 

Stephen R. Kellert, a professor of social ecology at Yale whose book "Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection" (Island Press) is to be published this summer, said that he had not seen Louv's book but that ample anecdotal evidence exists to support its argument.

 

"When you look for the hard data, it's hard to find," Kellert said. "And people talk about children's contact with nature often in a very indiscriminate way."

 

Children, he said, experience nature in many settings, often indirectly. If the Internet or television prevents a child from looking for four-leaf clovers, it may also provide vicarious ways to discover Amazonian rain forests. But, he added, the passive watching of a video screen does not simulate the uncertainty and risk, however minor, that make natural exploration bracing.

 

The risk part, assuming that children do just want to wander outdoors, is perhaps never low enough for parents.

 

Tom Cara, 47, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill., said that he and his wife, Erin, take their son, 10, and daughter, 14, on bike trips and that he and his son go camping and fishing in the Wisconsin wilderness. But it's hard to let children roam too freely, he said, because the news media have spooked parents with reports of child abductions and murders. "We've been conditioned to live in fear," he said.

 

That fear resounds for other parents, too. Figler, the Cubmaster, said that 12 rural acres lie behind his home, and that he and his sons often explore them together. But the woods are off-limits to his younger son if he is alone. His older son may explore them, but only with a two-way radio. "It's more my wife than me" who worries, Figler said. But they both grew more concerned after their sons' school notified them that two registered sex offenders live nearby.

 

"We're in an awareness of safety now that may not have been as prevalent" in the past, Figler said. "You're always thinking about child abductions. You see the stories on TV, and it gets you nervous."

 

Worry about criminal harm

 

Like grim news stories, Amber Alerts, broadcast to help spot missing children, also may take a toll on parents' nerves by playing up the risk of criminal harm to their children. Dr. Daniel D. Broughton, a pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a former chairman of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he understands the parents' fears. But he said they need to balance that fear with reality and learn to create safe zones where kids can run around on their own.

 

"We definitely want kids to be able to go out and play," Broughton said. "The sedentary lifestyle is a huge problem in my practice every single day. I haven't gone a day where I don't see a kid who's too fat."

 

Louv refers to parents' abduction fears as "the bogeyman syndrome." But he suggests that the more likely bogeymen are people who "criminalize" outdoor play through neighborhood associations and their covenants.

 

"If all these covenants and regulations were enforced, then playing outdoors would be illegal," Louv said.

 

For Herzog, the fitness director, the local schoolyard has become the latest casualty. It was fenced off recently for security: a "lockdown," she called it.

 

"That doesn't allow active play on the school grounds" during off hours, Herzog said. "It's not getting any easier."

[SR540Beaver]

fgoodwin,

 

Thank you for an excellent article. I grew up in that generation that spent our days outdoors. Back then, moms stayed home and few if any houses had air conditioners. TV had 3 channels and the afternoon was filled with Soap operas. Yuck! WE played army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, lived on our bicycles, dug fox holes in our backyards, went to the corner store for candy and balloons, had water balloon fights, shot off saved fireworks, started secret clubs and bought ice cream from the ice cream truck every chance we got. We got dirty. I recently talked with a neighbor of mine and we were comparing our childhoods with our son's. Mine likes the outdoors and would prefer to play outside, but he likes his "screen" time too. The other guy's wife is over protective of their son. He won't go outside if it is too hot or too cold. He won't go outside because he might get west nile from a misquito. He wears very trendy clothes and everything is matched sets. His mom makes him carry a two way radio with him when he does leave the house and she calls him every 10 minutes to make sure he is still alive. He can't go to our neighborhood association pool by himself even though we have trained and paid lifeguards on duty. We have become our own worst enemy and our children will suffer because of it.

[VentureScoutNY]

Thanks for the article!

 

SR540Beaver : "WE played army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, lived on our bicycles, dug fox holes in our backyards, went to the corner store for candy and balloons, had water balloon fights, shot off saved fireworks, started secret clubs and bought ice cream from the ice cream truck every chance we got"

 

Thankfully my childhood sounds quite similars to yours SR540Beaver. I wonder how much of an age difference there is between us? I'm 20. Surpirised my childhood was similar? It all depends where kids grow up and what kind of family life they have. I had Nintendo as a kid, but I only played it when it was a rainy day. I would much rather have been out with my friends, exploring whats left that there is to explore on Long Island. Although we were never far from the sounds of the towns, we could get out of sight of them. In parks, and around lakes I would spend my childhood. My bycicle was my mode of transportation, I treated it as sacred.

 

With my two best friends both fellow Eagle Scouts, I spent every free moment with. I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without the experiences that I have had.

 

Computers were not exactly in every home though when I was a kid. We had one that was used to do school projects and that's about it. The internet was young and I was not interested in it then. Now though I'm sure there is even more to distract kids from the outdoors. But in Beavers day the TV was popular, and in my day video games, and today the computer. But depending on where you grow up and what kind of family you have that doesn't mean there is no hope left for kids. Thanks to the BSA I was able to get even further away, on even bigger adventures. I strngly believe that the BSA can help turn the popular trend of couch potatoe kids today.

 

YIS

[SR540Beaver]

Sad to say, 48 next week. I agree, kids today can have many of the same experiences we had. But they do have many alternatives and distractions that we didn't. While TV was popular when I was a kid, you had NBC, ABC and CBS and the local stations quit broadcasting from midnight to 6:00 AM. No 5 or 6 channels of Nick or Cartoon Network or the Disney channel. My 12 year old son may spend an hour or two playing a game on the PC, but he'll turn right around and spend an hour or two shooting baskets too. If there is camping, boating, swimming, etc available, he is the first in line. He enjoys scouting. His 13 year old buddy around the corner I mentioned has absolutely no interest in scouting. He "thinks" he camps too, but it is in a big 5th wheel trailer with a game console, color TV, VCR, microwave, air conditioner and shower. When he does venture out of the trailer at "camp", it is to ride in their big power boat in his color coordinated Nike swim suit, visor and flip flops. Yep, it IS all in how you are raised regardless of the times.

[fgoodwin]

Reading that article also brought back memories of my own childhood. I'm 50 and grew up in suburban Dallas, although it was closer to rural life then than it is now.

 

I don't remember watching a lot of TV, except on weekends when cartoons were on. We didn't have video games, but we had pinball -- but I never really got into that.

 

But I do remember playing chase / tag games that took us into the woods and across many, many city blocks. Although I never built one, I remember climbing into old treehouses in the woods that were several miles from my house.

 

I caught minnows by hand in the stream below the treehouse, which itself was up a 25-30 foot "cliff", then we would slide down and into the mud below. We caught crawdads in the mud, and chased horney toads on the school grounds. In the summer, I'd catch fireflies and put dozens into a mason jar to see if they'd light my room at night.

 

When I wasn't walking several miles to school, I'd ride my bike. One summer, as they were building a highway near my house, they dug out a huge mound of dirt for an underpass. The mound felt like it was 50' high (it was probably much less). I used to climb to the top, then jump down, feeling like I was flying.

 

I'd take my bike over to another "canyon" and ride off to a landing 20 feet below. In another woods, was a cable strung over a dried creekbed. After football practice, we'd all go over to the cable and swing on it for the heckuvit.

 

I used to pull lawn mower around the several blocks near my house, and mow yards for $5 (front only) or $10 (front and back). I didn't have an edger -- but I made a lot of money back when gas was 25 a gallon. I also threw papers for a couple of years, which meant getting up at 5 in the morning, folding & throwing my papers, then go collecting once a month, all on my own, many miles from home.

 

During summers, I'd do my chores as quickly as possible, then ride off on my bike to the neighborhood swimming pool, and swim all day for a quarter (50 after I turned 12!) without any sunscreen! I'd also collect returnable soda bottles and save the change to buy candy from the 7-11 (which was a "Cabell's" before that) before school every morning.

 

At Halloween, I'd trick or treat over dozens of blocks, covering many miles from my house. And I used to fly kits in a huge cowpasture behind my house, then suffer from chigger bites for the next few weeks.

 

Man, I'd never let my son do today what I used to do back then . . .

[SemperParatus]

Times definitely change. I wonder what our great great grandkids will be doing to occupy their time. Funny thing is that as a child, 'nature' was right out my back door. Now living in surbaban sprawl (but only two minutes from my childhood home) I have to drive to get to 'nature'.

[SR540Beaver]

fgoodwin,

 

What a heathen!!!

[Fuzzy Bear]

Nature Deficit Disorder? How about Scarred out of our Socks Disorder! people chopping kids up and burying them in the backyard, sun shine destroying skin cells and causing skin cancer and death, mosquitoes/West Nile, ticks/ Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lime's Disease ,etc., killer bees, diseases that won't go away, relatives killing their families, kids falling into wells, adults doing horrible things to kids, Scoutmasters doing horrible things, Scout Executives doing terrible things, Priests doing terrible things, etc.

 

The abridged list reads allot like a horror movie script. I played outside when I was a kid and I got into trouble but it did not compare with what is out there now. Snakes and lice used to something to watch out for when playing. It might be best to wrap the kids up in armor and send body guards when they decide to play. It might be just the ticket to overcome their and their family's downright justifiable fright.

 

 

FB

[Prairie_Scouter]

Fuzzy,

 

My wife does volunteer work at a local nature center and just told me that a whole school district cancelled their fall tours because they were afraid of Lime Disease. I wonder if they lock the kids up inside for the whole fall and cover them with plastic when they go to the school buses?

 

Eeek, bugs!

[fgoodwin]

P_S, I know I ate some dirt when I was a kid -- maybe that explains how I got to be where I am today . . .

[SR540Beaver]

Fuzzy,

 

You left out fire ants!

[fgoodwin]

I found an article by author Richard Louv (written five years ago) in which he proposes some solutions to help get kids back to nature.

 

Sadly, Louv doesn't mention Scouting! I hope he corrects this unfortunate omission in his book. In any event, here is the link to the article, "Clearing a Path to Nature":

 

http://www.connectforkids.org/node/173

http://www.connectforkids.org/articles/clearing_a_path_to_nature

 

In it, he suggests the following:

 

Join nature organizations, and encourage them to pay attention to kids (by this, he means the Audobon Society, Sierra Club, etc., but does not mention Scouting)

 

Take a nature break (walking in the woods, visit the zoo, etc.)

 

Go camping, boating, hiking

 

Take nature vacations

 

Encourage schools to incorporate nature into the curriculum (have a biology class adopt a woods and clean it up)

 

Conduct family or school nature treasure hunts and nighttime explorations

 

These are all very good suggestions, but I'm disappointed that Louv didn't recognize that we do all these things in Scouting!

[rkfrance]

You left out all the fun of getting poison ivy or chiggers and scratching for days. Or how about the killer sunburn you got from being out all day with only a pair of shorts on.

 

There was also swimming in the creek, pond, or lake. Did you know there were snapping turtles in there that could take off your hand or foot? Or even that the water could make you sick because of bacteria and parasites?

 

We would invent games. Stay outside playing all night and sleep the next day. (Some people still do that but in a different context). We looked for Bigfoot and UFO's.

 

How bout in the winter? We had a couple of big blizzards when I was young. We had snow drifts 15-20' high that we would sled off of or dig into to build forts. We had knit mittens that got soaking wet and frozen. When you took them off, you put them on the radiator. When I think about it, that smell sticks in my head, yuck. How about snowball fights?

 

We went out for recess any weather except rain or maybe extreme cold and I mean below 0.

 

Now for most kids, there playground is a blacktop. No grass, no trees. But a really nice area to shoot some hoops. They don't go out if there's snow, because there might be ice, someone could fall.

 

I'm all for technology, but there is a trade-off. We use it, sometimes too much. You end up losing the outside world.

 

We sleep in tents in the backyard now? Strangely enough, our biggest concerns are the same at home as they would be at Scout camp; skunks, mosquitos, racoons, and even coyotes. We try to take at least one family outdoor activity each week. My kids don't mind. Yeah, they like to watch TV or play on the computer, but they also know how to ride a bike. How many people will be able to say that question in 20 years?

 

 

[madkins007]

We were just talking about this earlier tonight with some teacher friends.

 

It is quite sad that we 40 somethings may be the last major generation that had childhoods that included the ability to go over ot a friend's house that lived a few blocks away- without an escort. We played outside until the streetlights came on without leaving an itinerary with mom.

 

As our kids were growing up, my significant other was terrified that something would happen to our kids if they left her sight. They could not go to a neighbor's house without an escort, they could not even play in the backyard without one of us standing guard.

 

It does not really surprise me that our kids generally prefer to watch TV or be in their rooms instead of being outside. There was a constant very subtle message that the outdoors was dangerous, that stangers were deadly, etc.

 

We noticed that kids have a harder time entertaining themselves, making friends, sitting still, and paying attention than they used to (not that kids were ever perfect, I understand!)

 

What depresses me in all of this is the idea that it is all based on an atmosphere of artificial fear. It is often suggested that kids are at no more real risk today than there were 20-40 years ago*, but that the risks are so much more publised today... often jsut for the sake of ratings.

 

(*- with the exceptions of gang or drug-related murder in some areas, and abductions by family members)

 

The problem touches not only Scouting, but school, future generations of kids, and more. It has ripple effects across the country.

[SeattlePioneer]

I remember a film that came out twenty five years ago or so --- "The Summer of '42" about the adventures of a boy who was 13 or 14 or so growing up in that year. He and his two buddies ran pretty much wild around the community at that age --- mock capturing the local Coast Guard station many times, and having an affair with a beautiful war widow, who would today be locked up as a child molester with Mary K Laterneau.

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer