Thursday, January 29, 2009
Introduce Yourself!
We're set to start! We had a very good, wide-ranging discussion at the first face-to-face, where we settled on a preliminary set of discussion topics to explore. We who attended the face-to-face got to introduce ourselves to each other, but there are quite a few individuals who will be joining this conversation on line who were not present at that meeting. In your reply to this subject heading, please introduce yourself, briefly describing your background, current position, how long you've been in the field, and anything else you want us to know about yourself.
Re-Training Our Staff
Responding to Louv's challenge requires more than us being convinced or us taking steps to change the physical outdoor environment the children experience. We need to change the thinking, the reactions, and the practices of the entire teaching staff and administration. How do we go about that? What policies need to change? What information needs to be shared to change staff practices and reactions? Do staff have to re-think their attitudes toward messiness and icky things, toward unstructured time, toward acceptable levels of danger or risk? How much do staff have to overcome their fears of nature? Do staff, as well as children, need to experience the benefits of nature as a de-stressor?
A related topic is that Louv presents us with a challenging dilemma. On the one hand, we need to learn to let go, to provide children more opportunities to structure their own experiences and environments, to give them the gift of unscripted, loosely supervised time in more naturalistic spaces. But he also says there is a need for adults to facilitate children's appreciation of nature and to model the sense of wonder and respect we want them to adopt. How do we learn this balance and teach our staffs to do both? How do we strike a balance between giving children more opportunities to explore nature for the sheer joy of it and the temptation to treat contact with nature as a series of teachable moments?
Practical solutions, personal examples, and found resources are welcome!
A related topic is that Louv presents us with a challenging dilemma. On the one hand, we need to learn to let go, to provide children more opportunities to structure their own experiences and environments, to give them the gift of unscripted, loosely supervised time in more naturalistic spaces. But he also says there is a need for adults to facilitate children's appreciation of nature and to model the sense of wonder and respect we want them to adopt. How do we learn this balance and teach our staffs to do both? How do we strike a balance between giving children more opportunities to explore nature for the sheer joy of it and the temptation to treat contact with nature as a series of teachable moments?
Practical solutions, personal examples, and found resources are welcome!
Effects of Nature Deficit Disorder
Louv makes a strong case that children are damaged by losing touch with nature and that, in turn, nature has a healing effect upon damaged children. What are some of these categories of damage and healing? What evidence does Louv present, and how convincing is it?
How does Louv's assertion compare to your own experiences with children? How about in your own personal life? Do you see evidence that we as a species have an instinctual need to be in contact with nature? Are you convinced that many of society's ills can be traced to our increasing isolation from the natural world?
How does Louv's assertion compare to your own experiences with children? How about in your own personal life? Do you see evidence that we as a species have an instinctual need to be in contact with nature? Are you convinced that many of society's ills can be traced to our increasing isolation from the natural world?
Our Own Outdoor Spaces
If we take Louv's arguments seriously, we must re-consider the outdoor spaces we provide in our programs - and uses of spaces beyond our playgrounds. How much do children have an opportunity to experience nature in our programs? What changes would we have to make, in structure or policy, to increase that exposure?
To what extent do our outdoor spaces have what Louv calls "loose parts" that can be used by children in creative and malleable fashion? Are their pragmatic barriers that keep us from taking steps in this direction?
Do we see children in our care seeking out the edges of the spaces we provide them, away from the play structures we have provided? What do they do there? To what extent do children in our programs have a chance to get off by themselves, alone and in small groups, to entertain themselves, explore, create, ponder, invent, and imagine? How much are natural elements a part of those activities?
Are we encouraging or discouraging their attempts to connect with the natural world on their own terms?
To what extent do our outdoor spaces have what Louv calls "loose parts" that can be used by children in creative and malleable fashion? Are their pragmatic barriers that keep us from taking steps in this direction?
Do we see children in our care seeking out the edges of the spaces we provide them, away from the play structures we have provided? What do they do there? To what extent do children in our programs have a chance to get off by themselves, alone and in small groups, to entertain themselves, explore, create, ponder, invent, and imagine? How much are natural elements a part of those activities?
Are we encouraging or discouraging their attempts to connect with the natural world on their own terms?
Fear Factor
A broad-ranging theme in Louv's book is the fears that plague adults and children in our culture, increasingly causing us to keep the unknown, including the natural world, at arm's length. How dangerous is the world today? How have we come to feel this way? What message have contributed to this disproportionate sense of fear? What is an acceptable amount of risk for us to expose our children to? How closely do we need to supervise our children, and what are the dangers of over-supervising them?
A part of this conversational thread is: How has this rubbed off on our children? How are they being affected by our well-intentioned desire to keep them from harm? Are they learning to be good decision makers and to assess for themselves reasonable risk? Are our habits ultimately making them more safe, or less? What do you think would happen if you loosen the reins and let the children in your care have more unstructured, less highly supervised contact with the natural world?
Are the children you work with fearful? In general? Of the natural world and its creatures? Of wind, rain, dirt, and the dark?
A part of this conversational thread is: How has this rubbed off on our children? How are they being affected by our well-intentioned desire to keep them from harm? Are they learning to be good decision makers and to assess for themselves reasonable risk? Are our habits ultimately making them more safe, or less? What do you think would happen if you loosen the reins and let the children in your care have more unstructured, less highly supervised contact with the natural world?
Are the children you work with fearful? In general? Of the natural world and its creatures? Of wind, rain, dirt, and the dark?
Parent Education
One important issue that emerged from our initial conversations was: How do we effectively share this perspective with the parents of the children in our care. As Louv indicates, parents need to re-educate themselves and re-think some of their preconceptions and habits. But they may not take the time to read Louv's book!
So what can we do to change their minds? How do we market this idea? How do we convince families of the importance of their children getting outside more and experiencing nature in less tightly supervised and scripted ways? How do we help them know the benefits of connecting with nature, and the dangers of not doing so? How do we address the fears that drive them to keep their children tightly under their wing?
Share not just good ideas you have gleaned from the book, but your own success stories, if you have them, or resources that you think might prove helpful.
So what can we do to change their minds? How do we market this idea? How do we convince families of the importance of their children getting outside more and experiencing nature in less tightly supervised and scripted ways? How do we help them know the benefits of connecting with nature, and the dangers of not doing so? How do we address the fears that drive them to keep their children tightly under their wing?
Share not just good ideas you have gleaned from the book, but your own success stories, if you have them, or resources that you think might prove helpful.
Our Own Childhoods vs. Childhood Today
I guess I lied in terms of the number of topics. There was one more topic discussants at the face-to-face spent a lot of time on, a topic that makes up a large part of Louv's narrative:
Many of us lived very different childhoods than our children are living today, spending significant amounts of time in outdoor environments with our peers and with little supervision by adults. Here's a place to share those memories and talk about what effect you think those experiences had on you.
To what extent can we turn back the clock and give similar experiences to our own children, or are they a part of a by-gone era that cannot be recreated? What steps have you taken, in your own family or with the children you care for, to give children today a taste of what you once had?
Many of us lived very different childhoods than our children are living today, spending significant amounts of time in outdoor environments with our peers and with little supervision by adults. Here's a place to share those memories and talk about what effect you think those experiences had on you.
To what extent can we turn back the clock and give similar experiences to our own children, or are they a part of a by-gone era that cannot be recreated? What steps have you taken, in your own family or with the children you care for, to give children today a taste of what you once had?
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