Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Cure for Nature Deficit Disorder

Nature Deficit Disorder is a term coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, refers to the alleged trend that children are spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen.
It appears that these capped crusaders are thoroughly enjoying the freedom they've been granted to explore the natural surroundings in the Mount Pisgah Arboretum, with family and friends nearby learning about hunting and cooking wild mushrooms and sampling the fare at the Mushroom Festival village.

I came upon these two lads playing together under the woodland canopy, leaping and flying about in what appears to be a dry streambed layered in fallen leaves, which softened their repeated and otherwise hard rocky landings.


 
 
 
 
 
 


Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events of their lives. - Thomas Berry

6 comments:

  1. What?!!! Spending time outdoors in the natural world could be preferable to time in front of a "tube". Cris, have you been reading R. Carson ? Thanks for this post. I'll know in a minute if I got the sequence right. My techy friend Morgan says maybe the settings on you blog could be changed so I could post with greater probability of success.

    hope you are feeling good and well.

    kw

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  2. Yeh, Ken! ... now back away from the 'puter; go outside and play. ; )

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  3. It has been a warm and sunny day and my bike took me some miles. Saweet. Physical effort removes stiffness from joints and lifts my spirits. Way more than tube time.

    ; -)

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  4. This past summer, during a day long drenching rain two neighbor girls came outside and began playing in the puddles that collect at the base of our back yards. They splashed, kicked, jumped and generally made mayhem in the water and looked like they were having a ball. I watched them for a long time, and it really put a lot of joy in my heart

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  5. Kate, I love your imagery of the girls at play! Takes me back and puts a smile on my face... I loved puddle-jumping in my galoshes, my girls enjoyed splashing about in their red rubber boots, and now my grandchildren are having their fun on walkabouts in the rain... it is pure joy!

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