Go outside and play

Plain Dealer ^ | Friday, September 15, 2006 | Susan Glaser

[fgoodwin]

Go outside and play

http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1158309564312510.xml&coll=2
http://tinyurl.com/pg6bd

That's the advice nature educators have for increasingly reined-in kids and their very protective parents

Friday, September 15, 2006
Susan Glaser
Plain Dealer Reporter

When Steve Cadwell was a kid, he had the North Chagrin Reservation in his back yard, and he used to disappear for hours.

"My mom said, 'Go outside, and don't come back until the streetlights are on,' " said Cadwell, 47, now executive director of the Nature Center of Shaker Lakes.

Rare is the mother who issues that directive these days.

Thanks to everything from fears about stranger danger to video games and the Internet, the call of the wild has increasingly been replaced by the call of four walls.

Children are spending more and more time indoors, a trend that author Richard Louv says has ramifications for their mental and physical well-being, not to mention the health of Mother Earth.

Louv, who coined the term "nature-deficit disorder" to describe the condition, brings his diagnosis and cure to Cleveland next week in celebration of the nature center's 40th anniversary. His speech to the City Club of Cleveland on Friday, Sept. 22, is open to the public.

Cadwell is hoping to build on Louv's momentum by organizing a "No Child Left Inside" summit for November, during which Cleveland-area environmentalists will try to come up with ways to lure children back outdoors.

Louv said there are no hard statistics on how much time kids spend outside today versus a generation ago. But anecdotal and circumstantial evidence -- increasing childhood obesity rates, multiple hours a day spent in front of the television and computer, as well as a decline in outdoor activities such as biking -- point to a significant gap.

According to Louv, the reasons are many, including parents' fears about the dangers of letting their kids out of their sight. Extensive media coverage of crimes against children make most parents think twice about letting their kids roam the neighborhood.

South Euclid mom Amber Quigley said her children play outside more than she did as a child, but always under her watchful eye.

"They're not allowed outside unless someone is with them," said Quigley, who spent a recent afternoon entertaining her children inside, at Chuck E. Cheese's in Mayfield Heights. "There are so many disgusting people that you hear about every day on television."

University Heights mom Jill McCormac blames television and video games - and parents.

"It's easy to put in a video and go about whatever you need to get done," said McCormac, the mother of an 18-month-old boy.

Parents are also guilty of overscheduling their children to the point that kids don't have hours to just explore outdoors.

"Kids don't muck around like they used to," said David Wright, community outreach coordinator of the nature center. "Even when they do go outside, it's pretty structured."

Organized sports such as youth soccer have grown in the last 20 years, while less-structured outdoor activities such as fishing have declined, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

Even organizations such as the nature center should share some of the blame for building boardwalks and marking trails and admonishing kids who veer from the path, Wright said.

"For a long time, we weren't letting them get off the beaten path," he said. "Even the exploration experience was structured."

Now Wright tells his kids to get off the trail for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Dawn Wrench, director of the Student Environmental Congress at Cleveland's Earth Day Coalition, takes groups of high school students camping in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park every spring.

For students from Cleveland, it's often their first camping experience, sometimes the first time they've been out in nature at night.

"Some students are very fearful about nature," Wrench said. "They're really hesitant, and their parents are hesitant. Will they be safe? Are there bears there? The perception is that it's not safe."

Suburban kids can be equally reluctant, but usually for different reasons, she said. They're worried about being too hot or too cold or that the whole experience is too much effort.

"They hate it, and they fight it, but once they're out there, they love it," Wrench said.

They not only love it, but it's good for them, Louv said. He cited studies that show that exposure to nature can lower stress levels in children and reduce the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In addition, a recent study by a Cornell University researcher found that children who play outdoors in nonstructured activities such as camping and hiking are more likely to care about the environment as adults.

Wrench is trying to instill a similar stewardship in her students, simply by letting them explore outside.

"We all breathe the same air and drink the same water," she said. "It's a common ground. I want to show them that it does matter."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: sglaser@plaind.com, 216-999-4240

[Rte66]

LOL, angel Irwin is already on assignment, I see! We'll know when the bell rings, he's gotten his wings.

[martin_fierro]

Prime example of flaming Ecophobia