Have Our Children Forgotten How to Play Outdoors?

Author Richard Louv believes that America’s children are now suffering from a syndrome he identifies as “nature-deficit disorder.” In his recent book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv suggests that the current generation of American children knows the Discovery Channel better than their own backyards–and that this loss of contact with nature leads to impoverished lives and stunted imagination.

Louv begins by recounting an anecdote involving his son, Matthew. When the boy was about ten years of age, he asked his father: “Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid?” The boy was honestly reflecting on his knowledge of his father’s boyhood. Richard Louv, like most of us who came of age in his generation, spent most of our playing time outdoors, building forts in the woods, exploring every nook and cranny of our yards, and participating in activities that centered in child-organized outdoor fun. Louv reflects, “Americans around my age, baby boomers or older, enjoyed a kind of free, natural play that seems, in the era of kid pagers, instant messaging, and Nintendo, like a quaint artifact.”

Louv argues that this represents nothing less than a sudden shift in the way Americans live, raise their children, and engage the natural world. “Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment–but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. That’s exactly the opposite of how it was when I was a child.”

Looking back, Louv remembers holding to a rather simplistic view of his environment. “As a boy, I was unaware that my woods were ecologically connected with any other forest. No one in the 1950s talked about acid rain or holes in the ozone layer or global warming. But I knew my woods and my field; I knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt path. I wandered those woods even in my dreams.”

The situation is far different now. As Louv reflects, “A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rainforest–but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move.” In this book, Richard Louv is articulating what many of us have been thinking. I recognize that my own boyhood is far removed from that of my son. It seems as if the world has been drastically changed. I grew up in neighborhoods that were typically suburban. Nevertheless, the woods were always nearby. For me, the “woods” included untamed tracts of land that were awaiting future suburban development. Nevertheless, this land was filled with trees, swamps, creeks, snakes, crawdads, and all the creeping and crawling things that used to call boys out into the woods.

Louv understands that this transformation of the way we encounter nature extends even to activities that are supposedly focused on nature itself. “Not that long ago, summer camp was a place where you camped, hiked in the woods, learned about plants and animals, or told firelight stories about ghosts or mountain lions,” Louv recalls. “As likely as not today, ’summer camp’ is a weight-loss camp, or a computer camp. For a new generation, nature is more abstraction than reality. Increasingly, nature is something to watch, to consume, to wear–to ignore.”

In reality, many children have almost no contact with nature. They play indoors, focusing on electronic screens that produce an artificial experience. They are surrounded by creature comforts and watched over by anxious parents who are afraid that violent criminals are lurking behind every green tree. “Our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature,” Louv observes. “That lesson is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors, and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities.”

The larger cultural context is part of the problem. Louv notes that the academic world now seems far more interested in theoretical disciplines than in subjects like natural history and zoology. Beyond this, the biotechnology revolution threatens to blur the lines between humans and other animals–and the line between humans and machines.

Is contact with nature necessary for healthy childhood? Louv is absolutely confident that children have a deep need for contact with the natural world and its wonders. “Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it,” Louv insists. In his view, “whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world separate from parents.” The natural world offers children an opportunity to think, dream, touch, and play out fantasies about how he or she imagines the world. Nature brings a capacity for wonder and a connection with something real that is endlessly fascinating and largely outside human control.

Louv tells of interviewing thousands of children in the course of previous research. At one point, he received this candid comment from a fourth-grade boy in San Diego: “I like to play indoors better, ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”

In the experience of all too many children, the electrical outlets are the determining reality. We have allowed our children to be so seduced by entertainment and information technologies that many believe that without electricity, experience is virtually impossible.

As one mom noted, children now spend much of their time watching. “We’ve become a more sedentary society,” she observes. “When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, we were always outdoors. The kids who stayed indoors were the odd ones. We didn’t have any huge wide-open spaces, but we were always outdoors on the streets–in the vacant lots, jumping rope, or playing baseball or hopscotch. We were out there playing even after we got older.”

Many of today’s children show little inclination to go outdoors at all. Louv describes the environment as experienced by many American children as the “third frontier”–an environment that is characterized by increasing distance from nature, an intellectualized understanding of the animal world, and a disconnection in the human consciousness between food and its origins.

That last point is of particular interest. Louv observes that many children have little knowledge of how food is produced. Lacking any experience with farming, livestock, and the food chain, these children simply assume that food is produced by something like a factory process. Young people may join animal rights groups without knowing anything about the actual animals involved. Louv argues that many college students become vegetarians without understanding that vegetables and vegetable byproducts are not manufactured indoors.

Richard Louv is a keen observer–watching our culture and taking careful note of how nature has become an abstraction for many of us. Why are so many Americans putting television and video screens in their vehicles? Louv observes: “The highway’s edges may not be postcard perfect. But for a century, children’s early understanding of how cities and nature fit together was gained from the backseat: the empty farmhouse at the edge of the subdivision; the variety of architecture, here and there; the woods and fields and water beyond the seamy edges–all that was and still is available to the eye. This was the landscape that we watched as children. It was our drive-by movie.”

These days, many parents allow kids to start the DVD player as soon as the car hits the interstate.

Interestingly, Louv also points to the epidemic of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD], suggesting that a lack of contact with nature may be, at least in part, a cause for the attention deficit and disconnectedness experienced by many young children–especially young boys. He suggests that a “nature-deficit disorder” may be behind the phenomenon now routinely diagnosed as ADHD. Louv goes so far as to suggest that a dose of real contact with the natural world may be more powerful than Ritalin in helping children to overcome patterns of hyperactivity and distraction. The same prescription would likely help parents as well.

Richard Louv is a champion of nature, and Last Child in the Woods is a powerful call for human beings to reconnect with the natural world. It would do us all a world of good to take a walk in the woods, to play outdoors, and to remember that the world is filled with a variety of flora and fauna that defies the imagination and thrills the senses.

Last Child in the Woods is a fascinating book, though at times, Louv leans toward a form of nature mysticism. Nevertheless, Christians will read this book to great profit, remembering that the biblical worldview presents an affirmation of the goodness of creation. After all, Christians know that every atom and molecule of creation testifies of the glory of God.

This is our Father’s world, and we would do well to receive this world and enjoy it, while giving praise and glory to God for the beauty and bounty it contains. We understand that nature is not an end to itself, and we affirm that the creation exists as the theater of God’s glory for the drama of redemption. All this should help Christians to remember that we honor God most faithfully when we receive His good gifts most gratefully.

Christians should take the lead in reconnecting with nature and disconnecting from machines. Taking the kids for a long walk in the woods would be a great start.

"The predators have more rights.

Let's change that. How about a 'One strike and you're out' policy? First offence and they are offered a choice of:

Chemical 'castration' (must not forget women offenders) and incarceration for life.
Assisted suicide.
Repatriation to their birth country.

Let's clear the decks and make our country safe for children again.

I spent the teenage years of my youngest child PHYSICALLY EVICTING her from Playstation and the Internet, and forcing her to go outside for some exercise and fresh air.

Could not relate for at that age I lived outdoors playing ball, going swimming and riding bikes. At least until I turned 16 and got a part-time job.

Disputes were settled on the spot. The learning process was swift.

Most usual solution if the offended party owned the ball or bat: "I'll just take my stuff and go home!" It was a great laboratory of learning how to get along or to save up your allowance so one guy was not the only one with the ball and bat.

A great article that has another message for those who care to think about it. Given the fears parents have about allowing kids the freedom of earlier generations for individual or child-led exploration, it provides further clarity for why the Boy Scouts are so adamant about "Safe Scouting" and keeping those who would prey on the innocent away. Organized activities must ensure a high level of safety in order for boys to get these formative experiences.

Kids should NOT be allowed outdoors.

My daughter is about to turn 3. She ate all my strawberries last year—when they were still green. She has since learned to tell ripe from not ripe. So this year, she makes a beeline for the cherry tomatoes and, morning, noon, or night, picks the ripe ones and pops them in her mouth for fresh eating. Raspberries...blueberries...same thing. Daddy gets nothing!

She is worse than a groundhog. So for heaven’s sake, keep your kids indoors! ;)

Seriously though, this article makes good points. I hate what I am becoming having to work on the computer all the time and then even using it to relax, when we could be doing fun stuff outdoors. If we intend to prevent our kids from turning into tech junkies like us, we could stand to get off the things more ourselves.

Or the basketball games where you got to play if your were one of the first ten to make a foul shot and then one of the first five to make the shot to take on the winners. Or the football games where you made up whatever rules were necessary to make the game playable with 5 or 6 players. Anyone else remember automatic pass numbers or was that a uniquely southern Indiana thing?

Our big tree in our back yard was a pirate ship, rocks were eggs we gathered on our farm, our picnic table was a car. We found scraps of wood and built boats that we floated in the lake. We chased sheep on our neighbor’s farm and our neighbor chased us. We walked to the movies on Saturday mornings. We played football, baseball, basketball, dodge ball. We played in mud puddles and had tomato fights. We had lots of boys in our neighborhood so I played with them and did what they did. We built forts in the woods and got up early on rubbish day to find treasures. We didn’t watch much TV.

I was watching The Sandlot with my 25 yr old daughter recently and she was saying how she wished she lived during that time. Kids today don’t really know how to be kids.

Great post. It’s a topic my husband and I talk about frequently. I have two babies, so they are too young to play outside without my supervision. But I rarely see children out and about the way we used to be. In the mid-80s, my sister and I were always outside; playing with neighborhood kids, riding bikes, hide-and-go-seek, going on long walks. In fact, my mom made us leave the house everyday and told us to be home for lunch and dinner.

I will say, though, safety is a concern. My in-laws live a mile from us and I cannot honestly say that I would allow my kids to walk to their house when old enough. There are just too many bizarre predators lurking around. Simply check your home address on one of the sex offender websites; incredible how many registered ones are out there. Who knows how many un-registered ones.

What really drives me nuts now is watching families at restaurants ignoring each other, staring at their phones, playing games on their ipads, playing on facebook, etc. No one speaks to each other or even looks at one another. No conversations, no real interaction. Why do parents allow children to do this? What kind of zombie-like generation is this going to be?

The latter is a natural concern given all the creeps and weirdos out there, thanks to the left and its constituencies.

Don't allow yourself or your children to fall victim to this mindset! I don't have kids yet, but my wife and I are active GeoCachers. This hide-and-seek sort of treasure-hunting game has taken us to places we never knew existed; parks that have fallen into disrepair; parts of the coastal mangrove forests that have been untouched for decades or more; and areas long hidden from the "cultured" among society.

It has the added bonus of requiring the use of handheld GPS devices, and I've often come upon GXers with their kids leading the charge to a cache. They take their iPhones or handheld GPS devices and go running headlong into spider-web-spanned forest paths or heavily-root-laden walks in search of a cleverly-hidden cache.

I agree wholeheartedly with the assessments in this article, but all is not lost. Families can participate in outdoor activities together if safety is an issue. I've never GXed without a sidearm, and that's something that no one needs to know but you. To boot, when you do come across a magical place that's seemingly untouched by suburban sprawl, there's nothing better, now as an adult, than sitting down in the overgrown grasses and looking to the skies remembering what it was like to be a kid. I hope that those very same memories can be embedded in my child's mind when they're born.

Can't do what you never were taught

Public School is a conditioning process for laziness

Parents work so much to keep their heads above water they have no time for children

It's less taxing to watch action and adventure on TV with a DVD than it is to go climb a tree or explore the woods

Child Predators are everywhere and the law protects them more than it does the children

with the advent of Monsanto Bio crops children are more susceptible to allergies than ever before

So why go outside ? The shame of it is there are so many things to discover on your own outside it does not take a great amount of perspicacity to realize children have very much to learn by stepping out the front door and having many great adventures of their own ...

Do parents have time to show outside adventures to their kids ? I'm afraid in this economy the answer is NOT ENOUGH TIME vacationing and week ends are not time enough but i suppose parents can change or have they been conditioned too by the same public schools and Government Largess that has placed children on the back burner? ...

"Where have you been all day!"
"Out."
"What have you been doing?"
"Nothing."
"Well get in there and wash those dirty hands!"

If anyone has some favorite game they remember from childhood, please post it along with how to play. I was looking around on the net and every article only mentions duck duck goose, hide and seek and other obvious games. I like the more creative games like the baseball rotation someone mentioned.

My kids are 10 and under and like to play outside but with the heat I have been having trouble getting them to go out lately.

Here is a game they often play after dark
http://www.ehow.com/how_2044148_play-ghost-graveyard.html

There is undeveloped land behind the house where I grew up. I cannot count all the ways that the exploration of this land enriched me. Here’s a few:

1) Observed the full growth cycle of frogs, including polliwogs in the stagnant ponds

2) Found all sorts of berries, including my favorite: black caps

3) Spent countless hours flying kites — why doesn’t anyone fly kites any more?

etc..

My 2 cents. I've done a range of research projects involving ecological issues: population studies, predator/prey relationships, food webs and guilds, that sort of thing. I've spent months on end living in tents in some pretty remote places. That said, I guess some folks think I've got something to share, so I get tasked with helping students hone their field-craft - most of them aren't biology types like me, but grad students (education, policy, psych, etc) looking to expand their knowledge base in an interdisciplinary environment, and inadvertently giving me an opportunity to observe them responding to nature. OK - now to my point - the problem isn't that people don't love or want understand nature, the problem is that we've placed such a priority on appearance, a lot of people can't cope with the idea of getting dirty. They obsess over personal cleanliness in a way that prevents them from relaxing to the point where they can stop fretting about a little grime and see the big picture.

Back in the 1950's, even organized crime had enough decency not to sell drugs to our kids. An occasional gangsta wanna be who crossed that line might be discovered early on some random morning dangling from a lamp post in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood as a warning to others.

My grandfather-in-law, a former NYC cop, said that once they identified the corpse and his long criminal record, little further effort was devoted to finding whomever put him there. It was an unwritten code of decency respected by organized crime and police alike. And, for the most part, it worked.

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