Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.
Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.
What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology?
The dugout in the weeds or leaves beneath a backyard willow, the rivulet of a seasonal creek, even the ditch between the front yard and the road-all of these places are entire universes to a young child.
Natural play strengthens children’s self-confidence and arouses their senses-their awareness of the world and all that moves in it, seen and unseen.
The future will belong to the nature-smart-those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the virtual with the real. The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.
An environment-based education movement – at all levels of education – will help students realize that school isn’t supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.
There’s no denying the benefits of the Internet. But electronic immersion, without a force to balance it, creates the hole in the boat – draining our ability to pay attention, to think clearly, to be productive and creative.
Nature does not steal time, it amplifies it.
The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.
We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.
Being close to nature, in general, helps boost a child’s attention span.
Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making.
To take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to withholding oxygen.
Nature has been taken over by thugs who care absolutely nothing about it. We need to take nature back.
Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its preservation. Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing?
Kids are plugged into some sort of electronic medium 44 hours per week.
Kids are absolutely starved for positive adult contact.
Nature is about smelling, hearing, tasting, seeing...
Nature is beautiful, but not always pretty.