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.
Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity.
How can our kids really understand the moral complexities of being alive if they are not allowed to engage in those complexities outdoors?
Each of us-adult or child-must earn nature’s gift by knowing nature directly, however difficult it may be to glean that knowledge in an urban environment.
There is another possibility: not the end of nature, but the rebirth of wonder and even joy.
Kids and adults pay a price for too much tech, and it’s not wholesale.
Studies of children in playgrounds with both green areas and manufactured play areas found that children engaged in more creative forms of play in the green areas.
All spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and nature is a window into that wonder.