I have fond memories of being a kid and running wild in the summers. I mean, being let loose on our own, me and my best friend and our dogs, until we were called home by the street lights or a cow bell ringing. We had neighborhood games of kickball, red rover, hide and seek, swinging statues, volleyball, and badminton. We had no air conditioning in East Tennessee in those early days of the sixties, and we'd come inside panting from playing hard and drinking glasses of water from the tap that tasted so sweet. You'd only cool off after taking a bath and putting on pajamas and hanging out in front of the old fans that swung lazily back and forth throughout the night. We slept with our windows open. We knew the smell of fresh air. We were close to the earth.
These days, we are used to artificial environments and wonder at the smell of damp earth and fresh breezes when we throw our windows open in the Spring and Fall. I love the smell of my son's hair when he comes in from playing out in the yard. Such a striking difference from being inside all day.
Though I am not truly complaining about modern conveniences (we like our air conditioning in Florida where the temps reach in the 100s in the summer), I do believe as children we have lost the connection to nature that many of us older generations had when we were kids.
My older sisters speak of being free to roam all over the air force base when they were kids and my father was a pilot. I often wonder what it's like for children now who are constantly supervised, who have not known the excitement of planning adventures each day around the neighborhood, building forts (in my generation, it was secret hideouts), and climbing trees. We were shooed out of the house on beautiful days. Only rainy days were saved for plopping in front of the TV and watching cartoons.
When I was in fifth grade, my entire class went on a field trip up to the Blue Ridge Mountains which were not that far away from our city. We were away from home for one solid week. We divided into "teams" and did all of our learning outside. We were given journals and were required to remain completely silent for at least 30 minutes to one hour each day. We all had our own large river rocks to sit on during this meditation time that we chose ourselves in the middle of a beautiful running stream that meandered through the middle of camp.
I will never forget that experience.
There is an organization called No Child Left Inside that has been created to allow children to reconnect with Nature as their natural classroom, and to understand the importance of their role in helping preserve it and to foster a love for it. Thought you might want to have a look.
Get 'Em Outside Video
5 comments:
We're trying, honest, still battling with that old campaign.
Best wishes
The video says it is no longer available, but I agree that our kids need more time in nature.
I have to practically force my kids outside, but once out, they tend to love it. Mostly. Unless it's too bright, or there's a bee.
Don't know what happened to the video, Michelle. I can still get it, though.
My husband and friends have similar conversations, we, too, ran wild all summer, and our kids don't know anything about that. We also went for long car rides with no entertainment, no air conditioning, just our minds left to wander as we looked out the open window - another thing my kids don't know how to do...
I was in the generation that got kicked out of the house and only let back in for meals (we had to get drinks of water out of the hose). ;)
My mom doesn't even feel guilty about it.
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