I must admit, I love to learn. I especially
love to learn about things that I am passionate about. Recently, Wild Core decided to start a series of new volunteer programs
to inspire and engage people to get out into nature and volunteer. One of our newest and first programs in the series is one
that will benefit Troubled Youth. I always new that nature was healing, as I have felt the power of what “Gaia”, mother earth
can really do. However I was unaware of just how powerful being in nature really was!
Before the organization dives headfirst into a project such as this, we like to research
and study information and materials that will help us to better create a dynamic program that is fitting and beneficial for
all. So I, along with other individuals within Wild Core, started studying. It was at this moment, that I learned just how
powerful and therapeutic, nature really is and can be for everyone; especially youth!
My research of many sources started me off with troubling facts, which of course caught
my attention and made me even more hard pressed and dedicated to making this program work. I learned that most children “plug”
into the world of television long before they even enter school! Check this out: 70% of child-care centers in the U.S Today
use TV during a typical day. Within one year, your average child spends 900 hours in school and nearly 1,023 hours in front
of a TV!
Now according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),
children in the United States watch over
6 hours of TV a day. The AAP guidelines say children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality
programming. This coupled with other surprising data shows that children are not getting enough of nature, and if they are
getting nature, it’s nothing like what the older generations experienced. By the time that the 1990’s hit, the radius around
the home where children were allowed to play and roam on their own, shrunk to a ninth of what it used to be in 1970.
Want more, get this:
· Today, your average eight-year-old child will be able to better identify
cartoon characters opposed to native species, such as beetles and oak trees, in their own yard or community.
· Doctors are doubling the rate at which they prescribe antidepressants to children in the past five
years!
· A recent study showed that too much computer use is bad news for a child’s developing mind.
Richard Louv, Author of: Last Child in the Woods (my favorite book) is a child advocacy
expert. He calls the link between the lack of nature and today’s “wired generation” to be called Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD).
Although it is not a medical condition recognized by doctors and members of the medical community, it really should be. He
links NDD to many of today’s childhood problems like but not limited to: obesity, anxiety and depression as well as Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD).
I learned from Richard Louv’s work as well as many other incredible materials I researched
that, Nature plays a profound role and is essential for healthy childhood development – physical, emotional and spiritual.
Nature has been identified as a potent therapy for depression, obesity, ADD and more.
Even integrating the environment and nature into our education system is therapeutic. Studies show that children who were
exposed to Environmental-based education dramatically improved in standardized test scores and grade point averages. They
even developed skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making as well as leadership skills. Creativity
is also stimulated by a child’s experiences in nature.
There are studies that show how children with disabilities such as autism and other
such disorders where almost ENTIRLY HEALD by just being submersed in Nature. Nature provides a place of comfort for youth,
it’s almost an endemic instinct to want to be apart of nature. Children want to be apart of nature, it is healing for them.
Check out this quick story about a boy named Joseph and his therapist.
Joseph was a 12-year-old boy whose life was complicated by communication problems and social
difficulties. From the onset of therapy, which took place at the school he attended for children with special needs, Joseph
made it clear that he was not comfortable in the counseling room. Instead, he invited his therapist for walks near his classroom.
In time, the boundaries of these walks expanded from inside the well-known area of the institution to a nearby, yet unfamiliar,
riverbank. As time went by, the boy chose a specific place on the riverbank, under a willow tree, hidden from passers-by.
As the therapeutic goal of these sessions was to help Joseph expand his social and communication skills, the encounters began
with concrete actions such as brewing tea over a fire. As time progressed, it became evident that he was paying careful attention
to maintaining the exact location, manner, and order of the activities. In addition, it became clear that he was busily collecting
sticks and stones from the riverbank to construct a small barrier around the area in which the “tea ceremony” took place,
making sure it was performed precisely in the center. Little by little a relationship between Joseph and his therapist was
created through the construction of the barrier, the direct physical encounter in nature, and the repetition of activities
and ceremonies conducted in a specific place. A crucial turning point occurred when the construction of the barrier surrounding
the “tea place” was completed. Joseph dramatically expanded his use of language and his desire to connect with the therapist
and to tell his own story. Later on, as winter began, sessions moved indoors to the clinic and the work continued through
story making and drawing. When difficult, conflict-riddled situations arose, Joseph would once again lead his therapist to
the place on the riverbank, which by then had been named the “Home-in-Nature.” It was as though Joseph needed to check that
the safe sacred space that he and his therapist had physically built together, a space that also symbolized their therapeutic
alliance, was still there. It seemed like he wanted to see what had changed during the
season and what needed to be reconstructed.
So if nature
is so healing and beneficial then why are children not being exposed to nature as much as they should be? Computer, televisions
and video games compete for their time. But today’s electronics are only part of the problem. Parents are raising children
in a different world. Fears of strangers, traffic, even virus carrying insects such as mosquitoes and ticks are keeping children
indoors. The media is feeding off this, giving it unneeded negative attention.
Schools are assigning more and more homework. It seems as if children don’t have time for nature, a very essential part of
their growth and development. I myself am a student in school, and understand very well the pressures that today’s youth face,
just to pass the class. I am in no way undermining the importance of a good education. As I mentioned up top I love to learn,
I think it is very important for children to learn and gain as much knowledge as possible. But I believe in a happy medium.
Also look
at today’s world, it is a developing world, new technology and exploding industries are over taking any available open space,
thus there is less access to natural areas. I also read of a recent study that showed how children developed and reacted to
different outdoor play environments. Children who were exposed to natural areas of play like, forests, river banks, fields
etc, scored higher than those who played on tar playgrounds and in cities. The children who where exposed to the natural play
areas had and were able to use vital skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and demonstrated more definitive roles
as leaders.
Parents, guardians
and organizations have the power to insure that children have access to nature – the vital resource. It is within our hands
to make sure that our children don’t end up being “The last child in the woods”.
Wild Core
has taken the initiative to be a leader for Connecticut
in this form of thinking. Wild Core full heartedly believes in the power of nature and the importance of a healthy environment
and what it means for the people who share the earth. We are setting the tone as an example for other organizations to follow.
That’s why we decided to create this series of volunteer programs.
Our hope is
that by creating this program, we can help troubled youth, before it is to late. We are working with a few other local organizations
to help us kick start the program. By engaging these young individuals in volunteer activities within nature, we hope to inspire
them to be more aware and conscious of the environment. We hope to foster and help them develop skills that will make them
to become better people.
If this
program sounds like it will be of interest to you, please contact me to find out how you can get involved. We will need more
volunteers to help us with running the program. We are also welcoming other organizations who work with youth to come and
be apart of this great program. Together as one, we can and will make a difference for the environment and the people who
inhabit mother earth.
