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Our children need to explore the natural world
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Dear Mr. Wan Lixin!
My wife Karen’s biological daughter Lisa (she also has two stepdaughters) is in her early 30s and is a teacher of 3rd grade students here in Portland.
As the children in her classroom collectively speak 17 languages, and as many of them come from homes with difficulties of one sort or another (single parents, near-poverty, etc.), she spends a lot of her time doing very basic things with them. At least one of the most disruptive of these is a child suffering from attention deficit disorder (ADD).
I mention this specifically in the context of your column (Rise of technology and obsession with gadgets blinds us to the wonder of nature, Shanghai Daily May 27) because — in the US at least in recent decades — there has been a significant spike in the number of children diagnosed with this problem. This may, in part, be due to better (or even over-) diagnosis in recent years, but there is a growing suspicion that it may have environmental causes, too.
When I was a boy over 60 years ago we did not yet know of ADD. Sure, some of the kids in classes were more prone to acting out than others, but I cannot remember a single instance of someone whose behavior was consistently disruptive.
Back to Karen’s daughter Lisa.
In a recent conversation about disruptive children, especially the number to which ADD was attributed as the primary problem, she suggested that I read “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” by Richard Louv. Although I did buy it, I have not yet read it, so I offer to you what I remember from Lisa’s description of the book.
Your column reminded me of his book because he, too, was stunned by how few children play outside, these days, let alone have the experience of “the woods,” a metaphor for the wonders of the natural world. Apparently he raises developmental issues that may arise from this, not just because we have lost contact with these riches, but also, because for 99.99 percent of our species existence, we lived there and not inside skyscrapers, concrete and asphalt cities that stretch for miles and in which only artificial islands of “nature” remain.
With brains and eyes evolved to discern patterns and movement through varied terrain and distance, what happens when our childhood development occurs, rather, primarily through exploring flat surfaces just inches from our face or, at best, even playing “outside” in controlled, linear, intra-urban environments?
I really must read that book. But I wanted to share it with you because I believe you (and Lisa and me and a whole lot of other people) are right to be very concerned about what has become “modern childhood.”
Even those parents who limit their children’s face-time with phones or tablets cannot extend their protection to the classroom, school yard, or the homes of their friends. One father I knew recently took away the smartphone his teenage daughter had (and was using constantly) and replaced it with an “old-fashioned” phone-only device. He proudly noted that he had observed his daughter playing outside more now.
I do wonder how future historians will assess our wisdom.
A century ago, the modern automobile was heralded as a wonderful advance in transportation. Well, it certainly was that. But it also had consequences unforeseen — many of them even inconceivable at the time, among them: diminished support for mass transit in the US, urban sprawl and the breaking up of true neighborhood communities, changed sexual mores (much could take place “in private” in the back seat of a car), the deemed necessity of converting more and more of our precious topsoil into paved roads, etc.
I suspect that, one way or another, our stumbling, bumbling ignorance will — sooner or later — see us going “back to nature,” although perhaps in a less happy manner than we would wish.
Continued best wishes!
Greg Cusack
Portland, Oregon
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