Interaction with Nature during the Middle Years: Its
Importance in Children's Development & Nature's Future
By Randy White
Almost 150 years ago, nineteenth century psychologist Herbert Spencer published
his book, Principals of Psychology, in which he espoused the "surplus
energy theory," explaining that the main reason for children's
play is to get rid of surplus energy. Although his theory has been rejected
by researchers and developmental theorists, it has had a lasting and unfortunate
influence on the design of children's outdoor school environments (Malone
2003). As a result of Spencer's theory, schoolyards are seen as areas
for physical play during recess and for sport, where children 'burn
off steam', and not for the other domains of development or for learning.
In schools, playgrounds typically have manufactured climbing equipment and
sports fields, and other than manicured grass, are void of nature and vegetation.
The schoolyards for multitudes of children are not green, but gray (Moore
& Wong 1997), many analogous to a parking lot (Worth 2003)
School designers' and administrators' point-of-view that schoolyards
should be designed for surveillance of students, ease of maintenance and to
have a break from children, rather than stimulate the children themselves,
has also contributed to the barren design of schoolgrounds where there is
neither shade, shelter nor opportunities to interact with nature. (McKendrick,
Bradford & Fielder 2000, Cheskey 2001, Malone 2003). Schoolyard design
also reflects a lack of understanding of how quality outdoor play environments
can provide children rich educational opportunities, particularly in the area
of social skills and environmental learning (Evan 1997). Roger Hart, a noted
developmental psychologist, attributes much of the problem to an underestimation
of the importance of play to children; that it is considered discretionary
rather than essential to child development, and that this misguided concept
of play has trickled down into the play areas we create for children, resulting
in lackluster environments with little value (Shell 1994).
Human nature itself has also helped perpetuate this design paradigm. We are
all creatures of our experience, and our common experiences usually shape
the conventional wisdom, or paradigms, by which we operate. When most adults
were children, schoolyards were asphalt areas with manufactured, fixed playground
equipment such as swings, jungle gyms and slides, and sports fields, where
they went for recess. So most adults see this as the appropriate model for
a schoolyard.
Children's History of Contact with Nature
Modern humans (homo sapiens sapiens) evolved and have lived in intimate
contact with nature, in the savannahs and forests, for almost their entire
120,000± year history. The cultivation of plants and the domestication
of animals allowed our ancestors to dwell in permanent settlements, to expand
their population more rapidly, thus beginning a long, sad divorce from nature
(Manning 2004). It wasn't until recent history that most people lived
in cities. But even until very recent history, children still grew up with
intimate contact with nature.
For most of history, when children were free to play, their first choice
was often to flee to the nearest wild place - whether it was big tree or brushy
area in the yard or a watercourse or woodland nearby (Pyle 2002). Two hundred
years ago, most children spent their days surrounded by fields, farms or in
the wild nature at its edges. By the late twentieth century, many children's
environments had become urbanized (Chawla 1994). But even then, as recently
as 1970, children had access to nature and the world at large. They spent
the bulk of their recreation time outdoors, using the sidewalks, streets,
playgrounds, parks, greenways, vacant lots and other spaces "left over"
during the urbanization process or the fields, forests, streams and yards
of suburbia (Moore 2004, White & Stoecklin 1998). Children had the freedom
to play, explore and interact with the natural world with little or no restriction
or supervision.
Children's Extinction of Experience
The lives of children today are much different. Children today have few
opportunities for free play and regular contact with the natural world. Their
physical boundaries have shrunk (Francis 1991, Kyttä 2004) due to a number
of factors. A 'culture of fear' has parents afraid for their children's
safety. Due to 'stranger danger', many children are no longer
free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless accompanied
by adults (Pyle 2002, Herrington & Studtmann 1998, Moore & Wong 1997).
Many working families can't supervise their children after school, giving
rise to latchkey children who stay indoors or attend supervised after-school
activities. Furthermore, children's lives have become structured and scheduled
by adults, who hold the mistaken belief that this sport or that lesson will
make their children more successful as adults (Moore & Wong 1997, White
& Stoecklin 1998). The culture of childhood that played outside is gone
and children's everyday life has shifted to the indoors (Hart 1999,
Moore 2004). As a result, children's opportunity for direct and spontaneous
contact with nature is a vanishing experience of childhood (Rivkin 1990, Chawla
1994, Kellert 2002, Pyle 2002, Kuo 2003, Malone 2004). One researcher has
gone so far as to refer to this sudden shift in children's lives and
their loss of free play in the outdoors as a 'childhood of imprisonment'
(Francis 1991). Childhood and regular play in the natural world is no longer
synonymous. Pyle (1993) calls this the 'extinction of experience',
which breeds apathy towards environmental concerns.
Kellert (2002) says society today has become "so estranged from its
natural origins, it has failed to recognize our species' basic dependence
on nature as a condition of growth and development."
Not only have children's play environments dramatically changed in
the last few decades, but also the time they have to play has decreased. Between
1981 and 1997, the amount of time children ages 6 to 8 in the U.S. played
decreased 25%, by almost four hours per week, from 15 hours a week to 11 hours
and 10 minutes. During the same period, the time they spent in school increased
by almost 5 hours (Hofferth & Sandberg 2000).
The Importance of Children's Interaction with Nature
A growing body of literature shows that the natural environment has profound
effects on the well-being of adults, including better psychological well-being,
superior cognitive functioning, fewer physical ailments and speedier recovery
from illness (Wells 2003). It is widely accepted that the environment is likely
to have a more profound effect on children due to their greater plasticity
or vulnerability (Wells 2003).
Research is providing convincing evidence of the significant benefits of
experiences in nature to children. Findings include:
- Children with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
are better able to concentrate after contact with nature (Taylor 2001).
- Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests
of concentration and self-discipline. The greener, the better the scores
(Wells 2000, Taylor 2002).
- Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced
motor fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and they are
sick less often (Grahn, et al. 1997, Fjortoft 2001).
- When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse
with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative
skills (Moore & Wong 1997, Taylor, et al. 1998, Fjortoft 2000).
- Exposure to natural environments improves children's cognitive development
by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills (Pyle 2002).
- Nature buffers the impact of life stress on children and helps them deal
with adversity. The greater the amount of nature exposure, the greater the
benefits (Wells 2003).
- Play in a diverse natural environment reduces or eliminates bullying
(Malone & Tranter 2003).
- Nature helps children develop powers of observation and creativity and
instills a sense of peace and being at one with the world (Crain 2001).
- Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked
with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder (Cobb 1977,
Louv 1991). Wonder is an important motivator for life long learning (Wilson
1997).
- Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other
(Moore 1996).
- Natural environments stimulate social interaction between children (Moore
1986, Bixler, Floyd & Hammutt 2002).
- Outdoor environments are important to children's development of
independence and autonomy (Bartlett 1996).
These findings are consistent with the literature showing the benefits of
nature to adults.
Mediated Experience
Today, with children's lives disconnected from the natural world,
their experiences are predominately mediated in media, written language and
visual images (Chawla 1994). The virtual is replacing the real (Pyle 2002).
TV, nature documentaries, National Geographic and other nature channels and
environmental fundraising appeals are conditioning children to think that
nature is exotic, awe-inspiring and in far, far away, places they will never
experience (Chipeniuk 1995). Children are losing the understanding that nature
exists in their own backyards and neighborhoods, which further disconnects
them from knowledge and appreciation of the natural world.
Loss of Contact with Nature is Nature's Loss
Not only does the loss of children's contact with the natural world
negatively impact the growth and development of the whole child and their
acquisition of knowledge, it also sets the stage for a continuing loss of
the natural environment. The alternative to future generations who value nature
is the continued exploitation and destruction of nature. Research is clearly
substantiating that an affinity to and love of nature, along with a positive
environmental ethic, grow out of children's regular contact with and
play in the natural world (Bunting 1985; Chawla 1988; Wilson 1993; Pyle 1993;
Chipeniuk 1994; Sobel 1996, 2002 & 2004; Hart 1997; Moore & Wong 1997;
Kals et al. 1999; Moore & Cosco 2000; Lianne 2001; Kellert 2002; Bixler
et al. 2002; Kals & Ittner 2003; Schultz et al. 2004).
Schoolyards Offer Hope
With children's access to the natural world becoming increasingly
limited, schools, where children spend 40 to 50 hours per week, may be mankind's
last opportunity to reconnect children with the natural world and create a
future generation that values and preserves nature (Herrington & Studtmann
1998, Malone & Tranter 2003). Many authorities believe the window of opportunity
for the formation of bonding with and positive attitudes towards the natural
environment develops sometime during early and middle childhood and requires
regular interaction with nearby nature (Cohen & Horm 1993; Wilson 1993;
Sobel 1990, 1996 & 2004; Kellert 2002)
Premature Abstraction Breeds Biophobia
The problem with most school environmental education programs is that they
approach education from an adult's, rather than a child's perspective.
Children's curiosity with the natural world and unique way of knowing
requires discovery and exploratory learning, rather than a pure didactic approach.
One of the main problems with most environmental education is premature abstraction,
teaching children too abstractly. One result of trying to teach to children
at too early of an age about abstract concepts like rainforest destruction,
acid rain, ozone holes and whale hunting can be dissociation. When we ask
children to deal with problems beyond their cognitive abilities, understanding
and control, they can become anxious, tune out and develop a phobia to the
issues. In the case of environmental issues, biophobia - a fear of the
natural world and ecological problems - a fear of just being outside - can
develop. Studying about the loss of rainforests and endangered species may
be perfectly age appropriate starting in middle school, but is developmentally
inappropriate for early grade school (Cohen & Horn-Wingerg 1993, Sobel
1996, Coffey 2001, Kellert 2002).
John Burroughs cautioned that, "Knowledge without love will not stick.
But if love comes first, knowledge is sure to follow." The problem with
most environmental education programs is that they try to impart knowledge
and responsibility before children have been allowed to develop a loving relationship
with the earth (Sobel 1996). Children's emotional and affective values
of nature develop earlier than their abstract, logical and rational perspectives
(Kellert 2002). We need to allow children to develop their biophilia, their
love for the Earth, before we ask them to save it. Rather then books and lectures,
nature itself is children's best teacher (Coffey 2001). The more personal
children's experience with nature, the more environmentally concerned
and active children are likely to become (Bunting & Cousins 1985, Harvey
1989).
The Greening of Schoolyards
Fortunately, there is a growing movement with schools in the Western world
to transform parts of their schoolyards from barren areas of grass, asphalt,
and wood chips with manmade equipment into naturalized environments for children's
exploration and play, that also supports classroom learning. One program,
Learning Through Landscapes, set out in the 1980's to transform
all the schoolyards in Britain (Worth 2003). Additional programs are underway
in Canada (Evergreen Society), Australia (Learnscapes) Scotland
and Sweden (Skolans Uterum) (Moore & Cosco 2000). In the U.S.,
there is a growing natural schoolyard movement to reconnect children with
nature. States, including Maryland, California, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire,
Utah and Vermont have initiated greening programs (Raver 1999). These natural
schoolyards include mini-forest, 'wild habitats', ponds and streams,
butterfly gardens, insects, animals and gardening areas. Many of these programs
take the approach of using both place-based and project-based education to
both integrate their naturalized schoolyards into the full curriculum and
for environmental learning, making the schoolyards extensions of the classroom
where experiential learning through discovery and hands-on experiences with
nature can take place both during and outside of classroom time (Sobel 2004,
Malone & Tranter, 2004).
Benefits of Naturalize Schoolyards
Research on natural schoolyards is demonstrating the broad benefits this
paradigm shift in schoolyard design and teaching has in addition to the developmental
benefits of offering children play and learning in naturalized environments.
Children learn by constructing their own knowledge about the world, not by
memorizing facts (Piaget 1962). Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner says that
scholastic knowledge "seems strictly bound to school settings,"
while outdoor education fosters "connected knowing," where education
is part of, rather than separate from life (Gardner 1991). Sobel (2004) reviewed
the research on naturalized schoolyards and found that they have a positive
impact on children's development of environmental stewardship values,
and the greater the diversity of the natural landscapes, the greater children's
appreciation of nature and experiences in it. Malone and Tranter (2003) found
that the schoolyards most conductive to environmental learning were unstructured,
e.g., forest areas, not specifically designed for children's play. The
combination of both formal learning and informal, positive experiences in
the naturalized environments where found most associated with the development
of children's responsible behaviors (Fisman 2001). A study of ten schools
and a statewide program by the National Environmental Education and Training
Foundation (2000) found that when schools use the context of local areas and
naturalized schoolyards in their instructional practices, academic performance
improves in reading, math, science, social studies and writing. A study of
40 schools in California that used the natural environment as "an integrated
context of learning" with hands-on, project-based learning found that
student performance improved in standardized test scores, grade point average,
willingness to stay on task, adaptability of different learning styles and
problem solving (Leiberman & Hoody 1998). Studies also show a reduction
in anti-social behavior such as violence, bullying, vandalism and littering
a drop in absenteeism (Coffey 2001, Moore & Cosco 2000).
Conclusion
Children and society as a whole can benefit significantly by maximizing
both the informal play and formal learning opportunities that natural schoolyards
offer children. Nature schoolyards are places where children can reclaim the
magic that is their birthright, the ability to learn in their unique experiential
way through exploration and discovery in the natural world. When natural schoolyards
are also integrated with the full curriculum, they enhance both children's
academic and environmental education. But perhaps even more important, natural
schoolyards offer the hope that future generations will develop the environmental
values to become stewards of the Earth and the diversity of Nature.
Resources on the Web:
References
- Bartlett, Sheridan (1996). Access to Outdoor Play and Its Implications
for Healthy Attachments. Unpublished article, Putney, VT
- Bixler, Robert D., Floyd, Myron E. & Hammutt, William E.
(2002). Environmental Socialization: Qualitative Tests of the Childhood
Play Hypothesis, Environment and Behavior, 34(6), 795-818
- Bunting, T.E. & L.R. Cousins (1985). Environmental dispositions
among school-age children. Environment and Behavior, 17(6)
- Chawla, Louise, (1988). Children's Concern for the Natural
Environment, Children's Environments, (5)3
- Chawla, Louise, (1994). Editors' Note, Children's
Environments, (11) 3
- Cheskey, Edward, (2001). How Schoolyards Influence Behavior.
in Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning, (eds)
Grant, Tim and Littlejohn, Gail., Toronto: Green Teacher and Gabriola Island,
BC: New Society Publishers
- Chipeniuk, Raymond C. (1994). Naturalness in Landscape: An
Inquiry from a Planning Perspective (PhD dissertation), University of Waterloo,
Ontario.
- Chipeniuk, R. (1995). Childhood foraging as a means of acquiring
competent human cognition about biodiversity, Environment and Behavior,
27, 490-512
- Cobb, E. (1977). The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood,
New York, Columbia University Press.
- Coffey, Ann (2001). Transforming School Grounds, in Greening
School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning, (eds) Grant, Tim and
Littlejohn, Gail., Toronto: Green Teacher and Gabriola Island, BC: New Society
Publishers
- Cohen, Stewart & Horm-Wingerg, D. (1993). Children and the
environment: Ecological awareness among preschool children. Environment
and Behavior, 25(1), 103-120
- Crain, William (2001). Now Nature Helps Children Develop. Montessori
Life, Summer 2001.
- Evan, J. (1997). Rethinking Recess: Signs of Change in Australian
Primary Schools. Education Research and Perspectives, 24(1): 14-27
- Fishman, Lianne (2001). Child's Play: An empirical study
of the relationship between the physical form of schoolyards and children's
behavior. MESc 2001 Accessed June 1, 2004 from www.yale.edu/hixon/research/pdf/LFisman_Playgrounds.pdf
- Fjortoft, I. And J. Sageie (2000). The Natural Environment as
a Playground for Children: Landscape Description and Analysis of a Natural
Landscape. Landscape and Urban Planning, 48(1/2) 83-97
- Fjortoft, Ingunn (2001). The Natural Environment as a Playground
for Children: The Impact of Outdoor Play Activities in Pre-Primary School
Children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29(2): 111-117
- Francis, Mark (interview) au Kathryn Devereaux (1991) "Children
of Nature", U. C. Davis Magazine, 9(2) University of California,
Davis.
- Gardner, H. (1991). The tensions between education and development.
Journal of Moral Development, 20(2), 113-125
- Grahn, P., Martensson, F., Llindblad, B., Nilsson, P., &
Ekman, A., (1997). UTE pa DAGIS, Stad & Land nr. 93/1991 Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,
Alnarp
- Hart, Roger (1997). Children's Participation: The theory
and practice of involving young citizens in community development and environmental
care, Earthscan Publications Limited, UK
- Hart, Roger (1999). au Anne Raver, Tutored by the Great Outdoors
at a Southern Pines Playground, New York Times, October 7, 1999.
New York
- Harvey, M. (1989). The Relationship between Children's
Experiences with Vegetation on Schoolgrounds. Journal of Environmental
Education 21(2): 9-18
- Herrington, Susan, & Studtmann, Ken (1998). Landscape Interventions:
New Directions for the design of children's outdoor play environments.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 42, 191-205
- Hofferth, Sandra L. & Sandberg, John F. (2000). Changes
in American Children's Time, 1981-1997, Center for the Ethnography
of Everyday Life. Accessed June 1, 2004 from ceel.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/
- Kals, E., Schumacher, D., & Montada, L. (1999). Emotional
affinity towards nature as a motivational basis to protect nature. Environment
& Behavior, 31(2), 178-202
- Kals, Elisabeth & Ittner, Heidi (2003). Children's
Environmental Identity, Indicators and Behavioral Impacts, in Identity
and the Natural Environment - The Psychological Significance of Nature,
Clayton, Susan and Opotow, Susan (eds), The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Kellert, Stephen R. (2002). Experiencing Nature: Affective,
Cognitive, and Evaluative Development, in Children and Nature: Psychological,
Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations. Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press.
- Kuo, Frances (2003). book review of Children and Nature: Psychological,
Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations Children, Youth and Environments,
13(1) accessed June 12, 2004 from cye.colorado.edu:8080/CYElom/BookReviews/BookReview49
- Kyttä, Marketta, (2004). The extent of children's
independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria
for child-friendly environments, Journal of Environmental Psychology,
24(2), 179-198
- Leiberman, Gerald & Hoody, Linda, (1998). Closing the Achievement
Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrated Context for Learning (San Diego,
California: State Education and Environmental Roundtable)
- Louv, Richard (1991). Childhood's Future, New York, Doubleday.
- Malone, Karen & Tranter, Paul (2003). Children's Environmental
Learning and the Use, Design and Management of Schoolgrounds, Children,
Youth and Environments, 13(2), Accessed June 9, 2004 from cye.colorado.edu
- McKendrick, J., Bradford, M., & Fielder, A. (2000). Kid
Customer? Commercialization of Playspace and the Commodification of Childhood.
Childhood, 7: 295-314
- Moore, Robin C. (1986). The Power of Nature Orientations of
Girls and Boys Toward Biotic and Abiotic Play Settings on a Reconstructed
Schoolyard. Children's Environments Quarterly, 3(3)
- National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (2000).
Environment-based Education, The National Environmental Education
& Training Foundation, Washington, DC
- Moore, Robin (1996). Compact Nature: The Role of Playing and
Learning Gardens on Children's Lives, Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture,
8, 72-82
- Moore, R. & Wong, H. (1997). Natural Learning: Rediscovering
Nature's Way of Teaching. Berkeley, CA MIG Communications.
- Moore, Robin & Cosco, Nilda, (2000). Developing an Earth-Bound
Culture Through Design of Childhood Habitats, Natural Learning Initiative.
paper presented at Conference on People, Land, and Sustainability: A Global
View of Community Gardening, University of Nottingham, UK, September 2000).
Accessed June 12, 2004 from www.naturalearning.org/earthboundpaper.html
- Moore, R. (2004). Countering children's sedentary lifestyles
by design. Natural Learning Initiative. Accessed June 12, 2004 from www.naturalearning.org
- Olds, Anita ( ). Children Come First Video, Community
Playthings
- Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imagination in children.
New York: Norton
- Pyle, Robert (1993). The thunder trees: Lessons from an urban
wildland. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Pyle, Robert (2002). Eden in a Vacant Lot: Special Places, Species
and Kids in Community of Life. In: Children and Nature: Psychological,
Sociocultural and Evolutionary Investigations. Kahn, P.H. and Kellert,
S.R. (eds) Cambridge: MIT Press
- Raver, Anne (1999). Tutored by the Great Outdoors at a Southern
Pines Playground, New York Times, October 7, 1999. New York
- Rivkin, Mary S. (1990). The Great Outdoors: Restoring Children's
Rights to Play Outside. National Association for the Education of Young
Children, Washington, D.C.
- Schultz, P. Wesley, Shriver, Chris, Tabanico, Jennifer J. &
Khazian, Azar M. (2004) Implicit connections with nature. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 24(1), 31-42
- Shell, Ellen Ruppel (1994). Kids Don't Need Equipment,
They Need Opportunity, Smithsonian Magazine, 25(4), 78-87
- Sobel, D., (1990). A place in the world: Adults' memories
of childhood's special places. Children's Environments Quarterly,
7(4)
- Sobel, David, (1996). Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart
of Nature Education, Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society.
- Sobel, David (2002). Children's Special Places: Exploring
the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood, Detroit,
MI: Wayne State University Press
- Sobel, David (2004) Place-Based Education, Connecting Classrooms
& Communities, Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society.
- Taylor, A.F., Wiley, A., Kuo, F.E., & Sullivan, W.C. (1998).
Growing up in the inner city: Green spaces as places to grow. Environment
and Behavior, 30(1), 3-27
- Taylor, A.F., Kuo, F.E. & Sullivan, W.C. (2001). Coping
with ADD: The surprising connection to green play settings. Environment
& Behavior, 33(1), 54-77
- Taylor, A.F., Kuo, F.E. & Sullivan, W.C. (2002). Views of
Nature and Self-Discipline: Evidence from Inner City Children, Journal
of Environmental Psychology, 22, 49-63
- Wells, Nancy M. (2000). At Home with Nature, Effects of "Greenness"
on Children's Cognitive Functioning, Environment and Behavior,
32(6), 775-795
- Wells, Nancy M. & Evans, Gary W. (2003). Nearby Nature:
A Buffer of Life Stress Among Rural Children. Environment and Behavior,
35(3), 311-330.
- White, R. & V. Stoecklin (1998). Children's Outdoor
Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature. Accessed June 11,
2004 from www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/outdoor.shtml
- Wilson, Ruth (1993). Fostering a sense of wonder during the
early childhood years. Columbus, OH: Greyden
- Wilson, Ruth A. (1997). The Wonders of Nature - Honoring Children's
Ways of Knowing, Early Childhood News, 6(19).
- Worth, Jennifer (2003). Book review of Greening School Grounds:
Creating Habitats for Learning, Children, Youth and Environments,
13(2). Accessed June 9, 2004 from cye.colorado.edu
|
White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group
Send to a Friend
Printer-friendly
RSS Feed