News
Book Review: “Last Child in the Woods”
May 23, 2011
Ask children how they spend their free time and you usually get a list of indoor activities involving bright glowing screens and electronic gizmos. I, like Richard Louv, have been told by children that they cannot be too far from an electric outlet, especially if a video game consule is plugged into it. In his book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv unpacks the ways that these newfound inclinations for indoor play impact our children. What results is a wonderful ode to the outdoors as well as an alarm bell for our nation’s children.
Louv documents the tendency of the last two generations of children to spend little time outdoors. This is not isolated to one geographic region but is seen across the nation. It is radically different from all preceding generations. In the past, we took it for granted that children spent large amounts of time in natural settings and took in all the benefits that this time bestows, including a heart-felt love for particular places. Since we are shaped by what we love, the natural world has had a profound influence on who we are as human beings. It begs the question: how is a child’s heart shaped by indoor spaces, video games, and screens?
Louv examines the impact of this “nature deficit” on our children – and if truth be told – on ourselves. He examines the impact on our mental, physical, and spiritual health. In doing the research for the book, Louv looked to a number of disciplines from education and educational psychology to neurology. He sought insight from the fields of environmental therapy, mental health, urban design, parks and recreation, creativity, and playground design. He also explored the relatively new field of ecopsychology. Most importantly, he interviewed children, parents, and teachers.
The outcome of his research is an exploration of the term he coined, nature–deficit disorder, which “[describes] the human costs of alienation from nature.” One cost is the atrophy of the senses. Direct experiences encompass what we see, feel, taste, hear and smell for ourselves. “Without direct experiences, our experience of daily life is impoverished.” Louv cites John Dewey’s warning about relying on secondary experiences to teach children. Secondary experiences typically rely on only vision and hearing and ask children to learn through vicarious experience. Dewey felt secondary experiences come with the risk of depersonalizing human life. Multisensory experiences in nature, on the other hand, enrich life and help to build “the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development.” Louv warns that nature-deficit disorder leads to ‘cultural autism’ with atrophied, tunneled senses and feelings of isolation.
Another cost is difficulty concentrating. Involvement in nature enhances the ability to pay attention. Louv cites new studies that show the positive effects nature has on children suffering from ADHD. Time spent outdoors calms and improves one’s ability to focus. Louv goes on to state that nature improves all children’s ability to focus, hones their cognitive abilities, and gives resistance to negative stress.
A third cost of nature-deficit disorder is higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. Louv recalls the urgings of naturalist and professor, Elaine Brooks, who felt strongly that we needed to teach how to “use the environmental to recover our wits.” As one mental health researcher states, “An indoor, sedentary childhood is linked to mental health problems.” Louv cites that depression among our nation’s children is on the rise. While exclusion from nature can lead to mental health problems, studies show that in many cases time spent in nature is as effective as medications in treating depression. Nature should be considered a preventative as well as a alternative treatment therapy for mental health issues.
Finally, nature-deficit disorder also impacts spiritual health since, as Louv rightly notes, “conservation is, at its core, a spiritual act.” As Louv points out creation is not ours but God’s. We conserve creation for God as well as for those who come after us. Louv makes the connection between how one treats creation and loving one’s neighbor: if I love my neighbor, I will not pollute his air, water, or food or diminish creation’s ability to give him joy and health. We need to “develop leaders who will do battle to save our natural world” and “take a stand for the greater justice for all people” by caring for God’s earth.
While Louv’s book is a thorough analysis of the myriad ways that the outdoors impacts us “almost at a cellular level,” it is this spiritual piece that affirms faith-based organizations like Au Sable Institute in “help[ing] reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children.” One is reminded of Au Sable Institute’s roots. In 1959 nine men had a vision for a junior science summer camp. They saw the power of learning about God in the context of learning about God’s world while living in close proximity to creation. And thus, Au Sable Trails Camp for Youth began.
This vision continues in Au Sable Institute’s environmental education program. Besides our day programs for local schools, Au Sable also provides two and three day programs for students from Christian middle and high schools. Christian students study aspects of creation in the context of their faith and scripture while living surrounded by creation’s beauty on Au Sable’s campus.
The principles of Louv's book undergird much of Au Sable's work, and hopefully others will be swayed by how convincingly it is written. If you have children in your life, it is critical that you take opportunities to get them outside. Be intentional. Make a plan. Give your children (or grandchildren) a daily touch point with creation. Childhood is short. Don’t put it off.