Reconnecting Children and Nature

"I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."

-that's what a suburban fifth grader said to Richard Louv, author of "Leave no Child Inside" in Orion Magazine. Kids no longer get to play outside on their own- natural areas are further away, competition from television and computers, over-programming and misguided parental fear. The author says:

"Yes, there are risks outside our homes. But there are also risks in raising children under virtual protective house arrest: threats to their independent judgment and value of place, to their ability to feel awe and wonder, to their sense of stewardship for the Earth."

It is becoming a movement: "A host of related initiatives—among them the simple-living, walkable-cities, nature-education, and land-trust movements—have begun to find common cause, and collective strength, through this issue."

Read the whole remarkable article at ::Orion