As society becomes increasingly centralized around technology the time children spend immersed in the outdoors decreases across the nation. Today’s society has put engagement in the natural world aside, revolutionizing parenting by sticking children in front of screens. Additionally, the outdoor community has seen a lack of racial and economic diversity since it’s beginning. Ensuring children of all socioeconomic backgrounds have exposure to and involvement in the outdoors is beneficial not only to their individual development but to society as a whole as it teaches the importance of risk and risk management, influences socialization skills, and encourages initiative taking and entrepreneurship.
While stimulating an immediate sense of play, the influence exposure to the outdoors has on a child goes far beyond the engaging moment. Nature has long been a child’s natural playground. The powerful imagination of children can turn sticks into magic wands and a stone into a teapot. Encouraging children to further this creativity creates a passion for learning and discovery. A child who is stimulated in nature at a young age gains a deeper respect for the environment and can find solace in the natural world. As the world becomes increasingly fast paced, competitive, and demanding, having ways to destress is essential to individuals. Natural environments allow us to practice an “effortless type of attention known as soft fascination that creates feelings of pleasure, not fatigue (Coehn).” This effortless attention encourages relaxation and a sense of calm. Exposing children to this natural stress reliever at a young age sets them up to have a healthy relationship with nature, allowing them an outlet from the heaviness of today’s society. Objects found in nature and the type of play which nature inspires allows children to experiment with ideas of weight, volume and time (Bento). This conceptual exposure encourages experimentation and discovery. The positive mental stimulation children receive through this experimentation sets the stage for a positive attitude towards learning.
When children play outside with others their ability to make connections flourishes. The outdoors create a space which “enable(s) the development of joint goals between children, leading to experiences of companionship among peers (Bento).” These joint goals encourage not only companionship but instills in children a sense of teamwork. Being surrounded by other children in the outdoors tempts them to push personal boundaries by being in an unfamiliar setting and making individual decisions. While loosely regulated outdoor play is feared by many parents, it has been connected to creating “important skills related to persistence, entrepreneurship, self-knowledge, and problem solving”, skills which pay off exponentially in the long run (Bento). Outdoor play goes hand and hand with exercise and introduces children to the benefits of an active lifestyle. The immediate and long term benefits on individuals resulting from outdoor exposure last lifetimes, arming them with skills for the adult world.
Even with the obvious benefits of outdoor exposure, the time children spend outside decreases drastically as society continues to advance technologically. A study done in the United Kingdom cites that children spend half the time outside that their parents did (Children). This decrease can be attributed to the overbearing parenting techniques that seem to plague our society along with the hoards of parents who use screen time as a babysitter. These techniques create overly cautious technology dependant children who will enter the workforce lacking many of the social and interpersonal skills required to be beneficial members of society (Lynch). Not only does the reliance on technology create toxic and dependant personality types, but it robs children of organic experience. While there are positives to certain types of indoor play when the balance becomes drastically off kilter it can be detrimental to the physical and mental well being of children. In suburban and less populated areas the drop in outdoor time can be attributed largely to parenting techniques, families in heavily populated areas struggle finding any useable outdoor space within their communities. Many cities feel massive financial pressure to utilize outdoor space in the most economically beneficial way (Children). City planners dedicate open spaces to low income housing and shopping centers as opposed to setting aside space for outdoor recreation. In densely populated metropolis areas finding any unused clean outdoor space can be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Even where these spaces are available they are not put to use as much as they should be as the time children spend playing outside continues to decrease.
In recent years, the term “Adventure Gap” was coined to describe the racial and economic deficit in the outdoor community. Following World War II outdoor recreation became a pastime for wealthy Americans (Christian). Those who worked grueling hours in factories making poor wages simply could not afford to join the upper class in their recreational pursuits. Since the outdoor recreation community took it’s roots in the United States white people have dominated the activities (Christian). This initial racial and economic divide has lasted decades. As of 2017 about 70% of United States youth between the ages of six and twenty-four who engage in outdoor recreation were white. Recently, there has been a push to shrink this gap by creating a more diverse multicultural outdoor community. While these efforts have been hugely influential, there is still an incredible amount of work to be done to make the outdoors truly equal access. By 2044, the majority of the US population is projected to be non-white; this statistic creates a sense a concern in the environmental wellness community as it begs the question, “What happens when the majority of the population has little to no relationship with the natural world? (Christian)”. Programs like City Kids Wilderness Project (CityWILD) , based in Jackson Hole, aim to get city kids outdoors. Many of the participants with this program have never left their cities, much less been in truly remote areas. These efforts allow children the opportunity to experience the outdoors, sparking internal growth and development. While a handful of organizations exist which support outdoor involvement of underprivileged children, there is not enough exposure or resources to provide for more than a few hundred kids a year. The outdoors are expensive. A low end pair of hiking boots cost upwards of $50. That amount of money can feed a small family with a low food budget for days. When it comes down to eating or being outside our human needs come first. As a society, individuals must take it upon themselves and their communities to support an enriching outdoor experience for children from all walks of life.
As the nature deficit sweeps the nation, both private and public forward thinking schools have set in motion ways to engage their students with the outdoors. The need to encourage outdoor participation is felt nationally in communities of all races, incomes, and social statuses. While more well to do schools incorporate study abroad programs, organize exploratory outdoor adventures, and provide resources to their students, less funded schools build gardens on their playgrounds and plant trees for field trips. These concepts don’t apply strictly to elementary and secondary schools. Many childcare centers across the nation have incorporated green time into the day, engaging their students with the outdoors. These centers have enlisted passionate teachers who see the value in naturalized environments. These centers “allow children to have safe, ready made access to green places and engagement with nature (Benefits).” By centering play time around the outdoors the childcare centers create an environment in which children learn about the mutualistic relationship humans have with the Earth; the children learn to play with nature as opposed to their various technology devices. While loosely regulated child technology use has many problems of it’s own, parent screen time has also been shown to have a negative effect on children (Christakis). Schools and daycares offer a refuge from overbearing screen time at home. Children spend a large portion of their time at school. This means that habits and mindsets can be formed easily within the walls of a school. The land is there, and for the most part, so is the funding. The initiative to get kids outside is one of great importance and one that is growing in popularity. Research behind the benefits of outdoor exposure is overwhelmingly positive.
While the nation still has a long way to go in order to bring children back to and into nature, paths have been set which foster a future where this is possible. The divides between races and classes in the outdoors is slowly closing as more schools shoulder the responsibility of outdoor involvement, government agencies protect land, and parents take the time and effort to bring their kids outside. The benefits these efforts have both immediately and long term are obvious. While the fast paced society continues to grow, pushing new technologies on children and adults alike, continuing to increase exposure to the outdoors sets the stage for a better future. The nation needs entrepreneurial risk takers, and these personality types grow from immersion in the outdoors. These initiatives benefit not only the individual but society as a whole.
Works Cited
- “Benefits of Connecting Children with Nature.” Natural Learning, NC State University, naturalearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Benefits-of-Connecting-Children-with-Nature_InfoSheet.pdf 16 Nov. 2018
- Bento, Gabriela, and Gisela Dias. “The Importance of Outdoor Play for Young Children’s Healthy Development.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 6 Apr. 2017, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2444866416301234 16 Nov. 2018
- “Children Spend Half the Time Playing Outside in Comparison to Their Parents.” Child in the City, 15 Jan. 2018, www.childinthecity.org/2018/01/15/children-spend-half-the-time-playing-outside-in-comparison-to-their-parents/. 16 Nov. 2018
- Christakis, Erika. “The Dangers of Distracted Parenting.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 June 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/the-dangers-of-distracted-parenting/561752/. 21 Nov. 2018
- Christian, Sena. “Closing the ‘Adventure Gap’ by Getting Inner City Kids Outdoors.” Autumn 2018:A Special Edition Exploring the Links between the Environment and Women’s Rights, Earth Island Journal, www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/closing_the_adventure_gap_by_getting_inner_city_kids_outdoors/. 16 Nov. 2018
- Coehn, Daniel. “Why Kids Need to Spend Time in Nature.” Child Mind Institute, Child Mind Institute, 18 Dec. 2017, childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature/. 16 Nov. 2018
- “How You Can Feed Your Entire Family for $50 a Week.” The List TV, 23 July 2018, www.thelisttv.com/the-list/feed-your-entire-family-for-50-a-week/. 12 Dec. 2018
- Lynch, Matthew. “How Parents Unwittingly Fuel Technology Dependence in Their Kids.” The Tech Edvocate, 20 Mar. 2018, www.thetechedvocate.org/parents-unwittingly-fuel-technology-dependence-kids/. 21 Nov. 2018