On Monday night I went to a
screening of the film “Mother Nature’s Child: Growing up in a Media age” at the
Decorah public library. It was quite a good film, and a good way to spend my
evening. Most of it was things I already knew/believed, but they definitely
made some points I had never thought of before and left me with things to think
about.
To start off, I will quote a
statistic from the film (it may not be exactly this, but it was something close
to this). On average, kids spend 44hours/week in front of a monitor (tv,
computer, video game, etc) and 40 minutes/week outside. That breaks my heart.
It is hard to imagine spending so much time indoors, and hardly ever getting
outside. When I was growing up, I was outside the vast majority of the time.
Climbing trees, playing Frisbee, walking to the park, reading by the creek,
etc. And sure, I played Nintendo games too, but the proportion of time in front
of a monitor vs time spent outside was definitely completely the opposite to
how it is for most kids today. And of course, there are problems that occur as
a result of this. It is believed that this current generation of children is
the first to have a lower life-expectancy than their parents. How disturbing is
that?! Childhood obesity is up, along with things like diabetes and asthma. It
is easy to see the correlation between lack of time outdoors and those issues.
What I never really considered is the effect on behavior. For one thing, it is
believed that increase in cases of ADD and other such attention issues might be
related to lack of time in nature. That I had heard before. What I hadn’t heard
was the effect on bullying. The more I think about it, it does sort of make
sense though. If you are constantly indoors, not working outside cooperating
with other kids, instances of bullying might increase. In the film they noted
that often times, the kids who are the trouble-makers inside the classroom are
the same ones who become leaders when the kids go outside. They take that
energy and use it in a positive way, rather than a negative way. Sure, this may
not always be the case, but to me it definitely seems like a plausible
possibility a lot of the time.
Another point made in the film that
I had never really considered, is that when kids play outdoors in nature, they
have to use more problem-solving and critical thinking skills than when they
are inside and even more than when they are playing on playgrounds. When out in
nature itself, kids are more creative, more likely to invent games. There were some fantastic clips of kids
playing outdoors, making up games, building forts from sticks and leaves, climbing
through a hollow log, etc. Seeing things like that just gives me immense
pleasure. Some of the kids interviewed talked about how they feel a sense of
calm and peace when they are outside. That is gives them a chance to just relax
and contemplate things. That really hit home for me, because that is exactly
how I have always felt when I go outside. Suddenly, everything just seems
better, more tranquil. Then there was one kid who in class was saying how when
outside he noticed the trees and thought about how the smaller trees were still
reaching out, growing towards the sun, despite being overshadowed by bigger
trees. The teacher mentioned that that was phototropism, the need to always
grow towards the sun. Then the kid was saying how it was inspiring, and how it
could equate to his life. That just because you aren’t the biggest or the
strongest, that doesn’t mean you won’t succeed, or that you don’t have
strengths of your own. Sometimes, kids can be really surprisingly insightful.
I think the biggest fear of mine is
that kids will lose that appreciation for nature, if they continue spending
less and less time outside. It was mentioned in the film that most people who
identify themselves as environmentalists or conservationists or something of
that sort, had some sort of transcendental experience while outside. So then
the question becomes, what will happen if the next generations don’t really spend
time outside? There will be significantly less people who are concerned about
the environment, fewer stewards of the planet if you will. That is a truly
disturbing thought to me. I hope and pray that that never happens. Luckily,
there are people in all places (cities, suburbs, rural areas) who are making
efforts to get kids outside more often. I think it is important to try to
incorporate time in nature during the school day, but it is also extremely
important for parents to make it a priority. I don’t necessarily plan on having
kids, but if I do I can guarantee you that they will not have a cell phone
until they are at least in high school, and I will insist that they spend time
outdoors each day. We’ll go on hikes and I’ll let them go explore. Ah, that was
another point in the film; the impact of “stranger danger” on this epidemic of
kids not spending time outside. They made the point that child abductions are
always hyped up by the media. Yes, when it happens it is dreadful, and
obviously that is a parents’ worst fear. But, the facts are that most of the
time, abductions are by family members or someone close to the family. Very
rarely are they actually strangers. Most of the time, it is still safe for you
to let your kids play outside. But it is challenging to get people to see that,
when the media does such a good job of scaring everyone into being terrified of
letting their kids out of their sight.
Overall it was a very interesting
film, and one I would recommend to everyone, but especially parents and
teachers. Definitely gives you things to think about. The people who hosted the
event at the library also mentioned another film called “Play Again” that is
supposedly a bit darker, but about similar concept. I am going to try to see it
sometime in the near future.
For now, I will try to end this
post on a happy note. One of my favorite parts of the film was when one of the
people being interviewed told a quote from his son. Apparently one day his 5
year old son came up to him and said “Dad, are God and Mother Nature married,
or are they just good friends?” Sometimes kids really are fantastic. :)
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