Jamie Krug: What If It's Getting Better?
Daniel Donahoo: The Evolution of Parent-School Engagement
Screen time compromising a love for nature?
Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, Development/Milestones: Babies, That's Entertainment
I grew up without television. As a result, I have a bizarre pop-culture deficit that causes some rather entertaining, if not baffling social encounters, and makes me appear to be much more serious than I actually am. It's not that I don't think you're funny. It's just that I have no idea what you're talking about.
In grade school I hated my parents for their stand on television. They were way un-cool, and forced me to be un-cool as a result. Sixth grade will forever be emblazoned in my head as the year I was lambasted for not knowing who Michale Jackson was. But like every other kid, I survived sixth grade, and Michael Jackson, well, he has a kid he calls Blanket, and that's pretty much all I need to know about him.
But the thing I didn't realize then was that not watching television forced me outside--away from the couch and computer and into nature. Now as a parent, I want to pass my childhood love for the outdoors on to my son. I want him to love nature, and to be at home among the tall maples and meadow grasses in our back yard---we moved north to a place with land at the end of a long dirt road for this very reason. But I've started to realize that simply living somewhere isn't enough.
The ability to play outdoors in nature is something that requires an active imagination and the ability to make something out of nothing: a fort out of an armful of fallen branches; a fairy house out of a tiny patch of moss and bark. And imagination, is perhaps threatened by the amount of screen time kids are exposed to these days.
In his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv argues that children spend so much playtime in front of screens that they have lost their connection to the natural world. I see this at school each year. Kids don't know what to do outside, they complain that they're bored, and often, they expect adults to structure their activities. In general, kids don't seem to have the avid love for nature that I remember having, and many need to be coaxed outdoors.
Sending time in nature is perhaps becoming a learned activity. With playtime being redefined by interactive games and media, children expect to be entertained during play more than they did two decades ago. It now falls to parents to convey to children a love for nature through their own genuine enthusiasm for the outdoors. What do you love to do outdoors that you can share with your child?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2007 @ 7:35AM
caitlin said...I've been taking my son geocaching since he was 8 months old. We usually plan our vacations around geocaches, so he's seen places like the Niagara and Onodaga waterfalls, hiked about 12 miles total on the Appalachian trail, and visited several places of historical or geological interest.
He's really starting to notice the little things, like we have lots of cedar trees in Virginia, lots of pine trees in my hometown, and lots of swamp's in his daddy's hometown or that we have different types of wildlife in different areas of North America. It was also really neat to see his reaction when he "got" the Appalachian Trail. It just never occurred to him that it was possible to walk really long distances and camp until you got to your destination until one of our caches took us to an old camping platform.
I don't think loving the outdoors is a learned behavior. Most of the toddlers and preschoolers I know will happily run around outside and pretend or explore. It's just that they unlearn it in school. I'm not much of a tv watcher, so I found that if I wanted to talk about something besides kids at the SAHM groups, the only other thing that got people talking was what you watched on tv this week.
And I think it's filtered down to school age kids. Two years ago, my niece didn't watch much tv and couldn't really tell you what was on. She's in first grade now and is a little tv critic, but you can tell she's just repeating what she heard from friends and family. It's a social thing; when you're grasping for straws for some common interest, discussing a tv show usually seems to work.
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9-19-2007 @ 8:27AM
Ashley said...I realize this post is a little old, but I thought I would comment anyway.
I think TV can serve a purpose educating the child about nature appreciation, and fostering a sense of wonder about the natural world.
Although it's not ideal to have a child sit indoors and watch television all day long, a show -- and watching in moderation, of course -- that can teach such a topic is a good way to instill values and provide the "tool kit" needed to be an active citizen later in life.
You might find my recent article on a similar topic interesting:
http://www.childrensmediaconsultant.com/the-green-series-why-isnt-kids-tv-more-eco-friendly.htm
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