Monday News

Rich Louv spoke at the Outdoor Writers of America Annual Meeting in Roanoke a week ago, and I expect articles will continue to trickle out on the importance of connecting children to nature.

The San Francisco Chronicle posted this piece yesterday that does a great job of framing the issue.

In far-ranging comments, Louv described how a child's outdoor adventures -- or lack of them -- can affect his or her development. He said that a promising future can still be shaped:

-- Youth health: "The increase in diabetes and heart disease is because kids are growing up not moving. When you look at discussions of child obesity, you never see nature mentioned. They (parents) send them to the gym, but you look at adults, and gyms are not doing the job that well for them either. The greatest increase in child obesity in history happened in the same two decades as the greatest increase in organized sports in history."

-- Child development: "How does nature shape child development? Take attention deficit disorder. Kids exposed to just a little bit of nature get better. The attention span seems to lengthen. Could it be that the huge increase in kids on anti-depressants is because we took away the calming effect of natural experience?"

-- The education bounce: "Schools with kids with nature testing do better across the board, 27 percent better in science testing, than a kid in a cubicle. If we really care about education reform in United States, we would have a campaign called 'No Child Left Inside.' "

-- Integrating outdoor education in schools: When I told Louv of my proposal to Gov. Schwarzenegger to require outdoor skills curriculum in schools, he responded: "In Denmark, outdoor education occurs year-round. Kids get fewer colds and flu, and academic scores are higher."

-- The video impact: "Video games are the new rock-and-roll. I don't think they are the spawn of the devil. There are other factors, but video games and television are seductive ...

When I saw Rich at the end of last week, he said that 10,000 copies of his book had been sold last month alone. It is a hopeful sign that this issue continues to heat up as more people become engaged.