Rationale
Humans are spending an enormous amount of time indoors. As much as 96% of our day is spent inside so consequently we are experiencing the outdoors less and less. This is an unfortunate and unhealthy trend. Nature deficit disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book, Last Child in the Woods, identifies a result of this extreme amount of time spent indoors. Children are not being exposed to nature on a regular basis and are not making a connection to their natural world. He points out that children who play outside are less likely to get sick, to be stressed or become aggressive, and are more adaptable to life's unpredictable turns. But since his book came out in 2005, things have gotten worse. The average young American now spends practically every minute, except for the time in school, using some sort of electronic device, data reported in 2010, from a Kaiser Family Foundation study.
My students most certainly fall into this statistic. They are connected to the virtual world seemingly more than they are to the real, physical world. Becoming insular has reduced their ability to interact and to appreciate what is truly all around them, their neighborhoods and city. New Haven offers tremendous opportunities for outdoor experiences with its many parks and natural waterways. I want to get my students outside where they can begin to build an emotional connection to their environments, not a wireless one.
Comments: