Nurturing Nature
SDAEYC is going to have a great conference on May 10th
at Cuyamaca
College. The whole day is going to be centered around the theme of
nature and the classroom. Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, was the
catalyst for this conference. Much of
our focus in early education has
been on classroom curriculum, classroom environment, and, currently, the
implementation of the new state preschool foundations. The time that children spend outdoors is often
relegated to playing on playground
structures, in sandboxes, and/or on flat grassy fields. In his book, Richard Louv
highlights the fact that there is so much more to outside play. Our conference will put into practice many of
the ideas that go into a nature-oriented
classroom.
In my last article I talked
about my dyslexia as a child. One of the
opportunities that my parents provided
for me was to go to a private school for a year. The school focus, ostensibly, was to assist
children with learning disabilities. The
school’s philosophy was to develop the whole child. The school was located
one block from the beach. As part of our
curriculum we spent time at the beach every school day. A Solana
Beach boy’s dream
school! The school I attended allowed
us to not just play in the water but to investigate the ocean. We spent hours at the tide pools cataloging
the plant and animal life, observing tide changes, taking water temperature and
water samples, as our science curriculum.
When we were back at the school, we integrated
nature into many of our core curricular activities. The teachers integrated
art, writing, and history into many hands-on activities incorporating nature
themes and materials. Essentially, I was
getting developmentally appropriate practice in the third grade. As you can imagine, this was a wonderful
experience that led to a lifetime of
interest in science and in the ocean.
When I went off to college, I went as an oceanography
major.
I was given other opportunities, as a child, to study and
work with nature. I went to classes at
the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Natural History Museum, and with the Boy
Scouts. All of these hands-on
opportunities led to a life of
appreciation for the outdoors and the environment. My youth was also spent in a canyon behind my
grandfather’s house. This canyon, by
current standards, would be considered
unsafe for a child to play in. But
following the philosophy of Richard Louv, I knew
every part of that canyon by heart. I
knew the animal trails we could follow. I knew where the waterfalls were after a rain.
I knew where the best trees were to
climb. In terms of our current society,
my parents would be considered
irresponsible because we were unsupervised
and in a natural environment without any protection. Yet, we were never bitten by a snake, were
never poisoned by poison oak, and
never broke an ankle on the numerous cliffs we scaled. Maybe we were lucky, more likely it was about
a respect we had grown up with and an understanding of nature and the
environment beyond the safe confines of our backyards. The current perception of society is that our
children now live in an unsafe and unsure world, but they are not worrying
about snakes and/or falls. Our children
have fears of outdoor experiences based
on sexual predators, trespassing
charges, and neighborhood bullies. As educators, we can do our part to reverse some of our
children’s disconnections from nature.
By bringing nature into the classroom, our playgrounds, and by taking
our children out into the environment we can provide many of the experiences
that will enrich their understanding of the world in which they live.
Richard Louv talks about primary
experience vs. secondary experience. A
large percentage of young children experience nature through watching TV or
videos; they are watching nature, not experiencing it. Early education
classrooms need to provide as many
hands-on experiences as they can; we need
to move beyond pictures, videos, and computer monitors. Our Cuyamaca College conference, along with Richard Louv’s book, seeks to provide you with hands on experiences
and ideas that will get your children involved
with nature and the environment.
In fairness to the readers, I do have to make one
disclosure. The trade off to a wonderful
year of private school at the beach was that I had to repeat the third grade
when I reentered the public school
system. It was devastating as a young
child with the dreaded stigma of
flunking, but in retrospect, so well worth it!
It was the best school year of my life!
Please keep this in mind as we are pushed
to prepare for the three R=s
and the foundations. Nature and science
are not negotiable and/or an elective activity to put in our lesson plans occasionally. For many children it is the key to learning. Be it the little boy who wants to create a
bug zoo or a girl who wants to know why grass turns brown in the summer. We all have an intrinsic link, a need, to be a part nature and our world. Let’s nurture the scientists in all of us by
providing our children with the opportunities to actively interact with their
world.
David Dugger
President, SDAEYC
