Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (45 page)

173   
“sanctuary, playground, and sulking walk”
Robert Michael Pyle,
The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993), xv, xvi.

173   
“The kid who yawns when you say ‘Let’s go outside’”
Churchman, “How to Turn Kids Green,” 28.

175   
the sunflower house
Sharon Lovejoy,
Sunflower Houses: Inspiration from the Garden—A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups
(New York: Workman, 2001). For more information, see
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/sunflowerhouse.html
.

176   
“Our son was overstressed”
Richard Louv,
Childhood’s Future
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990), 40–41.

179   
We know that parks
Paul M. Sherer, “The Benefits of Parks: Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space” (San Francisco: Trust for Public Land, 2003),
http://tpl.org/content_documents/parks_for_people_Jul2005.pdf
.

185   
“trying to teach personal safety to children”
Quoted in Richard Louv,
Childhood’s Future
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990), 39.

196   
Americans participating in traditional forms of recreational wildlife watching decreased
From a paper by Responsive Management, a public opinion and attitude survey research firm specializing in natural resource and outdoor recreation issues,
http://www.responsivemanagement.com
.

197   
For a child who is primarily an audile learner
Tina Kelley, “A Sight for Sensitive Ears: A New Generation of Audio Technology Is Opening Up the Wonders of Birding to the Visually Impaired—and the Sighted, Too,”
Audubon
104 (January/February 2002): 76–81.

197   
“Don’t rush to the library for a book”
Linda Batt, “All Hail Our Fair Feathered Friends: A Backyard Birdfeeder Makes Science Fun!”
Mothering
, January/February 2000, 58.

198   
For more than 150 years, New England anglers have been keeping fishing logs
Richard Louv,
Fly-Fishing for Sharks
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 220.

198   
Outdoor journaling is something a family can do together
Linda Chorice, “Nature Journaling—the Art of Seeing Nature,”
Missouri Conservationist
, July 1997.

200   
“We’re part of nature”
Quoted in Richard Louv,
Fly-Fishing for Sharks
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 466.

203   
experiential education teaches through the senses
John A. Hattie, Herbert W. Marsh, James T. Neill, and Garry E. Richards. “Adventure Education and Outward Bound: Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference,”
Review of Educational Research
(1997): 43–87.

204   
“Finland’s recipe is both complex and unabashedly basic”
Lezette Alvarez, “Suutarila Journal: Educators Flocking to Finland, Land of Literate Children,”
New York Times
, April 9, 2004.

206   
For more effective education reform
Gerald A. Lieberman and Linda L. Hoody, “Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning” (San Diego: State Education and Environment Roundtable [SEER], 1998). “California Student Assessment Project, Phase One: The Effects of Environment-Based Education on Student Achievement” (SEER, 2000). “California Student Assessment Project, Phase Two” (SEER, 2005). Available online at
http://www.seer.org/
.

207   
David Sobel . . . describes place-based education
David Sobel,
Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities
(Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society and the Myrin Institute, 2004).

208   
More recently
“Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California” (Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes for Research, 2005). Available online at
http://wwwhttp://www.sierraclub.org/youth/
california/outdoorschool_finalreport.pdf
.

210   
“I used to take student groups on trips to the California deserts”
Will Nixon, “Letting Nature Shape Childhood,”
Amicus Journal
, National Resources Defense Council, distributed by The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, December 24, 1997.

212   
At Torrey Pines Elementary
Richard Louv,
The Web of Life: Weaving the Values That Sustain Us
(Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1996), 148.

214   
seventh-graders attended four hundred trout fingerlings
Richard Louv,
Fly-Fishing for Sharks
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 393.

218   
Mary Rivkin, a professor of early childhood education
Mary Rivkin, “The Schoolyard Habitat Movement: What It Is and Why Children Need It,”
Early Childhood Education Journal
25, no. 1 (1997).

219   
Numerous studies
Janet E. Dyment, “Gaining Ground: The Power and Potential of School Ground Greening in the Torono District School Board” (Toronto: Evergreen, 2005). Available online at
http://www.evergreen.ca/en/lg/gaining_ground.pdf
.

220   
Another benefit of the green school grounds
Anne C. Bell and Janet E. Dyment, “Grounds for Action: Promoting Physical Activity through School Ground Greening in Canada” (Toronto: Evergreen, 2006). Available online at
http://www.evergreen.ca/en/lg/pdf/PHACreport.pdf
.

221   
What if farms and ranches
Linda Jolly, Erling Krogh, Tone Nergaard, Kristina Parow, Berit Verstad, and Nord Trondelag, “The Farm as a Pedagogical Resource.” A paper submitted for the Sixth European Symposium on Farming and Rural Systems Research and Extension, Vila Real, Portugal, April 3–8, 2004. Available online at
http://levendelaering.umb.no/pdf_documents/
The_Farm_as_a_Pedagogical_Resource__Portugal.pdf
.

223   
The dominant form of education today “alienates us from life”
David Orr,
Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994).

223   
“ecological design intelligence”
David Orr, “What Is Education For? Six Myths about the Foundations of Modern Education, and Six New Principles to Replace Them,”
Context: A Quarterly of Human Sustainable Culture
, Context Institute (winter 1991): 52.

225   
“Without a sound formation on natural history”
Paul K. Dayton and Enric Sala, “Natural History: The Sense of Wonder, Creativity, and Progress in Ecology,”
Scientia Marina
(2001): 196–206.

229   
“Some of the most exciting findings”
Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances E. Kuo. From a paper prior to publication, used with permission from the authors.

229   
participants in adventure-therapy programs made gains in self-esteem
John A. Hattie, Herbert W. Marsh, James T. Neill, and Garry E. Richards, “Adventure Education and Outward Bound: Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference,”
Review of Educational Research
(1997): 43–87.

230   
This is also true of carefully managed wilderness adventure programs
Stephen R. Kellert and Victoria Derr, “A National Study of Outdoor Wilderness Experience” (New Haven: Yale University, 1998). Available online at
http://nols.edu/resources/research/pdfs/kellert.complete.text.pdf
. Also see: John A. Hattie, Herbert W. Marsh, James T. Neill, and Garry E. Richards, “Adventure Education and Outward Bound: Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference,”
Review of Educational Research
67, no. 1 (1997): 43–87.

230   
the National Survey of Recreation and the Environment
Leo McAvoy, “Outdoors for Everyone: Opportunities That Include People with Disabilities,”
Parks and Recreation
, National Recreation and Park Association 36, no. 8 (2001): 24.

230   
people with disabilities gain enhanced body image
Alan Ewert and Leo McAvoy, “The Effects of Wilderness Settings on Organized Groups,”
Therapeutic Recreation Journal
22, no. 1 (1987): 53–69.

231   
Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center
Debera Carlton Harrell, “Away from the Tube and into Nature, Children Find a New World,”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, April 5, 2002.

239   
As a powerful deterrent to natural play
Philip K. Howard,
The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America
(New York: Warner Books, 1996).

241   
In July 2005, the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
reported
Chris Kahn, “Is Pursuit of Safety Taking ‘Play’ Out of Playground?”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
(Fort Lauderdale), July 18, 2005, 1A.

247   
“We need to hold out for healthy ecosystems in the city”
John Beardsley, “Kiss Nature Goodbye, Marketing the Great Outdoors,”
Harvard Design Magazine
, no. 10 (winter/spring 2000).

248   
“As recently as 1990, you could . . . barely comprehend that most people spent most of their lives in cities”
John Balzar, “True Nature: Author Jennifer Price Hopes City-Dwellers Will Learn to See, to Love and to Nurture What’s Wild and Wonderful in Their Midst,
Los Angeles Times
, May 31, 2003.

249   
remnants of virgin forests still stand in the Bronx and Queens
Ben Breedlove, online interview, “E Design Online interview,” September 24, 1996,
http://www.state.fl.us/fdi/edesign/news/9609/breedluv.htm
.

249   
“The fast-expanding metropolitan edge brings a wide range of species”
Andrea L. Gullo, Unna I. Lassiter, and Jennifer Wolch, “The Cougar’s Tale,”
Animal Geographies: Place, Politics, and Identity in the Nature-Culture Borderlands
, ed. Jennifer Wolch and Jody Emel (London, New York: Verso Books, 1998).

252   
A similar Dutch development called Het Groene Dak
Timothy Beatley,
Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000), 212.

260   
“Flowers calm people down”
George F. Will, “The Greening of Chicago,”
Newsweek
, August 4, 2003, 64.

260   
The 1909 Plan of Chicago called for “wild forests”
Nancy Seeger, “Greening Chicago,”
Planning
68, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 25.

261   
research related to urban design and the environment of childhood
Robin C. Moore, “The Need for Nature: A Childhood Right,”
Social Justice
24, no. 3 (fall 1997): 203.

264   
municipal land-use practices would appear to minimize environmental damage
William B. Honachefsky,
Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning
(Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers, CRC Press, 1999).

265   
A 2001 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Richard J. Jackson and Chris Kochtitzky, “Creating a Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health,” Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse Monograph Series (Washington, DC: Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse, 2001).

265   
students are four times more likely to walk
Mike Snyder, “Sprawl Damages Our Health, CDC Says,”
Houston Chronicle
, November 9, 2001, sec. A-45.

274   
“something quite extraordinary happened”
Dirk Johnson, “The Great Plains: Plains, While Still Bleak, Offer a Chance to the Few,”
New York Times
, December 12, 1993, sec. 1, p. 1.

277   
a paradigm shift in “design intelligence”
David Orr,
Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994).

281   
the median age of residents is already creeping into the sixties
John G. Mitchell, “Change of Heartland,”
National Geographic
, May 2004.

285   
Bayside Village, in Tsawwassen, British Columbia
CIVITAS, Vancouver, B.C.
http://www.civitasdesign.com/newcomm.html
.

293   
“Late in Jung’s career”
Edward Hoffman,
Visions of Innocence: Spiritual and Inspirational Experiences of Childhood
(Boston: Shambhala, 1992).

297   
a companion different from any offered by human exchange
John Berger,
About Looking
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 20.

303   
“Science is the human endeavor in which we are frequently reminded how wrong we can be”
Gretel H. Schueller, “Scientists, Religious Groups Come to the Aid of Nature,”
Environmental News Network, Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
, September 3, 2001.

303   
how Americans really think about environmental issues
Willett Kempton, James S. Boster, and Jennifer A. Hartley,
Environmental Values in American Culture
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997).

A partial listing of an expanding literature

Bartholomew, Mel.
Square Foot Gardening
. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1981.

Beatley, Timothy.
Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities
. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000.

Berry, Thomas.
The Dream of the Earth
. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988.

Bice, Barbara, et. al.
Conserving and Enhancing the Natural Environment: A Guide for Planning, Design, Construction, and Maintenance on New and Existing School Sites
. Baltimore: Maryland State Dept. of Education, 1999.

Blakey, Nancy.
Go Outside: Over 130 Activities for Outdoor Adventures
. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press, 2002.