Can this be real? Do I have it now? Is it contagious? Don't panic anyone. According to author Richard Louv, who talks about it in his book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder", this is a childhood disease. Okay, so it isn't really a disease at all, but Nature Deficit Disorder is a catchy way of describing how kids these days don't seem to be getting out into nature as much as they could. It seems less kids are heading off into this "nature" thingy on a whim and tend to plan and schedule the event instead.
Some ideas circulating out there of what might be to blame for this phenomenon include the all-powerful TV, lack of walking to and from school, and an over abundance of structured indoor play. (When I was a kid we called "structured indoor play" gym class). Parenting, oddly enough, was also cited as a possible cause for this lack of outside time.
Although I do agree that being outside in a forest or meadow has a certain spiritual value, I'm not convinced this "Nature Deficit" thing isn't just the sentimental naval-gazing of another generation. When it comes to how kids are coping in today's world it has become so easy to blame everything except the reality of change. Does comparing the world today to the world of 1950 have any real meaning? How about 1950 to 1850?
The fields and ponds and forests where I played out my childhood are long gone, covered in a blanket of shabby middle-class housing. My grandmother bitterly described the same phenomenon when talking to me about a section of town I considered old. Change happens. The economy demands it. You do like your job, don't you?!
At some point we are all going to have to admit that nature as nature has become a commodity, and in some cases, simply a tourist attraction. Do you think Niagara Falls would have any moving water if not for the fact the it can generate more money (by day) as a tourist trap than it can by producing hydro-electricity? This is the kind of so-called nature today's children will groan about losing in twenty years when they have kids.
Nature Deficit Disorder? I'm not so sure. Next someone is going to suggest that kids need a wholesome diet and smaller class sizes: also things of the past. I might suggest that society's problems are a little bigger than whether or not kids are connecting with the outdoors on a regular basis.
Don't take my word for it, read the book:
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