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Today, children spend a lot of time in their houses, moving around with cars and there is little play around nature. Children lead an indoor life compared to the past generations. Nature should be thought of as more of literacy and health connection more than just a play leisure option. A child having to learn around nature creates a good outdoor opportunity, where they can be more creative, reduce anxiety, aggression and stress, and have more friendships based on inventiveness. Creating time for children in nature is very important and helps them grow and be healthy.
Richard Louv, in his article Do Our Children Have Nature Deficit Disorder (p. 24), argues that, schools are able to improve health and learning by reintroducing students to nature.
He gives an example of a kid who was hyperactive and could not pay attention. He had been expelled from school for disrupting other students. When his parents learned that nature helped him remain calm, they used every opportunity they had to introduce him to the nature world.
He was taken to forests, beaches and dunes, and mountains of the American west and he turned out fine. This indicates how nature has a good and positive effect on the health of a child.
In Wendy Becktold’s article Dr. Sampson says that children do not have to be taken far away from home in order to experience nature. There is a different idea of the wilderness when one is young and when one is an adult. A backyard with some grass and rocks and a little mud and sticks is big enough for a kid and the geography will need to be expanded once the kid grows up.
It doesn’t need to be an exotic place unless you want to take the child to such places once in a while.
Indoor is the new normal in today’s generation. Even though people are getting busy and there is little time to explore nature. Nature has a lot of benefit to children and it can help them grow. Playing indoor gives parents less things to worry about like strangers, sun and rain but playing around nature keeps the mind of the child fresh unlike an indoor and controlled environment that limits the child’s potential. Throughout nature children are exposed to different situations and this helps them to be able to cope with the prevailing conditions.
Today, nature has been left out in the cold, Richard Louv refers to this as nature deficit disorder (pp. 25), which is, the growing gap between human beings and nature with implications for health and well-being. Too many school districts have contributed to this disorder. The building designs of classroom where classes are windowless, animals have been banished from class rooms and recess and field trips have also have been eliminated, making it difficult for children to interact. Poor town structures, parental fear of child abduction, competitions from computers, video games and computer games, and the devaluation of outdoor play has also helped reduce the number of hours children play outside.
Educators can inform themselves about the importance of nature and how it can help in children’s growth, education, and health. This way they can be able to encourage children to play outside and also organize outdoor teaching session. Schools can help students form eco clubs, bringing nature to the classroom and create nature-based community (Louv, pp30). Parents should also be able to help their children to connect with nature by creating outdoor clubs, getting parent to teacher groups involved and supporting legislations that support environmental education and such legislations that get students outside and into nature.
Nature is very important to children growth as it helps them be creative, active, reduces stress and anxiety and builds better friendships. Children should therefore learn in nature and explore nature. Children’s health is important as well as their education and parents will always do anything to ensure that their children get the best of the two.
Role of Nature in Children’s Education and Health. (2022, Apr 25). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/role-of-nature-in-children-s-education-and-health-essay
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