Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Nature Deficit Disorder

Olympia, WA

Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. The momentum around the Leave No Child Inside movement is growing. On Monday I participated on a panel at REI in Seattle on how parents can engage thier children with nature. Over 180 people took time on a Monday night to come and listen and exchange ideas on how we can all work together to engage the next generation of children with nature. This article gives a good overview of the panel and the different groups engaged in making this dream a reality http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/298708_nature06.html . The one common theme that came from the evening was that children need to be connected with nature to build self-esteem in an ever more challenging world for young people. Children have such structured lives these days and giving them the spontaneous adventures that nature provides is critical in their developement. In order to help children get more opportunities the Sierra Club is working with the Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter here in Washington to introduce legislation to get 2.5 million in funding to help provide outdoor education opportunities for at-risk children in Washington. We are also working with State. Senator Alex Padilla in California to get 5 million for outdoor education and recreation funding. The Sierra Club is determined to give outdoor education and recreation programs that serve at-risk children the necessary resources to build sustainable programs.

Yesterday the Seattle-PI wrote a wonderful OP-ED on te value of natural experiences for children http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/298861_deficited.html I would also suggest taking a look at the new Children and Nature Network website http://www.cnaturenet.org/