http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March06/wild.nature.play.ssl.html
Interesting, that more formal types of environmental education do not have the same type of long-term impact on kids that "free time" play outdoors has. (or so they say) I can think of quite a few people that fall into this category and others that do not.
Likely the kids playing in the creek are lucky to have "freedom" to explore outside, that many others' parents don't allow because of safety concerns, jam-packed school and sport schedules, etc. I wonder if most kids still get unsupervised times in the woods or off on their own, like most of us probably did. I know my parents didn't worry if, as a kid, I was outside and out of sight for hours and hours at a time- up in trees, in the woods trying to get birds to eat out of my hand, capturing catepillars to build my own butterfly conservatories, crawling through stream culverts, sending messages down the creek on homemade boats, catching & categorizing bugs I collected in the fields, running around in corn fields, or buiding forts under the neighbor's forsythia bushes. My brother Nick was usually with me- and we didn't grow up to be exact opposites, but I don't think the fact that he doesn't recycle weighs on his conscience any...
So out of curiosity, here's a quick survey ...
How many of you, assuming you generally consider yourself to be an environmentally-minded person, spent a lot of time playing outdoors in "wild"nature before the age of 11?
Article referenced was: http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/16_1/16_1_01_NatureAndLifeCourse.pdf
I spent a ton of time exploring through the woods and fields behind our house. I did most of the things you mentioned, but I never made a butterfly conservatory. That's girlie. I poked at snakes, and collected frogs in buckets. Often, I forgot that the frogs were in buckets, so they ended up becoming stinky and crispy frog cakes that my father would find in the garage a few weeks later. Finding snakes, salamanders, and crayfish was always a favorite activity. A turtle was a rarer treat.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my parents worried at all, but had they known that on several occasions, I was with a few of my friends, that we were heavily armed with BB guns, sling shots, model rockets, and M-80s, and were preparing for a "Red Dawn" type scenario, then they may have had other thoughts... though that part didn't come until I was at least 12 or 13.
Keeping in mind that while I definetely consider myself to be an environmentalist, and environmentally-minded, by definitions that are not my own, I may very well not be.
ReplyDeleteI am really not sure what it means to be an environmentalist anymore. Used to think I knew, now I have no clue.
Help me out folks - am I an environmentalist?
Keeping in mind that I have trouble remembering last week, let alone life before Guillermo...I don't recall spending a lot of time in "wild" nature. Mostly backyards and manicured parks along the Hudson (like FDR's house). My mom credits these outings for my naturalist leanings.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was a lot of free, independant time as I didn't have a sister until I was 9 and didn't ever live near other kids my own age. Never joined scouts.
It's an interesting concept, especially as lots of elementary school kids are losing recess time to make time to study for standarized exams.
Bill, I think you go out of your way to defy labels so I'm not going to tell you if you are an environmentalist. You do seem to fit the definition of "environmental attitudes in adulthood" used for this study (check out page 8). Though I would really like it if you were concerned enough about energy conservation to start shutting off lights when you left a room. :P
Is guillermo Bill? Because I am very confused.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my free time as a kid in the woods. It was high adventure. I learned a lot of nature-type things, such as what spice bush and sassafras looks and smells like, bird calls, etc. as well as destructive things like setting those woods on fire and other activities that earned a fwe trips to the ER.
Watching those woods I played in get turned into developments broke my heart, and has led me to hate LI, love Syracuse, and work in the environmental field.
One of my earliest memories of feeling hate was towards developers.
I spent a majority of my childhood outdoors. While I didn't have access to a creek or stream (maybe the reason I am not all that into amphibians) the fields and forests around my parents house were used for exploration, education, escape and creation/destruction. Dad took us all out to gather firewood for the winter and used that time to teach us to identify the most common trees. My next door neighbor and I built forts in thornapple trees - I have the scars to remember this by. I used to play outside in the wintertime so long that mom would have to drag me inside for fear that I would get ftostbite. We used to collect butterflies - by killing them with badmitten raquets... I also remember chucking stones at a spider that to this day I am convinced was a black widow.
ReplyDeleteAs for the impacts of all of this on me before the age of 11, I am not sure if it made me more or less of an environmentalist - it seems I did more destruction than preservation, although maybe seeing things disappear made me value them more? The way I dedicate myself to environmental awareness and the methods by which I try to decrease my proverbial footprint were developed in high school (Boy Scouts) and college.
For additional anecdotal evidence, it is interesting for me to think about the differences between myself and my siblings. We each grew up in the same house with the same opportunities but all have drawn different lines for how far, for what reasons and in what ways we carry forth our commitment to the environment.
And I too am confused about Bill's new moniker - if that is indeed Bill.