Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder,   ISBN:9781565126053

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This book is a landmark book and defines the problem on nature deficient disorder in children in a completely convincing manner. The author has achieved his goal to make us aware of the growing problem of getting kids of all ages to be comfortable with dirt, animals and the natural world. Unfortunately, this book should have been paid attention to by the previous crop of parents, those people in my age group, who were intent on leaving no kid behind in the new computer age. Now we have parents who are not connected to the natural world raising kids. Those parents will read this book and agree that kids need to understand nature, dirt, bugs, animals, habitats, natural order, trophic cascade, the need for predators, wilderness travel, natural history and personal outdoor skills like tracking, bird language and weather knowledge. These parents of young children today, however, weren't raised to understand these issues, therefore, they don't know where to start. The book is a great read, but I give it only four stars because it outlines the problem in great detail but does not include workable solutions for parents who need to learn the natural world themselves. Now, if you add Jon Young's book The Art of Mentoring & Coyote Teaching to this read, you have the problem defined and the solutions and the two books are a perfect fit.

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Louv opens the doors to look in upon a contemporary problem in the American home, the problem of "Nature-Deficit Disorder". The American family continues to go through changes, transformed in shape, pattern and rhythm of life. Not all these changes have brought our children and grandchildren a better life. The problem Louv examines in this excellent work of journalism is simply that of children spending too much of their childhood indoors. Even when outside, most American kids, due to the mass migration from rural areas into suburbia and urban centers, spend their outside time in highly managed semi-natural settings. Think of the kids you know. How often in the past year have they played in a forest, climbed a tree, built a treehouse or played imagination games in a field? Our children grew up in the wild world of the north Oregon coast. We decided early in our marriage to unplug our television and go outside with our kids. Louv speaks to something primal in our parenting heart: the high value of spending quality time with kids in nature, and allowing our children to spend long hours outside playing. We can get back to this world of nature again. Just because our children have become familiar with the blue-glow of computer screens and electronic media doesn't mean they are unable to learn new adventures in the wild. Take our kids camping, backpacking, hiking, day-walking in nature. Buy them binoculars and birding guides for their birthday. Read to them from great adventure stories in nature. Spark that inner fire of love of the wild in your child. For more on family spirituality, including practical ways to "save your child from nature-deficit disorder", see The Busy Family's Guide to Spirituality: Practical Lessons for Modern Living From the Monastic Tradition

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There are two main reasons to dislike "Last Child in the Wood: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by the former San Diego Union-Tribute columnist and now community, family, and nature advocate Richard Louv. First is that its thesis, that nature is good for the development of our children, is irrefutable, and most of the book is preaching to the converted. Who would argue that fitness and nutrition, arts and theater, nature and exploration are bad for the development of our children? Second, because it's such an overwhelming all-encompassing topic Mr. Louv frees feel to float from one topic to the topic so it feels more like a collection of columns and essays than like an actual book. Nevertheless, "Last Child in the Woods" is well-written, and offers many interesting insights for parents and educators.

The first critical insight is how a powerful stimulant and learning tool nature can be. Neuroscience teaches us that what's important for a child's mental development is not necessarily the amount of knowledge he memorizes but rather how much of his body and brain he uses, and in this regard Mr. Louv is right when he beams with ectasy each time he writes how Nature stimulates all the senses. And research has shown that the stimulation of all five senses increases a child's intelligence and creativity. Thus, when children watch television or play video games instead of playing outside in the park or walking in the woods they're denied vital mental food for their growth.

Second, it's not enough to simply organize a soccer game in the park or a 2-hour hike. Nature offers an experiential learning experience in that children can slowly come to understand nature and themselves by interacting and interfacing with nature. There's a wondrous process of exploration and discovery when a child interacts with nature, but also there's an empowering sense of freedom and self when a group of children shape nature to their needs (the classic example is building the tree-house). Unfortunately, interacting with nature is time-consuming, and is risky: there's a certain level of risk and danger that our safety-conscious, paranoid, and control-obsessed society cannot tolerate. Exploring nature is a process adults can't control and manipulate, and in the end our parents, schools, and society decide to simply deny children that pleasure. Our society scares parents into imprisoning their children at home to avoid kidnappers and danger, legislates against any sort of freedom and movement on the part of children, and seeks to maximize control of the environment. Nature is something that is to be feared or to control, or it is to protected and guarded -- it is something that is not to be understood, experienced, and loved.

And finally there doesn't have to be a conflict between nature and civilization. City planning ought to be natural and organic, and cities ought to grow alongside nature. Mr. Louv points out that vacant lots are now being reclaimed to give children natural spaces to play, and there's a movement called Square Foot Gardening Foundation to create gardens into schools. There doesn't even have to be a conflict between God and Mother Nature, as anyone who has really experienced nature can tell you that it's an amazing spiritual and religious experience. When a group of eminent scientists wrote to world religious leaders, asking for their help in spreading the message about the spirituality and beauty of nature, many of them responded and took action.

Despite the clear trends in our society and our schools Richard Louv is defiantly optimistic. But there's always this creeping tone of despair in the book that underlies this optimism. Many of our very best scientists, writers, and thinkers in fact had a rural upbringing where they interacted with animals and were free to explore and discover nature all around them -- without this sort of childhood would they have become such successful citizens? Already we know that there's a link between depression and ADHD and the growing alienation of our children from nature.

Mr. Louv doesn't believe "nature-deficit disorder" among our children can be resolved by concerned parents alone. There has to be a concerted effort among community, government, and schools. But unfortunately the reality now is that right now, given current trends, concerned enlightened parents are by themselves.

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I very much enjoyed reading this book and have bought five additional copies for friends and family, in addition to recommending it to a number of others. This book should be required reading for anyone studying to become an educator.

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More interesting than you might think. In the case of this reader, he's preaching to the choir, but there are lots of anecdotes and statistics to back him up. Children need contact with nature to calm their minds, exercise their bodies, stimulate their creativity, but our society has come to thwart those possibilities at every turn. As an example of how nature-phobic we have become, everyone who saw this book in my hand read the title, "LOST Child in the Woods." Read and weep and work for change.