Dear Concerned Citizen,
July 27, 2005
tothesource You talk about "nature-deficit disorder." What's that?

Richard Louv: Nature-deficit disorder is a term I use to describe the human costs of alienation from nature. Among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. I don't suggest that nature-deficit disorder represents a medical diagnosis, but the descriptive quality of the phrase helps us get a handle on what children lose when they lose direct contact with the outdoors. It's not overstating the case to say nature-deficit disorder also affects adults, neighborhoods, whole communities, and the future of humankind's relationship to nature. The term offers people a useful way to describe in just a few words what so many are experiencing.

tts: Early in the book, you quote a fourth-grader who says, "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are." Does that describe childhood today?

Louv: To a large degree, yes, and increasingly so. This book describes the growing gap between children and nature, and its destructive implications. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is quickly fading. At no other time in our history have children been so separated from direct experience in nature.

Last Child in the Woods also reports some good news. Studies conducted within the past five to ten years indicate that nature can be a powerful antidote to such maladies as depression, obesity and attention-deficit disorder -- problems associated with alienation from nature. We also know that experience in nature can increase a child's (and an adult's) powers of concentration. In addition, anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that creativity and spiritual development are stimulated by childhood experiences in nature. Everyone who lives with or works with children needs to know about these researchers' studies, about the growing deficit of nature experience, and the implications for our society as a whole.

tts: What are the top reasons why kids no longer connect with the outdoors?

Louv: Many parents are directly or instinctively aware of the change, and they sense its importance. They typically cite a number of everyday reasons why their children spend less time in nature than they themselves did, including competition from television and computers, more homework and other time pressures, and lack of access to natural areas. And fear plays a part in this -- fear of traffic, of crime, of stranger-danger, of nature itself. As a result, the boundaries of children's lives grow ever tighter. A 1991 study of three generations of nine-year-olds found that between 1970 and 1990, the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam had shrunk to one-ninth of what it had been in 1970.

Good parents are doing their best, but information about the value of nature experience to child development has not been widely available. Indeed, there are many parents out there who have deliberately or intuitively exposed their kids to nature, but without the proof of how important that is. I hope Last Child in the Woods will make them feel very good about what they did or what they're doing. But the wider societal message often unwittingly teaches children to avoid nature.

tts: You talk about the Bogeyman syndrome -- that fear of strangers is the chief reason parents don't let their kids play outside. You also suggest media have greatly exaggerated the risk of stranger danger. But parents want their children to be safe…

Louv: Of course they do. As a parent,
I feel that way about my boys, as well. There are perils in this world, but they can be surmounted. And there are more certain dangers if nature is removed -- threats to our children's physical, emotional and spiritual health; to the full development of their senses; to their appreciation of beauty and their nascent imaginations; to their understanding of their place in the universe. Last Child in the Woods, by the way, recommends several ways families can sensibly reduce the fear that interferes with children's involvement in nature.

tts: You note that places of worship could potentially be more important than schools in connecting the young with the natural world. What role might the church play in the child-nature reunion?

Louv: Parent education and encouragement is key. One of the most important gifts a parent can give a child is his or her own infectious enthusiasm for the outdoors. Consider offering an adult class focused on skill building. One barrier often mentioned by parents who want to "get it right", is that they don't know even the basics of things like fishing or how to cook on a propane stove. Do some demonstrations and let people practice and then organize a camp out where more experienced people can coach others with less experience. This would also make it more likely children of single parents get opportunities for camping and hiking that are more difficult to achieve for one parent families. "Discovery Walks" could be organized for small groups to explore the natural areas surrounding or embedded in their communities with children. In addition, many churches offer vacation Bible school experiences that emphasize the wonder of the created world and family camps that foster time spent together exploring natural settings.

Responses to Establishing the Secular Church:

I would like to suggest to Mr. Cuomo that he move to Iran for example and see if he likes the rights accorded him acting on the consensus of the people. - R. M.

One side of the issue TTS and many other miss is that there is More Than One segment of citizens besides the secularists who resist the Church and State merger group. Many, many of us are mainline Christian folk who look with growing suspicion and alarm at the dissolving of the metaphorical "wall" between government and religion. As a Protestant Christian clergyman for 41 years (now retired) what I want to see is a level playing field for all religious options in the US -- not a governmentally weighted favoritism for the majority religion. We envision a similar society to that of secular thinkers, but for very different reasons. - B. M.

Acts 15 tells us important issues were decided following prayer and debate, and decisions were the result of concensus or the determination of the majority. They had the humility to acknowledge their decisions "seemed" good. The Strong's Concordance tells us the word translated "seemed" in Acts 15:28 means to "be of opinion, to think, to suppose". Early Christians did not accept the religious status quo of the day. Concensus (what Methodists have called "conferencing" over the years) has, since ancient biblical times, been the way important decisions were made. One could make the case that it is this biblical way of decision-making that has made its way into our democratic system of discussion and debate. Regarding offering children to idols - " . . .an intriguing spin on the ancient abomination of adults offering children up to their gods so that they can live just a little bit longer and a little bit more comfortably." We continue to willingly - and patriotically - offer countless hundreds of thousands of our children - and the children of others - as an offering in war after war - including the one currently being fought in Iraq so that we can "live just a little bit longer and little bit more comfortably". Where is the outcry of the tens of thousands of children who die daily in our world because we don't yet get the food - which we have in abundance - to them? This article is full of holes. It reads more like a diatribe than a well-thought out Christian position. - M. D.

"Rather than shrink from Cuomo's self-righteous scold" This is getting at the heart of the problem: Secularists have elevated their religion above all others, and they are ready to mow down all in their way - especially those that hold to the doctrine that there is only one true path. When Cuomo preaches his secular religion's dogma as the only true path, doesn't he realize he is going against his own religion's tenets? - D. W.

My personal thanks for the wonderfully written articles which critically evaluate today's issues and then ask the reader to criticaly evaluate for themselves the topics presented. The format is easy to read and the "polish" promotes professionalism without seeming gaudy or "pushy." I encourage the editors and authors with their endevours as a stand is taken against the move of today's secular culture. May God continue to bless you. - C. S.

What is interesting is that Dr. Wiker condemns a panel of experts in his article about Cuomo, yet, further down in the text, tothesource states specifically that it relies on experts to help discern morality in today's world, from a Christian standpoint. Furthermore, these regular emails rely on experts such as Dr. Wiker (and clearly notes his title---which, by the way, is his attempt to suggest to the world that he, in fact, is an expert) to help guide readers on their moral quest. Maybe you all should get together and read what you write before disseminating this stuff... By the way, I couldn't be more vehemently disagree with most of what you all disseminate. I was saddened and ashamed as a Christian that you all sent very slanted, untruthful information about the filibuster to your readership and then asked that your position on the issue of the filibuster, and your agenda, be brought into our churches, turning our churches from houses of worship into havens for political propaganda. You should be ashamed. May God help you better discern the Way. - C. T.

Please remove me from you email list. While I have enjoyed reading your newsletters over the last year, this last one attacking Mario Cuomo was so lopsided that I can no longer tolerate receiving your service. Though I have not always agreed with your positions in the past, a line was crossed which unfortunately reflects the attack rhetoric of other media outlets. Thank you for removing me from any further communications or lists associated with TOTHESOURCE. - N. E.

I am not interested in reading what can only be taken as another attack article by the religious right and there republican lackeys. - D. M.

Not might we expect Mr. Cuomo to “stack the deck” in his proposed task force, but we can see already in his argument that he has stacked the deck in the question to be decided. Before ever considering the question of whether life exists from conception, Cuomo has defined life as “consciousness” and “viability”. What basis is there for choosing these criteria for decision? He doesn’t say. But having chosen them, he has predetermined his conclusion. Either Mr. Cuomo has a low opinion of the reasoning ability of Christians, or he has a pretty poor reasoning ability himself. - D. N.

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We live complex lives. We strive to sort out priorities that sometimes conflict or seem incompatible. A moral framework is needed to help us understand the reality around us. Our Judeo-Christian heritage provides a framework to help us comprehend the choices we make and the conflicts that arise over them. It is not only the main source of our spiritual values, but also many of the secular values we depend on.

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Richard Louv is the author of seven books about family, nature, and community, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder (Algonquin). Among his other books are Childhood's Future (Anchor), The Web of Life, (Conari), Fly-Fishing for Sharks: An Angler's Journey Across America (Simon & Schuster), and America II (Houghton Mifflin). He is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers and magazines. He also served as a columnist and member of the editorial advisory board for Parents magazine, and as a commentator on Monitor Radio. He is also a partner in The Frameworks Institute and a member of the Citistates Group, an association of urban observers. He helped found Connect for Kids, the largest child advocacy site on the World Wide Web.
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