Do Our Kids Have Nature-Deficit Disorder? Nature—Left Out in the Cold
Educational Leadership Magazine
December 2009/January 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 4
Health and Learning Pages 24-30
Richard Louv
Unfortunately, too many school districts have contributed to a growing gap between nature and children. I call this nature-deficit disorder, which is not a medical diagnosis, but a description of the growing gap between human beings and nature, with implications for health and well-being.
In the 1970s, the physical and academic designs of too many school districts turned inward, resulting in the building of windowless schools, the banishment of animals from classrooms, and even the elimination of recess and field trips. Several forces have been at work. Within schools, these forces include the wave of well-intentioned and underfunded education reforms. Beyond the schools, they include poor urban design, disappearing open space, parental fear of "stranger danger," amplified news cycles and sensationalized entertainment media, competition from computers and video games, the overstructuring of childhood, and the devaluing of natural play.
