Al Mohler:
Author Richard Louv believes that America's children are now suffering from a syndrome he identifies as "nature-deficit disorder." In his new book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv suggests that the current generation of American children knows the Discovery Channel better than their own backyards--and that this loss of contact with nature leads to impoverished lives and stunted imagination.Read the rest.
I wonder if this is truth for adults as well? If we fail to make our kids go outside we rob them of the opportunity to hear God speak (Psalm 19). We need to help them contemplate all the wonders of God's glorious creation. Help them think theologically about all of life.
2 comments:
I think this is a new and graver version of a not-so-new problem. My dad as a park ranger assigned to DC wanted to take city children just a short ways out into the Virginia countryside, to Manassas or wherever, so they could see that milk comes from somewhere before it gets to the grocery store...where it obviously COMES FROM for city kids!
I grew up going backpacking and stuff; something a lot of my peers did not, but it was largely a benefit of being in my family. I enjoyed learning about nature...but my best friend, another Park Service kid who lived in park housing, learned a lot more than I did from MORE constant exposure.
But this version is graver because it is pandemic -- it happens wherever kids live. Whether they live in cities or in the country, it's "easier" to stay inside and play Wii than to get outside and say "Wheeeeee!"...and while they're out there to see how everything is wondrously MADE. There's part of me that has grown lazy, but another part that would much rather be outside with trees and grass than inside with plastic and pressed "wood."
I grew up in the country, surrounded by acre upon glorious acre of wilderness. I learned how to climb trees and identify birds and scoop frog spawn into a jar and set the frogs free several months later.
Most days, my son complains that he doesn't want to play outside because it's too hot. Or too cold. Or too bright. Or too dark. Or too rainy.
*sigh*
It doesn't help that we have entered an age where we have become convinced that our neighbor may be a slavering pedophile waiting to snatch your children. Or that the playground might harbor some terrifying new germ or a psychotic teen with a gun that causes everyone to die horribly. Or that there might be rabid animals, or mosquitoes bearing viruses, or poison ivy lurking in the park. Oh no, we can't handle that anymore. It might cause us to suffer and that would lower our self-esteem--or so Oprah tells us. Better to hide away from the big bad scary uncontrollable world so it won't hurt us and make us cry. Better to tuck ourselves into the the nice padded safety of our homes, our cell phones, our internet...
Post a Comment