Bonding Child and Nature

Book Review # 111111

Child, Youth Issues
Environmental Studies

A review of the book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," by Richard Louv.

785 words () | 0 sources | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Richard Louv's book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," which is about the fact that many western children spend little or no time in nature. Louv correlates the lack of time in nature with the onset and surmounting cases of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The writer discusses some of the reasons that Louv mentions for disassociation from nature, such as the urbanization of the Girl Scouts, and phenomena like the Rainforest Cafe. The writer explains how Louv's book affected her personally, and how it has inspired and motivated her to find more ways to involve her daughter with nature.

From the Paper:

"Throughout the book, I was drawn to comparisons in my personal life, especially associated with television, electronic media and immersion, and fear. While I was raised in a Northern Californian town on three acres and plenty of wilderness to explore, I am living a quite different existence in Los Angeles. As a stepmother, I am essentially at war with the commodity and consumer culture that is surrounding my eight-year-old daughter. If that is not enough, there are not any places for her to explore nature as I once did. Rather, she is steeped in a consumer culture that has also ingrained, in parents, fear of leaving children in unsupervised free play, in fear of the worst our imaginations can express. Louv sites these within his text, stating, "fear is the emotion that separates a developing child from the full, essential benefits of nature. Fear of traffic, of crime, of stranger-danger - and of nature itself.""