By Bringing Nature Into Our Lives, We

Kids Are Absolutely Starved For Positive Adult Contact.

This Seems Clear Enough: When Truly Present In Nature, We Do Use All Our Senses At The Same Time, Which Is The Optimum State Of Learning.

Our Kids Are Actually Doing What We Told Them To Do When They Sit In Front Of That Tv All Day Or In Front Of That Computer Game All Day. The Society Is Telling Kids Unconsciously That Nature's In The Past. It Really Doesn't Count Anymore, That The Future Is In Electronics, And Besides, The Bogeyman Is In The Woods.

To Take Nature And Natural Play Away From Children May Be Tantamount To Withholding Oxygen.

I Do Not Mean To Imply That The Good Old Days Were Perfect. But The Institutions And Structure--the Web--of Society Needed Reform,not Demolition. To Have Cut The Institutional And Community Strands Without Replacing Them With New Ones Proved To Be A Form Of Abuse To One Generation And To The Next. For So Many Americans, The Tragedy Was Not In Dreaming That Life Could Be Better; The Tragedy Was That The Dreaming Ended.