When I was a child, I spent many hours outdoors letting my imagination run away with me. I would build forts in my Camphor Tree, collect tadpoles from my pond to investigate further (that I always replaced back into the waters) and made mud-pies out of the mucky soils. I was worn out at the end of the day and my loss of energy provided me with a healthy nights rest among experiences and a growing mind.
As I sit to write this paper, I sit outside on my porch where the heat graces my skin, ants crawl on my chair and I reminisce on the four grounds to the building blocks of my life.
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle, and co-founder of the Children & Nature Network, placed great emphasis on, “the natural world on the ability to learn.” Louv expressed how the absence of Mother Nature’s presence leaves children today at a loss for learning outside a monitor or testing room. Being outdoors allows a student’s mind to wander.
A good friend of mine recently graduated with two Bachelor’s Degrees in engineering with a 3.98 GPA with honors. One of the brightest students of our school, yet he is incredibly challenged when it comes to relating to others. This comes from an uncommon childhood of not having touched a video game until he reached his twentieth birthday and having spent his days in the wilderness of his backyard, trekking through the woods on family vacations and getaways in the form of kayaking or hiking.
My friend cannot relate to most people because he thinks in a way outside the norm with a broader vision to oversee everyday complications that the mediocre label as impossible. The difference is how he was brought up. He was raised with an upbringing to evolve his character with the natural vitamins life has to offer.
Does creativity die with age? Not if that individual does not want his or her fire to burn out in time. Ken Robinson, Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), and knighted in 2003 for services to education, stated, “All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”
Administration has become the hierarchy that deemed recess as a limitation and nature to be shut down by times of industrialism and ever-growing economies of scale. As technology grows and our youth’s experiences dwindle, dreams are abandoned and hope to think outside the box becomes a challenge.
“We were steered away from things we wanted to do, things we liked, on the grounds we would never get a job doing that. Benign advice is profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. Academic views have come to dominate out views of intelligence.” (Robinson)
No comments:
Post a Comment