Richard Louv - A Radical Approachby Richard Louv, best-selling author of Last Child in the Woods; From his forward to Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature Not long ago, the director of a school camp told me about a sixth-grader who attended his camp who had seldom if ever walked on uneven ground. "He spend all of his time in front of his computer, or doing homework, or playing video games. He was literally unstable on his feet when he left the sidewalk, and frightened," the camp director said. "It took him a while to get used to the trails, but after a while he was running and playing-he came fully alive." That was an extreme example of what I documented in Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, published in 2005. The broad-even international-interest in Last Child came as a surprise to me, but in retrospect it probably shouldn't have. Many dedicated people, including the hard-working folks at Wilderness Awareness School and its many affiliates, have been reconnecting children to the natural world for a long while. My book amplified these voices, documented the scientific research and offered possible solutions-and hope-at a moment when a lot of people knew something was seriously wrong with the nature connection but couldn't define what that something was. They did know they wanted to help make things better for their children. Thanks to the creators of Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, kids of all ages and their mentors now have a powerful set of tools to help them with their task. No question about it: We need to restore the broken bond between children and nature. The status quo isn't working, despite the best intentions of parents, teachers and others who devote time and energy to help children succeed in life. We see the evidence of this break in many ways: decreasing use of National Parks, falling enrollment in undergraduate college conservation programs, and plummeting sales of entry-level outdoor equipment. Even bike riding and Little League teams, one-time benchmarks of an active childhood, are losing their appeal to youngsters. Not coincidentally, obesity in children is at an all-time high, along with associated increases in diabetes and other health problems, including attention-deficit disorders. Organized activities aside, unstructured time to just mess around outdoors-free play-seems to be in free-fall, despite a clinical report released not long ago by The American Academy of Pediatrics stating that play, especially free play, is "essential to development, as it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth." Other recent research links children's and adults' physical and mental health, as well as cognitive functioning and creativity, directly to experiences in nature. It's not much of a leap to say that a creative and intelligent individual holds the keys to a high-quality life. And, too, there are planetary emergencies to be dealt with. We certainly need young people with all of their available brain neurons firing to help solve these problems. Wildlife reserves, parks and greenbelts-and the creatures and plants that live within-also depend on an alert and caring political constituency-informed people-for their continued survival. Wilderness Awareness School's Art of Mentoring and Coyote Teaching approach puts into print what this network of teachers has transmitted orally for the last 25 years. In nature, life seems to explode at the cusp of forest and meadow, or ocean and beach. At the verge, Coyote Teaching is similarly energetic with the possibility of discovery. As Coyote's authors write: "The real-life coyotes lurk on the edge of the human village, always just beyond sight or reach. They keep a close and wary eye on danger and opportunity in all directions. That's how they hunt; that's how they live. Coyote's edge-walk is a perfect metaphor for nature educators to use as a guide..." Coyote's Guide entices us off the familiar path-off the sidewalk and onto uneven ground-and encourages us to experiment with creative approaches to reintroduce children to nature. The spirit of Coyote goads teachers to have "a true sense of play and abandon...and leads us to connect in an intimate and meaningful way" with nature, and with our natural selves. This teaching "is a radical approach that uses no textbooks or tests, but simply starts at the roots of nature education by engaging people in direct experience with the plants and animals just beyond the edge of their back yards." By learning to think like Coyote the Trickster, mentors are inspired to drop the know-it-all mentality and see nature with fresh eyes. Here is where story and play merge with fact and science. This is not the interactive learning of yesterday, but a guide to the Invisible School, which teaches knowing in a deep way. Because the methods suggested in this book have been field tested for decades-in truth, for thousands of years-this guide should become an essential resource for mentors, teachers, parents, and outdoor educators-anyone who wants to revive their sense of kinship with nature but needs some help. This is good medicine for nature-deficit disorder. To learn more about Coyote's Guide - click on the following link:
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