By Kaisja Clark
Photos Courtesy Lori Wittler/Toledo Zoo Preschool
After author Richard Louv sparked a national movement to get kids who’ve never climbed a tree out into the great outdoors, several organizations continue to work on getting environmental education to the forefront of national education policymaking.
The Children & Nature Network and other dedicated grassroots organizations have been working to get Congress to pay attention to the issues at hand, namely that our smallest citizens are being lulled into a televised stupor.
The message is getting out. In particular, there is a companion piece of legislation to the No Child Left Behind Act, titled the No Child Left Inside Act, which is still in committee. Its potential reauthorization may be a means of getting federal funding for environmental education programs into public schools.
Contemporary children spend roughly four hours a day in front of televisions. They aren’t cognizant of what it means to be in nature, to be a part of nature or to be a steward of the natural environment.
Even in the face of an exponentially growing stack of research to back up the benefits of allowing children to have down time in a natural environment, kids are holed up in bedrooms (or living rooms) as a means of keeping them safe, or worse—merely occupied. With some schools eliminating or reducing recess time—and thus time outdoors on a playground—that can be a double detention sentence against children.
Schools, daycares and other education programs are beginning to tackle the lack of ladybugs and dirt time in their curriculums with gardens, nature walks and other kinds of programs to help urge kids back into the outdoors.
The Toledo Zoo Preschool, located in Ohio’s Toledo Zoo, is an example of an implemented nature-based curriculum that is not just done, but done right.
Many education programs could take a cue from the exceptional natural “EdZOOcation” offered at the Toledo Zoo Preschool as an example of how one urban area is taking advantage of its offerings in a concerted effort to get kids inspired by nature. The program—now in its fifth year—is the perfect antidote for the child/nature disconnect that has taken root in modern culture.
To wit, the preschool has a prerequisite that children be sent to class in clothes that can be muddied during the aggressively bug- and dirt-friendly curriculum—paint, glue and dirt up to the elbows are de rigueur. One unofficial school motto “There’s no bad weather, just bad clothes” illustrates that, at this school at least, class should be conducted outside. Yet, so many educational institutions don’t offer any kind of natural curricula, which is a troubling trend in many circles.
“It’s really sad,” Lori Wittler, the preschool administrator, said. “Parents aren’t aware that it’s those down times where kids are really learning. There’s so much discovery outside, but we are so hurried on getting to the next activity that we don’t have time to get fresh air. In some ways, it’s easier to plop kids in front of a video than to take them outside for a walk in the woods. These kids are suffering and they get that mentality that outside is yucky, that inside is better. It’s a vicious cycle.”
Combating this vicious cycle is what the zoo’s preschool is all about.
To say that the program is hands on is a bit of an understatement. The kids are not only exposed to natural elements in the class, but are systematically immersed in nature from day one, in a variety of ways. Chinchillas, hedgehogs and snakes make weekly appearances in the class so kids can touch the animals, if they want. This gives incredible learning experiences for the kids and those who have gone through the program show significant gains over their peers when it comes to elementary education, particularly in science, she said.
“It gives them huge advantages,” Wittler said. “The science base that they have is far and above that of their peers. We provide hands-on learning opportunities and what we put it in their hands just goes into their minds.”
This tactile, sensory approach to learning stays with the kids who get to hold animal hides, run their fingers along the teeth of animal skulls and interact with the real animals coming into the class.
Wittler shared stories of parents who will often stick around well after pickup time, exploring the zoo with their children. There are even nature homework assignments that force the parents to drive their kids around the city to parks or other outdoor areas in search of pine cones and maple leaves, which Wittler jokes about, saying, “I’m sure they love us.”
Wittler hopes the education will have a lasting imprint on the kids. She sees it as the beginning of a lifelong appreciation for the natural world that it will ultimately affect the kids as adults, and who they are as individuals in their communities, and even who they vote for as adults.
“Nature, animals and conservation is our mission,” Wittler said. “We like to get them aware of the environment early and as they grow they have multiple ways to get involved. We hope it will stay with them as they grow.”
Another zoo program is available for other kids in the community and they don’t have to be enrolled in the preschool to attend.
“We have a Nature’s Neighborhood—our new children’s zoo that opened this past summer,” Andi Norman, marketing director for the zoo, said. “It’s based on connecting kids with nature through play—as studies have indicated that children learn best through play. This innovative exhibit is 100 percent exploreable, where we encourage the children to jump, climb, crawl, splash and discover.”
Programs like these give kids the chance to engage in nature, in a way that many normally wouldn’t be able to.
What is especially telling about the effectiveness of the natural education at the Toledo Zoo Preschool is that Wittler said in most circumstances, the children often end up teaching their parents about nature. At one point, the kids were cheering on their mothers to be brave enough to touch a giant hissing cockroach that had been brought into class, Wittler said.
Wittler said the feedback they get after the preschool kids move on to kindergarten from their parents and teachers points to a successful program that enriches them in some permanent, positive ways. She said the kids who have gone through the program continue to stay actively involved in the zoo and plugged into its other programs and, more pointedly, they continue with an intentional interaction with their natural environment.
And that speaks to the larger question in front of us culturally, and particularly, in front of our policymakers … what can be done to bridge the divide between the naturally deprived child and the naturally invested child? As a culture, what do we want an authentic, engaging childhood to look like? If we determine that the natural world is to be part of that illustration of a contemporary childhood, what is to be done?
Wittler said there is a chapter for the No Child Left Inside Act in Toledo and she intends to join. She said she hopes it takes off and that natural education gets more funding, saying, “that should be our most important priority.”
Writing to your local Congressman in support of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Inside Act is beneficial. If politics aren’t your thing, The Children & Nature Network is a great place to start and there is also some insightful information in the PBS documentary Where Do the Children Play?, which is available from the Alliance for Childhood. At the very least, encouraging your own children to disengage from their electronic environment for a daily scavenger hunt in the woods is a wonderful goal to help modern kids reconnect to their native habitat.
Natural education and advocacy aside, allowing a generation of children to participate in the natural environment is an option best met with a prescription—try it for a day—take the children outside, let them explore, let them get dirty, let them play, and just watch what happens.
If you or your organization is interested in joining the ranks of professionals across the country, there are an abundance of resources to get you started in the public sphere. For more on the Children & Nature Network visit http://www.childrenandnature.org/, for the No Child Left Inside Act visit http://www.cbf.org/Page.aspx?pid=687, and for the Toledo Zoo Preschool visit http://www.toledozoo.org/edzoocation/index.html or http://www.toledozoo.org/naturesneighborhood/index.html.
If you have questions, comments or feedback you can e-mail the author at kaisja@playgroundmag.com.
