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Richard Louv

Richard Louv Books

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“She was one of those exceptional children who do still spend time outside, in solitude. In her case nature represented beauty - and refuge. "It's so peaceful out there and the air smells so good. I mean, it's polluted, but not as much as the city air. For me, it's completely different there," she said. "It's like you're free when you go out there. It's your own time. Sometimes I go there when I'm mad - and then, just with the peacefulness, I'm better. I can come back home happy, and my mom doesn't even know why." The she described her special part of the woods. "I had a place. There was a big waterfall and a creek on one side of it. I'd dug a big hole there, and sometimes I'd take a tent back there, or a blanket, and just lie down in the hole, and look up at the trees and sky. Sometimes I'd fall asleep back there. I just felt free; it was like my place, and I could do what I wanted, with nobody to stop me. I used to go down there almost every day." The young poet's face flushed. Her voice thickened. "And then they just cut the woods down. It was like they cut down part of me.”

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Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“Parents are told to turn off the TV and restrict video game time, but we hear little about what the kids should do physically during their non-electronic time. The usual suggestion is organized sports. But consider this: The obesity epidemic coincides with the greatest increase in organized children's sports in history.”

ObesitySedentaryYouth SportsScreen
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“A generation of children is not only being raised indoors, but is being confined to even smaller spaces. Jane Clark, a University of Maryland professor of kinesiology . . . calls them "containerized kids"--they spend more and more time in car seats, high chairs, and even baby seats for watching TV. When small children go outside, they're often placed in containers--strollers--and pushed by walking or jogging parents. . . Most kid-containerizing is done for safety concerns, but the long term health of these children is compromised. (35)”

ChildrenPlayParentingConfinementSedentary
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. This disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.”

NatureNature And ManNature Deficit Disorder
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights on Earth are touched by the natural world. We can find immeasurable joy in the birth of a child, a great work of art, or falling in love.”

WorldChildrenArtEarthJoyNightFallNaturalBirthSpeciesFalling In LoveTouchedWorks Of ArtGreat WorkNatural WorldAnimatedDay And NightBirth Of A Child
Book:The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age
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“Something else was different when we were young: our parents were outdoors. I’m not saying they were joining health clubs and things of that sort, but they were out of the house, out on the porch, talking to neighbors. As far as physical fitness goes, today’s kids are the sorriest generation in the history of the United States. Their parents may be out jogging, but the kids just aren’t outside.”

MayDifferentStatesKidsTodayYoungHouseParentUnitedTalkingUnited StatesGenerationsClubsNeighborJoiningPorchJoggingPhysical Fitness
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“In a famous Middletown study of Muncie, Indiana, in 1924, mothers were asked to rank the qualities they most desire in their children. At the top of the list were conformity and strict obedience. More than fifty years later, when the Middletown survey was replicated, mothers placed autonomy and independence first. The healthiest parenting probably promotes a balance of these qualities in children.”

YearsFirstsChildrenMotherDesireValuesQualityStudyBalanceIndependenceListsObedienceFiftyConformityStrictAutonomySurveysIndiana
Author:Richard Louv
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“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.”

MeanDreamFormNextChangeCommunityPerfectCuttingGenerationsNeededAbuseTragedyInstitutionsStructureReformOld DaysStrandsGood Old DaysDemolition
Author:Richard Louv
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“Today's children are living a childhood of firsts. They are the first daycare generation; the first truly multicultural generation; the first generation to grow up in the electronic bubble, the environment defined by computers and new forms of television; the first post-sexual revolution generation; the first generation for which nature is more abstraction than reality; the first generation to grow up in new kinds of dispersed, deconcentrated cities, not quite urban, rural, or suburban.”

FirstsKindChildrenRealityTodayFormGrowsChangeCitiesGrowing UpEnvironmentGenerationsChildhoodTelevisionRevolutionComputerDefinedPostsBubblesUrbanAbstractionMulticulturalSexual RevolutionDaycare
Book:Childhood's Future
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“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past--the portrayals of family life on such television programs as "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" and all the rest.”

KnowsWayRealPastRememberCoursesFatherFamilyPiecesChildhoodTelevisionProgramAnd LoveVideoCombinationCollectivesBitternessParenthoodFamily LifePortrayalBeaversFather Knows Best
Book:Childhood's Future
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“Rather than accepting the drifting separation of the generations, we might begin to define a more complex and interesting set of life stages and parenting passages, each emphasizing the connections to the generations ahead and behind. As I grow older, for example, I might first see my role as a parent in need of older, mentoring parents, and then become a mentoring parent myself. When I become a grandparent, I might expect to seek out older mentoring grandparents, and then later become a mentoring grandparent.”

NeedsFirstsMightGrowsParentInterestingBehindsAcceptingRolesGenerationsStageExampleConnectionsComplexesSeparationPassagesGrandparentDriftingMentoring
Book:Childhood's Future
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“Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its preservation. Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing?”

LooksChildrenDoeNatureHealingTeachProgressFlowerEnvironmentalWorthwhileInteractionPreservationEcosystems
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun.”

IfsChildrenKidsTogetherJoyOrderBeliefFunNatureShareAdultsPerfectionGood ThingsDefeatChores
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.”

WorldHelpingSchoolFormParentNatureRealizingLevelsEnvironmentMovementStudentsEnvironmentalSupposed To BePolitePortalIncarceration
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole. In my children's memories, the adventures we've had together in nature will always exist.”

WorldChildrenMadeWholeMomentsStoriesEarthTogetherOpportunityNatureMemoriesAdventureOur ChildrenMy ChildrenOur LoveChildren And Nature
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“In medieval times, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called acedia, a 'dangerous form of spiritual alienation' -- a devaluing of the world and its creator.”

IfsWorldPersonsSpiritualFormDangerousCreatorBoredomSymptomsAlienationMedievalMedieval Times
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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