Green Schools: Reconnecting the adults of tomorrow with nature
The children of today will be the adults of tomorrow and they will ultimately decide the fate of our future planet. It is therefore disturbing that so many children spend too little time outside enjoying and connecting with the natural world. Subsequently, many children suffer from obesity and depression both symptoms of a sedentary lifestyle. How can we help children improve their health and wellbeing and instill in them a love of the environment?
On average children in the UK spend some 13.9 hours a week watching television, and another six hours on a computer. This sedentary screen orientated lifestyle cannot create happy or healthy children. According to Unicef, British children are the unhappiest and most obese in Europe. This sedentary lifestyle is prevalent in other parts of the world, including the developing world, where televisions and computers are become more accessible to people.
We love our children and yet we expect them to live in an increasingly polluted, computer and television orientated planet with little access to the natural world. To achieve ultimate happiness and enlightenment children need to have many opportunities to play outside and connect with nature. Children instinctively value the environment and this should be encouraged both at school and at home.
There are many ways to achieve a reconnection with nature and the natural world. Firstly, children should walk to school preferably through parks and tree lined streets. Those that live too far away could take a school bus to reduce carbon emissions and congestion through the daily school run by car. In the US, yellow school buses are the norm throughout the country and some 450,000 yellow buses take more than 25 million children to and from school. We need to encourage councils to have school buses for many more schools on a global scale.Children love playing in parks and woodlands and however small their playgrounds schools should develop natural habitats for children to play in.
By playing outside in the fresh air children become less hyperactive, they can concentrate better and they develop a great sense of balance as well as strong, lean bodies. The outdoors play reinforces their learning and makes them happier and their lives more fulfilled. We also need to educate children about the countryside. By being increasingly isolated from the natural world it is an astounding but true fact that many children simply don’t realise that chips come from potatoes and eggs are laid by chickens. If possible, hens could be kept at school within a fenced natural habitat to enable children to learn about the animals that feed us. This will also provide delicious free range eggs for school lunches and enable children to learn to nurture and care for animals as well as creating material for biology lessons.
Our food is intricately linked to the natural world and some inner city primary schools with tiny playgrounds have set up organic fruit and vegetable beds so children can grow tomatoes, lettuce, beans, strawberries and other crops. This enables children to learn how our foods are grown and the health benefits of organic produce. Furthermore, they can learn about the importance of eating locally produced food to reduce the air miles, and subsequent emission of greenhouse gases, relating to food being transported around the world.
Growing fruit and vegetables in a school environment creates an outdoor arena for learning about the importance of a healthy diet, the environment and food production. It is well known that the wrong diet not only causes obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease but that bad foods lead to bad behaviour and relate to the increase in mental health, crime and antisocial behaviour amongst children. So, a healthy diet will enable children’s behaviour and health to improve.During home economics lessons children could use the produce to prepare foods an important talent for their adult life. Furthermore, growing food should be therapeutic for children and all schools should teach children basic cooking skills. This would also be an ideal time for children to learn about waste. They could learn to recycle vegetable and fruit waste using the school compost in the school garden. Furthermore, they could learn about reducing their use of plastic bags, which pollute the seas killing marine mammals and end up in landfill sites where they can take a 1000 years to decompose, and recycling plastics, glass, paper and cardboard.
After school, and at weekends, children, and their parents, will thrive from being outside with nature and should make as many opportunities as possible to do so. Children develop a lifelong and vital ability to connect with the natural world but only if they are allowed to play freely in parks and woods and streams before the age of twelve. And if you join them you too will benefit from the healthier outdoors lifestyle on Our Future Planet.
The education of our global children about carbon emissions, climate change, waste, food, a healthy diet and what they can do to improve their health and that of the planet is our greatest hope for saving our future planet. Furthermore, by learning about the environment and becoming in tune with nature and the natural world children throughout the world will be happier, fitter and healthier and should live longer more productive lives. What do you think? Add your comment below. Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Not a Citizen? Sign up
Our schools need a mandate and commitment to teaching children about their environment AND by taking them into it. We also need to assist parents in our communities in getting their kids outside in safe, healthy, natural environments through greenways, parks, community gardens, and more.
