The American Mind

Kids aren’t getting outside as much anymore. This isn’t shocking news. Technology has given us comfortable, climate-controlled environments that avoid excess heat, cold, sun, and humidity while keeping the bugs away. While inside we can surf the internet, listen to music, watch movies, and play video games. Cheap transportation (even with today’s high gas prices) mean we travel by car to places past generations walked or biked to. Few are shocked we have so many overweight kids (and adults).

Part of this phenomenon is also due to this generation’s limited amount of wandering. Dramatically the distance from home kids travel is far less than it was for our parents and grandparents. Few kids go about town unattended anymore. Parents’ risk aversion keeps kids from roving.

I seem to remember walking about 1/2 mile alone to kindergarten. I think my mother or babysitter walked me to school a few times for me to learn the route. Then I was on my own. Even if it rained my parents put me in my slicker, handed me an umbrella, and kicked me out the door.

During grade school I again walked or biked about 1/2 mile to school. Only this path took me across active railroad tracks. The “worst” part? There were only warning lights. GASP! How did I survive?

Many see the problem of getting kids outdoors, but their solutions are typical of our age: planning meetings, organizing boards, government programs.

Concerns about long-term consequences — affecting emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities, environmental consciousness — have spawned a national movement to “leave no child inside.” In recent months, it has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a “green hour” in each day.

Tomorrow 40 civic leaders — representing several governors, three big-city mayors, Walt Disney Co., Sesame Workshop, DuPont, the gaming industry and others — will launch a campaign to raise $20 million that will ultimately fund 20 initiatives across the country to encourage children to do what once seemed second nature: go outdoors.

“If we really want to make a difference in this area, we need a shift in the culture,” said Larry Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, which organized the alliance of leaders.

Typical. Organize everything. Control it all. Unstructured play be damned.

We don’t need a “green hour.” We need people willing to hit the “off” switch.

I can save everyone a few million bucks. Parents, tell your kids to go outside and play. If they come back inside claiming they’re bored tell them to turn right around and use their imagination. Take away the video games. Build a sandbox. Make kids take advantage of the ever-increasing lot sizes of surburbia.

One more thing: cut back on the organized activities. You may think Little Johnny or Suzie really needs that soccer league or horse camp for their future college applications. Making every trip to the state park or nature center a learning experience robs children from appreciating nature for what it is. It’s not just a place for formal education. It’s a space to take in the world around us. Serendipity is lost. If kids see going outdoors akin to a chore they’ll avoid it like brussel sprouts.

“Getting Lost in the Great Indoors” [via memeorandum]

UPDATE: Not having kids made me miss the most obvious difficulty for parents to get their kids outside: they’re not home. It’s hard to turn off your kids’ Playstation at 3:00 p.m. when you’re working from 9-5.

James Joyner notes a few other societal trends:

Still, the combination of media hype that occaisons every crime or accident that befalls a child, the lack of stay-at-home moms, social pressures, and the lure of the Internet and other indoor activities will be mighty hard to fight.