By Priyanka Chatterjee

Artistic Director, Wild Strawberry

wildstrawberry.arts@gmail.com

Nature is the source, where we ALL come from; Nature is the destination, where we ALL must go at the end. The closer we are to Nature, in the in-between years, healthier and wiser we can be as there is a strong and magical connection with the natural world for all of us; especially for young people, during their formative years.

As one scientist puts it, “we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.” Indian gurukuls in earlier days used to be set in the midst of nature. Rabindranath Tagore established a year round outdoor school in Shantiniketan,  with the aim of freeing learning from the confines of the classroom; the curriculum revolve organically around nature with classes being held in the open air till this day.

Per Richard Louv, “Children are simply happier and healthier when they have frequent and varied opportunities for experiences in the out-of-doors.”

Even though all children need experiences in nature for healthy development, yet research shows that children have substantially less access to nature than previous generations. Nature deficit disorder is a phrase coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book ‘Last Child in the Woods’ meaning that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioural problems. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of electronic devices.

To appreciate the importance of outdoors in children’s lives, 12^th October is going to be celebrated as Outdoor Classroom Day in India for the first time as part of a global campaign. The campaign is led by ACE Trust in India. Few of my favourite memories are shared below as ideas to celebrate Outdoor Classroom Day with Children: –

• Outdoor walks and Nature excursions can be a part of the Outdoor Activity, with special attention paid to natural phenomena. Students can be encouraged to follow instances of life cycles of insects, birds and plants or to explore flora & fauna and relate to their various attributes.

 

 

• Students can create free-flowing art using things collected by themselves from outdoors.

 

• Students can observe Circle Time in the Outdoor; Sing, Dance, move, stretch, make merry, repeat.

 

• Nature fosters resilience. Students can have a walk around the school neighbourhood and feel a sense of connection & obligation towards the larger civic community.
• Students can get involved into messy plays like sand play, water play, mud play etc, which helps a lot to enhance sensory integration.
• Students can listen to or tell nature stories in the outdoors or get involved into role play where they play act different themes from nature.

Let’s all endorse what Botanist Luther Burbank had to say – “Every child should have mudpies, grasshoppers, wildflowers, Aspen trees, blue sky, soaring birds, fuzzy squirrels, huge rocks, butterflies, pine cones, wild strawberries, and room to run in—and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.”