by Richard Louv

review by Bedford Holmes

AS A CAMP DIRECTOR, I am always interested in research that relates to the outdoors. In that regard I have found Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv a fascinating read.

“I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are,” says a fourth grader who the author quotes in the book. While nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition, it is a description of how kids have become disengaged from the outdoors and have thus lost the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits nature provides for childhood development. As you might guess, the culprit in this story is the obsession many children have with computers, television, and video games. The author connects this indoors media obsession with the rise in America of childhood obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression. The book goes on to show how exposure to nature can be a powerful, therapeutic tool for kids suffering from these afflictions. Louv builds an impressive case, suggesting that environmental-based education programs—such as camps—dramatically improve kids' skills in critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and decision making.

The author's view of the historical trends involved with nature-deficit disorder is particularly intriguing. Louv recounts historian Fredrick Jackson Turner's illustration about the effect of the North American frontier on the character of Americans. The conquest of the wilderness or the “first frontier” contributed to the rugged individualism and self-reliance associated with Americans who lived during the 1800s. People of this era were intimately acquainted with the wilderness because they were in a struggle to conquer it. In Turner's interpretation, the “second frontier” began when the government stopped making free land available to homesteaders in the 1890s. From the 1890s to the 1990s, Americans moved from being frontiersman to farmers to city dwellers. During this period a romantic attachment to the wilderness manifested itself in the creation of national parks, camping programs, and the environmental movement. People of this era—including most of the Baby Boom generation—appreciated and cherished the outdoors for its spiritual richness and restorative power. Louv suggests that kids today have migrated into a “third frontier” of a cocooned, urban world that teaches that the outdoor world is dangerous place. Their frontier is the virtual world of cyberspace. The author sums up by saying, “In the space of a century, the American experience of nature has gone from direct utilitarianism to romantic attachment to electronic detachment.”

All of this is no surprise to me, but the idea of nature-deficit disorder is a novel way of thinking about how kids need camp. It just goes to show that more than ever before, children need a place in the woods for play, relaxation, inspiration, and improved mental health. A Christian camp can be a balm in the woods for kids.

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