Does it feel natural to you to sit for hours indoors and do your work? I guess we both know the answer to this question and the usual sigh that follows after. So why do we expect children to be super enthusiastic about going to kindergarten or school when it is against their young nature to be sitting like a statue for more than 4 hours ? I had a feeling that the way we do education in most countries is wrong and I must tell you that I felt oddly satisfied yet sad to find out that the indoor monuments dedicated to the development of our offsprings are in fact hideous and a hindrance for their development. We do not like it when we have to go to a crappy office or sit indoors hours in an end, yet we scold our children if they dare to tell us that school sucks. Well, it kind of does and the reason why is quite simple: the location is wrong.
I began to be interested in forest pedagogy when I have read about Denmark and how they do things differently. They allow children to sit for a full day outdoors while also teaching them basic things like they would normally do inside the school. Breathing the fresh air, interactioning with animals and wild plants, allowing them to get the right sun exposure and a long myriad of other benefits are being the main things that make education in nature so attractive. I have also discovered the fabulous work of Marina Robb. We need more educators like her.
Having lessons taught in nature can also help children with ADHD and autism as there were some ongoing studies about the benefits of outdoor schooling for children with behavioural problems and it has been discovered that “ lessons in the forest improved children’s ability to cope with unpredictability in everyday life. Their learning motivation and reading abilities also improved. Furthermore, children with behavioural challenges benefitted from the natural environment”1
Nowadays we are having more and more children suffer from depression and anxiety, on the verge of suicide, because of the massive increase in screen time. The reality and the beauty of the outside world does not incite the young minds anymore. And there is an illness that I have recently came across called “nature deficit disorder” that made me really ponder about today’s society.
I see some schools still clinging to the old curriculum and the old way things used to get done, even though it damages the spirit of the children. I do believe that there should be schools outdoors on each corner of this Planet and that having the educational system changed in order to fit the needs of the children instead of the needs of the adults should become a priority. What does it need to happen to this generation of children so severely damaged by screen time and lack of nature and fresh air so we would take attitude?
Now that I am an adult I sometimes sit in wonder of how did I manage to go through school without going crazy ( let’s suppose I am normal today haha) . At the time I conformed as it looked normal. But now I see the educational system with new eyes: it is old fashioned and it does not serve the child, it enslaves him. We have a lot of forests to protect and preserve, why not build sustainable kindergartens and schools within them and help shape a stronger society?
If obedience is the main purpose of why we are taught to conform since young age , against our spirit, then it is a detrimental approach even for the big illuminated minds. Because a society which is formed by a mass of individuals that will have lost their spirit and desire to enjoy life and outdoors is a doomed nation, regardless of the short term profits. Doomed because the rise in mental illness will make the system spend more of the money it does not have. And guess what, rich or poor, we are all stuck on this Planet. It kind of seems like a crazy man’s plan to think of an educational system that cripples the individual long term for short term profit, isn’t it? Perhaps we shall call Planet Earth the Planet of the Insane if we decide to change nothing despite evident confirmation that the educational system is flawed. The latest book of Gabor Maté makes even more sense now as it states the obvious: we are getting worse while the technology is getting better.
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