Swingin' on a Star?

…I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

                               Robert Frost, 1916

Nature Deficit Disorder

In his landmark book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv defines a condition from which many children and adults today suffer-nature deficit disorder. Urbanization and the rise of technology, particularly our dependence on the latter are producing generations of ‘screen addicted’ individuals. Gone are the days where children ran outside to play after school. Instead, their attachment to computer and mobile phone screens has lured them to routines and habits which can potentially prompt antisocial behaviors and impede cognitive growth.

The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence includes outdoor learning as an essential element to a child’s education and there is a movement in the UK and elsewhere which seeks to put people, big and small, back in touch with nature. On a more positive note, research shows that growing urbanization also tends to create a need to be reconnected with wildlife & nature. 

Good Vibrations:  http://bit.ly/1UTu2nm