Lifelong love of nature
SCIENCE camp won’t do it, and neither will joining the 4-H Club. In fact, being a Boy Scout, with all its outdoor activity, may not be enough.
Parents wishing to raise a future environmentalist should give their kids plenty of time for free play in the wild before they’re 11 years old, suggests a new Cornell University study.
Psychologist Nancy Wells and her research staff reviewed data gathered in a 1998 U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service survey in which urban adults provided details of their childhood play activities. They discovered that those who, as children, had engaged in activities such as camping, playing in the woods, hiking, fishing and hunting were significantly more likely to consider themselves active environmentalists than those whose experiences of nature were more controlled or instructional.
Domestic nature-oriented activities, such as gardening, had some effect on adult attitudes about environmental issues, but it was not strong. “When children become truly engaged with the natural world at a young age, the experience is likely to stay with them in a powerful way -- shaping their subsequent environmental path,” says Wells. The article will appear later this month in the biannual, peer-reviewed online journal Children, Youth and Environments.
