Author: Zack Henry
Spending time outside is critical for our development and wellbeing.
This claim is not based on scientific studies or survey results, although those do most certainly exist. It is simply based on my experience as a human who has led other humans, including many young ones, through extended and challenging outdoor experiences. The growth that I have seen from these other humans in outdoor environments, both easy ones and challenging ones, has been universally profound and dramatic.
I recently returned from a trip to Texas that I was lucky enough to take with three of my teenage students. We travelled to the hill country to learn the ways of traditional bow-hunting from three incredibly knowledgeable and skilled outdoorsmen. We experienced intensely cold weather for the entire week, and camped in a meadow down by the river, hearing wild hogs and coyotes sound off each night as we fell asleep. Being there to hunt, I woke up before the sun each morning in order to jostle a teenage boy or two awake, and went to bed after sundown each night after sauntering back into camp with a student or two by my side.
Hearing these details, one might think that I would have experienced my fair share of whining and complaining. After all, don’t all teenagers sleep in? And don’t all teenagers complain when they’re cold? As it turns out, not when they are engaged in authentic and rigorous learning out amongst nature and its systems.
Looking at human history at the macro level, the importance of nature to our development and wellbeing makes a lot of sense. For the vast, vast majority of our evolutionary existence, we lived our entire lives close to nature and its systems. Our brains are wired for this type of existence, and it became our greatest asset when it came time to decode patterns and make predictions about animals, plants, and the weather. We are literally coded to learn this way, and the simple sight of natural landscapes without straight lines is a healing tonic for our brains and souls.
This is why nature is my favorite co-teacher. It can be incredibly inspiring to take a step back as an educator and watch her do the teaching for me. Students intuitively learn to adjust for the weather by putting on a raincoat when the clouds get dark, or to detect faint sounds by freezing all motion and muting all noise. They can begin to put together the story left behind by a travelling animal by paying attention to small details, and using the power of inference to put those details together into a collective whole. All of this happens naturally, and in those environments the best thing I can do is to get out of the way and let nature work its magic.
Go outside. Walk around the block, or go to the local park. Bring your children with you when you can, go alone when you can. Being outside doesn’t have to happen in an epic, photo-worthy wilderness area. It can, and should, happen regularly in the common, regular-old spaces that are not indoors. It can include sitting in your yard for ten minutes, or swimming in a lake on a hot summer day.
Spend time outside. It’s good for you.
Commentaires