
By David Morrow
Administrator, Nevada State Parks
CARSON CITY, Nev.–As park and recreational professionals, we should be concerned about a growing trend in America, increased screen time spent on computers, cell phones, video games and television. The latest Parks & Recreation magazine had an article entitled “Returning to Nature.”
It asked its members and other recreation and park professionals to become engaged in the growing movement to reconnect children with nature. It cited a growing trend of children who do not have the same connection to the outdoors as generations before. Of course, some of us who qualify as “members of the generations before” category didn’t always have access to radios and TVs and thus found the outdoors a wonderful place to spend time. My childhood memories are filled with hiking, fishing and playing in the outdoors from sunup to sundown.
Another publication, Last Child in the Woods, written by Richard Louv, has evoked a wide response from parents, educators, elected officials and concerned adults who agree with the author’s premise that children are increasingly afflicted with a “nature deficit disorder.”
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