I Louv it

The first Louv reading is about the relationship children have with nature and how it was different when he grew up. I definitely agree that it has changed for many but I believe I was fortunate enough to have a good mixture of time inside and out. My backyard growing up was a forest preserve and I was always playing in the woods and down by the river with the other kids. I played basketball and football, fished, built forts, and other outdoor activities but I also loved TV, computers and videogames. However, I do agree that it has changed for many children and there is less nature and more technology so I feel it will only get worse. The second reading, “The third Frontier,” talks about many of the same issues. He explains the transition from the open frontiers in America, to the beginning colonization, all the way to the present-day which he calls the Third Frontier. The third, in his opinion, is the opposite of the first. In the first, people interacted continuously with nature and it was a part of them. In the third, he paints a picture of an overabundance of technology, and an almost synthetic version of nature, characterized by small parks in the middle of urban areas. My first reaction was that it is both amazing how far we have come, as well as sad at the fact that we can never go back to that simpler time he talks about. I am left wondering what someone from that time would think if they were brought to our time. As for his third article I must admit that the whole time I was reading I could hear the voice inside my head say “this is a bunch of crap”.  I disagree with the author when he implies that a lack of nature is the reason for the overmedication of children. I think it has more to do with the foods that we are ingesting, the pollutants and chemicals in the air, etc. As for nature creating a calming effect that could help a child with ADD, I agree but I think there are many things that have the ability to give the same effect. Calming music or exercise for example can reduce anxiety but I don’t think a lack of it is why we have more cases of ADD.