Natural Transcendence
Creating Mystical Experiences
David Sobel points out in chapter two of his book Childhood and Nature, one of the keys to adult environmental values is early childhood experiences with wild and "domesticated" wild places. Children who experience nature in a transcendent fashion grow up seeking to nurture and care for the planet. Sobel cites a recent Cornell University study where researchers interviewed 2,000 adults from across the country. The researchers found that adult environmental attitudes and behavior are positively linked to formative childhood experiences. Behind every earth conscious adult is a woods, creek or meadow where hours upon hours of play shaped their views of life. It was a sizable tract of wooded land very close to my house and my parents backyard that did it for me.
Absorbing Sobel’s point reinforces the critical role Hershey Children’s Garden plays in the lives of thousands of Northeast Ohio young residents. I can stuff visitors or students with facts to regurgitate on standardized test, but this does not lead to changed attitudes. I only provide the setting in which greater powers instill a love for the natural world. We protect and nurture what we love, not what we memorize.
Posted by Josh Steffen
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September 1st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I agree with you (and Mr. Sobel) 100% on this score. For me, it was a particular vernal pool in the woods behind my parents’ house when I was growing up. Fallen trees next to the pool provided a place for me to lay on my back with a book, read, and listen to the wildlife in the woods. Or maybe it was another woods, across the street, where the neighborhood kids all built “dirtbike trails” and rode our old bikes (not the shiny new 10-speeds, but our “dirt bikes,” of course) around in huge looping circles.
I think that negative childhood experiences can help color adult habits a bit, too, though. My Dad still treats his lawn with crabgrass killer and other nasty chemicals every spring, summer, and fall… but one whiff of those disgusting things in my neighborhood now reminds me of my childhood, and of why I refrain from their use. And why I don’t mind if the little lawn I have left goes dormant in the heat and drought of summer.