Nature Walks Improve Learning More than City Walks

What current research data is saying....

Nature Walks Improve Learning More than City Walks

The non-stop stimuli of city life may be inadvertently promoting short attention spans; there is simply too much going on vying for our ever-limited attention.

In fact, according to environmental psychologist Stephen Kaplan (also of the Univ. of Michigan), attention is the crucial mediator between green space and psychological benefit. Urban environs place continuous demands on what’s known as directed attention. Natural environments, on the other hand, allow our directed attention to rest. What’s more, they engage a different form of attention that he calls fascination. This involuntary form of attention improves mood, directed attention and cognition.

What 19th century educationalist, Charlotte Mason said,

But a stressed, overworked mother may see no way to give her children more than an hour on the neighborhood sidewalks. Well, long hours in fresh air is the ideal for children. It may not be practical for every family, but when mothers understand the good that a measure can do, they will often work miracles to provide it. A twenty minute trip with a picnic lunch can make a day in the country accessible to almost anyone, but why do it just one day? Why not do it lots of days? Or even every nice day?

But suppose we have those long days in the open air, what is to be done with them so that they are pleasant days? There must be a plan, or else it will be all work and no fun for the mother, and the children will be bored. There is a lot to get accomplished in this large block of time. The children must be kept in a good temper if they are to get the most out of the refreshing, strengthening atmosphere of the great outdoors. They must be left to themselves for a good part of the day to take in their own impressions of nature's beauty. There's nothing worse than children being deprived of every moment to wonder and dream within their own minds because teachers and adults are constantly talking at them, not leaving them a moment's peace. Yet, the mother must not miss this opportunity of being outdoors to train the children to have seeing eyes, hearing ears and seeds of truth deposited into their minds to grow and blossom on their own in the secret chambers of their imaginations. In addition to increasing their powers of observation, children should spend an hour or two in free, active playing, and a lesson or two should be done. (Vol. 1, p. 44.)

Nature study increases your child’s intellect and makes him a more interesting person. “Consider, too, what an unequalled mental training the child-naturalist is getting for any study or calling under the sun — the powers of attention, of discrimination, of patient pursuit, growing with his growth, what will they not fit him for?” (Vol. 1, p. 61.)

Charlotte Mason was right once again!