Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

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Authors: Richard Louv

Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Psychology, #Science

BOOK: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

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Praise for
Last Child in the Woods

“One of the most thought-provoking, well-written books I’ve read in recent memory. It rivals Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring
.”

—
The Cincinnati Enquirer

“Important and original. . . . As Louv so eloquently and urgently shows, our mothers were right when they told us, day after day, ‘Go out and play.’”

—
The Christian Science Monitor

“
Last Child in the Woods
is the direct descendant and rightful legatee of Rachel Carson’s
The Sense of Wonder
. But this is not the only thing Richard Louv has in common with Rachel Carson. There is also this: in my opinion,
Last Child in the Woods
is the most important book published since
Silent Spring
.”

—Robert Michael Pyle, author of
Sky Time in Gray’s River

“This book is an absolute must-read for parents.”

—
The Boston Globe

“One man who bears a large responsibility for breathing new life into back-to-nature efforts is Richard Louv. . . . [His] book is helping drive a movement quickly flourishing across the nation.”

—
The Nation’s Health

“A single sentence explains why Louv’s book is so important: ‘Our children,’ he writes, ‘are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world.’ This matters, and
Last Child in the Woods
makes it patently clear why
and
lays out a path back.”

—
The Ecologist

“With this scholarly yet practical book, Louv offers solutions today for a healthier, greener tomorrow.”

—
Washington Post Book World

“The simplest, most profound, and most helpful of any book I have read on the personal and historical situation of our children, and ourselves, as we move into the twenty-first century.”

—Thomas Berry, author of
The Dream of the Earth

“The book is an inch-thick caution against raising the fully automated child.”

—
The New York Times

“Our society has been de-natured and few seem aware of how seriously television and the Internet have replaced nature in the lives of our children. This book is essential for the effective prescriptions for the recovery. Every parent should read this book, but equally important, every teacher should take it to heart and take every student into nature.”

—Paul Dayton, Ph.D., winner of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award

“Engrossing. . . . Thrilling to read.”

—
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“I found myself seeing the last chapter through suddenly blurry eyes and wondering, as I reached for the Kleenex, how I could sign on to Richard Louv’s team.”

—
The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Affecting. . . . Has the force of a polemic, but none of the badgering quality; it’s delivered with the casual feel of an afternoon hike.”

—
Austin (TX) American-Statesman

“Anyone who cares about the future should heed Richard Louv’s prophetic message. Children who don’t experience nature won’t grow up to cherish or protect it.
Last Child in the Woods
should be on every conservationist’s—and every parent’s—bookshelf.”

—Will Rogers, President, The Trust for Public Land

Last Child in the Woods
has sparked a formal national campaign to get kids engaged in informal nature play and unstructured out-of-doors activities.—
Boat U.S. Magazine

“
Last Child in the Woods
coalesced a broad spectrum of interest groups that share a belief that spending time in nature can improve children’s health, stimulate their creativity, sharpen their thinking skills, and help them care about the environment. Richard Louv has energized the national debate on the importance of connecting kids to nature.

—John Flicker, President, National Audubon Society

“An honest, well-researched and well-written book, among the first to give name to an undeniable problem.”

—
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“[A] wake-up call.”

—
Spirituality and Health

“Louv’s case for outdoor play is a convincing one, and the possibility of a drug-free ‘nature’ cure for many modern ills is too tantalizing to ignore.”

—
Audubon
magazine, Editors’ Choice

“Rich Louv has written an extraordinarily important book. American democracy is rooted in the landscape, not the skyline. If the next generation is denied this heritage, we are in big trouble—and Louv explains how to begin recovering our nature.”

—Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club

“Richard Louv’s provocative new book about kids’ growing ‘nature-deficit disorder’ . . . is raising debate and tough questions nationwide.”

—
Parade
magazine

“
Last Child in the Woods
isn’t an exercise in nostalgia. Mr. Louv provides plenty of evidence to back up his core contention.”

—
The Wall Street Journal

“Writing to the heart and intellect with telling anecdotes and pertinent research, Louv gives the reader—parent, educator, scientist—an assessment of the social and ecological consequences of America’s divorce from nature and prescribes new paths for reconnecting children with nature, resulting in healthier, better-adjusted kids who will care for our planet.”

—Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist, National Wildlife Federation

“An eloquent, urgent, and timely book [that] presents important ideas and remedies for parents, schools, and communities.”

—Samuel Osherson, Ph.D., author of
Finding Our Fathers

“Brilliant, encouraging.”

—
Healthy Beginnings
magazine

“Our children are part of a truly vast experiment—the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world. Richard Louv provides insight on what it’s doing to our children, and savvy advice about how to restore the age-old relationship between people and the rest of the planet.”

—Bill McKibben

“A magnificent case for unplugging our kids from the Net and letting them roam free again in the woods.”

—Mike Davis, author of
Ecology of Fear

“Louv has a wealth of advice for parents, teachers, policy-makers, and urban planners. . . . A must read for those with a keen interest in the subject.”

—
The Raleigh (NC) News and Observer

“This book is an eye-opener for adults involved with children and for adults themselves. I hope it becomes the turning point it deserves to be.”

—Bernice Weissbourd, contributing editor to
Parents
magazine and author of
Putting Families First

“Provides inspiring examples of ways and places where nature is consciously and thoughtfully being brought back into children’s lives all over the country.”
—The Madison (WI) Capital Times

“A wake-up call for parents, educators, and anyone who cares about children and the future of our society. . . .
Last Child in the Woods
should be required reading for anyone who lives with or works with children—or anyone who plans to in the future.”

—Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., co-chair of the
Presidential Initiative on Children and founding director
of the Children, Youth, and Family Consortium,
University of Minnesota

L
AST
C
HILD IN THE
W
OODS

ALSO BY RICHARD LOUV

Fly-Fishing for Sharks: An American Journey
The Web of Life
FatherLove
101 Things You Can Do for Our Children’s Future
Childhood’s Future
America II

LAST CHILD
IN THE
WOODS

Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Updated and Expanded

R
ICHARD
L
OUV

Published by
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

© 2005, 2008 by Richard Louv. All rights reserved.
Revised and updated edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, March 2008.
First edition published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2005.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.
Design by Anne Winslow.

The author is grateful to reprint with permission of their authors or publishers excerpts from the following: “New Mexico,” from
Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence
, edited by Edward McDonald, copyright 1936 by Frieda Lawrence, copyright renewed 1964 by the estate of the late Frieda Lawrence Ravagli, used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. “Kiss Nature Goodbye,” by John Beardsley. “The Need for Nature: A Childhood Right,” by Robin Moore. “Ecstatic Places,” by Louise Chawla. “Views of Nature and Self-Discipline: Evidence from Inner City Children” and “Coping with ADD: The Surprising Connection to Green Play Settings,” by Andrea Faber Taylor, Frances E. Kuo, and William C. Sullivan.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, by Edmund C. Morris, copyright Putnam, 1979. The author has made every attempt to obtain permission for additional quoted material.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Louv, Richard.

Last child in the woods : saving our children from nature-deficit disorder /
Richard Louv.—Updated and Expanded

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-605-3

1. Nature—Psychological aspects. 2. Children and the environment. I. Title.

BF353.5.N37L68 2008

155.4′18—dc22 2007049665

Last Child in the Woods
is available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
for premiums and sales promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use.
Special editions or book excerpts also can be created to specification.
For details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below.

Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Jason and Matthew

There was a child went forth every day

And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became
,

And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day
,

Or for many years or stretching cycles of years
.

The early lilacs became part of this child
,

And grass and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover
,

and the song of the phoebe-bird
,

And the Third-month lambs and the sow’s pink-faint litter
,

and the mare’s foal and the cow’s calf
. . .