LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

"Unlike television, nature can not steal your time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighborhood. It serves as a blank slate upon which a child draws and reinterprets the culture's fantasies. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses."




"Many members of my generation grew into adulthood taking nature's gifts for granted; we assumed that generations to come would also receive these gifts. But something has changed. Now we see the emergence of what I have come to call nature-deficit disorder. This term is by no means a medical diagnosis, but it does offer a way to think about the problem and the possibilities - for children, and for the rest of us as well."




"I think often of a wonderfully honest comment made by Paul, a fourth-grader in San Diego: " I like to play indoors better, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."

-Richard Louv