Cross Country Travel & Realizing the importance of the Outdoors

After living in five countries and teaching in international schools for the past twenty one years, Rick and I are delighted to be back in the U.S. A. We are privileged to have explored in cities, ruins, beaches and mountains on five continents, but we realized we had not traveled as much in our home country. So, during the usually muddy months of March and April, we set off in our popup camper to travel to National Parks in the South and Southwest. We discovered that these parks are our nation’s gift to us all.

Rick & Sandi Detwiler

We have returned from a fabulous eight week road trip across the South and into the Southwest.The highlight was the experieince of being in our National Parks. As we hiked and explored, I thought about how important it is for our children to get out and explore our natural world. Two new books remind us that children need to be outside: Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder and The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places by Gary Paul Nabhan and Stephen Trimble.

Louv’s book links the epidemic of childhood obesity to the indoor life too many of our children lead. He suggest that parents and teachers need to promote time without TV and computer. If we hope that our children will become stewards of our environment, then they must first learn to apreciate it.

Nabhan and Trimble write that the exploration of one’s habitat has been an essential ingredient in a child’s development for millions of years. They argue that being in nature prompts children to explore life’s essential questions Who Am I? What am I here for?

When making summer travel plans, think about our National Parks. They are a gift for us all.